Education
Applicants must meet the following positive education qualification requirements of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualifications Standards Manual. Applicants must possess:
For the Professional Engineering Series (0801):
Successful completion of a bachelor's degree (or higher) in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position.
OR
Successful completion of a combination of 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: (I) 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; or (II) 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; or (III) Specified academic courses: Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A (above). The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A (above); or (IV) 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 one 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.
For the Professional Physics Series (1310):
Successful completion of a bachelor's degree or higher in physics, or a related degree that included at least 24 semester hours in physics. Courses must have included a fundamental course in general physics and, in addition, course in any of two of the following: electricity and magnetism, heat, light, mechanics, modern physics, and sound.
OR
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience with courses equivalent to a major in physics totaling at least 24 semester hours, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Courses must have included a fundamental course in general physics and, in addition, course in any of two of the following: electricity and magnetism, heat, light, mechanics, modern physics, and sound.
For the Professional Operations Research Series (1515):
Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree in operations research.
OR
Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree with at least 24 semester hours in a combination of operations research, mathematics, probability, statistics, mathematical logic, science, or subject-matter courses requiring substantial competence in college-level mathematics or statistics and at least 3 of the 24 semester hours are in calculus.
For the Professional Mathematics Series (1520):
Successful completion of a bachelor's degree in mathematics or the equivalent of a major that included at least 24 semester hours in mathematics
OR
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience demonstrated by courses equivalent to a major in mathematics (including at least 24 semester hours in mathematics, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
For the Professional Computer Science Series (1550):
Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree in computer science or bachelor's degree with 30 semester hours in a combination of mathematics, statistics, and computer science.
OR
Successful completion of a bachelor's or higher degree with at least 15 of the 30 semester hours must have included any combination of statistics and mathematics that included differential and integral calculus. All academic degrees and course work must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions.