Clarification from the agency

This job is open to Internal Employees - current FEMA employees on a career/career conditional appointment in a competitive service position; current FEMA employees who have previously held a career/career conditional appointment in the competitive service; current FEMA employees who are DRRA Eligible; and FEMA Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP Eligibles) only.

What will I do in this position if hired?
This position serves as an advisor, technical representative, and engineering expert in support of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and Region 10's Mitigation Division. Typical assignments include:

• Providing expert technical direction to internal and external stakeholders related to flood risk studies and Risk Map program mapping.
• Collaborating with federal agencies, state agencies, and local governments in the development and review of flood hazard information.
• Providing comprehensive technical, administrative, and engineering advice and assistance to internal and external customers.
• Serving in grants administration and contracting functions, including Contracting Officer's Technical Representative.
• Represents the Region as a technical subject matter expert in structured and unstructured settings on technical engineering matters related to the risk assessment programs.

What else do I need to know?

At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

Conditions of employment

To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo, successfully pass, and maintain a background investigation for Moderate Risk as a condition of placement into this position. This may include a credit check after initial job qualifications are determined, a review of financial issues, such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs (please visit: Mythbuster on Federal Hiring Policies for additional information). For more information on background investigations for Federal jobs please visit OPM Investigations.

Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below.

Key Requirements:

1. You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
2. You must successfully pass a background investigation.
3. Selective Service registration required.
4. Current federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements.
5. You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
6. You must be able to deploy with little or no advance notice to anywhere in the United States and its territories for an extended period of time.
7. Please review the Additional Information section for additional key requirements.

Qualifications

Current Federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent grade band in the Federal service. The time-in-grade and qualification requirements must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

To qualify for this position at the GS-13 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following:

• Serving as a civil engineer or project manager for administering various programs for identification of, updates to, and/or mitigation of flood hazard areas (including, but not limited to working with the National Flood Insurance Program); AND,
• Providing oversight and monitoring of civil engineering studies; AND,
• Performing project management duties such as identifying work assignments, timelines, and goal setting; AND,
• Dealing with hydrology, hydraulics, topographic data collection or surveying practices; OR
• Communicating technical information to a variety of audiences and stakeholders.

In addition to the specialized experience described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position: (transcript required)

A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by ABET; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.

OR

B. Combination of education and experience -- college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

1. Professional registration or licensure -- Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.

2. Written Test -- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

3. Specified academic courses -- Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.

4. Related curriculum -- Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all inclusive.)

Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application:

• Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.
• Please limit your resume to two pages. The USAJOBS database will not allow an applicant to submit an application that includes a resume over two pages.
• Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience.

Are you qualifying based on your work experience?

• Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility. To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder. If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience). Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level.
• Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE)? To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.
• Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information. Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified."
• Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills, and provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We will review your resume and supporting documentation to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you meet the basic qualifications, your experience, education and training will be rated using USA Hire Assessment that is based on the following competencies needed to perform this job:

- Arithmetic/Mathematical Reasoning
- Attention to Detail
- Customer Service
- Flexibility
- Integrity/Honesty
- Interpersonal Skills
- Learning
- Reading Comprehension
- Representing the Agency
- Self-Management
- Stress Tolerance
- Teamwork
- Teamwork & Cooperation
- Technical Proficiency

Based on the review of your resume for the specialized experience required for this position and the results of the USA Hire Assessment, you may be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.

We recommend that you review USA Hire Applicant Resource Center before you start the application process.

CTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet eligibility criteria for CTAP; 2) be rated well-qualified for the position; and, 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP eligibility (see "Required Documents" section of this announcement). Well-Qualified is defined as those applicants who are rated with a minimum score of 85.00 for this position.

Interview Requirement: Interviews may be required for this position. Failure to complete the interview may result in removal from further consideration.

Human Resources Specialists and Subject Matter Experts will review your two-page resume (starting with your work experience) to determine your qualifications for the position based on the required competencies and specialized experience statements. In describing your experience, be clear and specific and include start and end dates for each position. We may not make assumptions regarding your experience.
Based on the review of your resume for the specialized experience required for this position, you may be referred to hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.

Do not include photos, personally identifying information (PII) (including birthday and social security numbers), or personal information such as age, sex, medical history, etc. Resumes that include any of this information will be disqualified.

You must provide the following supporting documentation for your application package, including:

1. Resume. Limit your resume to no more than two pages. The USAJOBS database will not allow an applicant to submit an application that includes a resume over two pages.
2. Your responses to the job questionnaire. You will be directed to the online job questionnaire once you begin the application process.
3. Are you eligible for appointment based on current or previous competitive status eligibility? We need to verify your competitive status eligibility and qualifications at the next lower level. You may need to upload multiple SF-50's, one that shows your competitive eligibility and another for time in grade:
   • Competitive Eligibility: Submit an SF-50 that demonstrates your current or previous appointment to a permanent or conditional competitive service position, including your current or highest grade level, career or career conditional tenure and status in the competitive service, or proof of permanent appointment if applying based on an interchange agreement. We recommend submitting your last promotion SF-50, current SF-50, or within-grade increase SF-50.
   • Time in grade: If you are applying for a higher grade, you may need to provide an additional SF-50. We recommend submitting a promotion with an effective date more than one year (1) year old or Within-Grade-Increase at the highest grade held.
4. Are you a current or former FEMA Stafford Act employee who is eligible for appointment based on the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA)? You may be eligible if you have served as a FEMA Stafford Act employee for three or more years since August 1, 2014, without a break in service. Upload the following documents (you may be found ineligible if both documents are not uploaded):
   • DRRA Eligibility: Submit a copy of your "Notice of DRRA Eligibility" provided by OCHCO. If you believe that you may be eligible, but have not received your notice, please reach out to the HR Specialist listed in the announcement.
   • Reservist Stafford Act Employees will be required to submit a copy of their most recent SF-50 as well as a copy of the "DRRA Notice of Eligibility" issued by FEMA. Applicants who believe they are eligible, but have not received a "Notice of Eligibility," should contact the FEMA representative listed in the "Agency contact information" section of this announcement.
   • Experience at the next lower level: Submit a copy of your most recent (or highest grade) SF-50. We recommend submitting a promotion with an effective date more than one year (1) year old or Within-Grade-Increase at the highest grade held.
5. Are you qualifying based on education? Check the Education section above to see what is allowed and what is required.
6. You may be asked to provide a copy of your recent performance appraisal and or incentive awards.
7. Are you a veteran? Submit Member Copy 4 of your DD-214 or other (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) and/or documentation of service connected disability. If applying based on eligibility under the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act, you must submit certification from the Armed Forces that you will be discharged or released from active duty within 120 days from the date on the certification. Certifications must be on letterhead of the appropriate military branch and contain (1) the military service dates including the expected discharge or release date; and (2) the character of service (e.g. honorable, dishonorable, general etc.). View more veterans' information.
8. Are you claiming special priority selection rights under the Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP)? Submit copies of your:

• Agency Notice
• Most recent performance rating, and
• Most recent SF-50, Notification of personnel Action, noting your current position, grade level and duty location.

Note 1: Examples of applicable SF-50's for submission include appointment, promotion, and with-in-grade/range increases - award SF-50's will not be accepted.

Next steps