Who May Apply: US Citizens
In order to qualify, you must meet the experience requirements described below. 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). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is
in this document.
Basic Requirement: All applicants must have one of the following to qualify for a engineering position within the Federal service.
A. Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must:
(1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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. (Transcripts MUST be submitted with your application package)
B. Registration as a professional engineer 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 manufacturingengineering positions. (Certificate of registration MUST be submitted with your application package.)
C. Successfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration, which is administered by the Boards of Engineering Examiners in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Eligibility is limited to positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of the engineering technology program. (Certificate MUST be submitted with your application package.)
D. Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours or 90 quarter hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described in paragraph A above. (Transcripts MUST be submitted with your application package)
E. Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate professional field, e.g., physics, architecture, computer science, mathematics, or electronics, may be accepted in lieu of a degree in engineering, provided you have at least one year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. (Transcripts MUST be submitted with your application package)
In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below:
To qualify at the GS-11 grade level: you must meet the following criteria:
Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes:
Experience (1) assisting senior engineers in execution of environmental projects and (2) performing sampling for contaminated soil and /or groundwater. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the second lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-09).
OR
Education: You must have successfully completed 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in Civil Engineering with emphasis in Environmental, Geotechnical and/or Site Civil Engineering.
OR
Combination: If you meet the specialized experience as described in A, but less than one year; and you have more than two years, but less than three years of graduate-level education as described in the education requirements above. (To compute the percentage. divide your total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours above two years of' graduate education by 18. Add the two percentages. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. (NOTE: You must attach a copy of your transcripts in your application.)
Specialized Experience for GS-12: One year of specialized experience which includes: Experience
(1) conducting design analyses for site remediations and monitoring; and (2) providing technical support on concerning problem areas of engineering design or construction. There is no substitution for education at this grade level. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-11 or above).
Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify. For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted.
***This is a developmental position. The duties of this position lead to the full performance level of GS-12. Incumbent may be appointed to either the GS-11 or GS-12 (depending on qualifications). If selected at the GS-11, the incumbent may be non-competitively promoted to the target level of the position upon meeting all regulatory requirements, certification by the supervisor of successful performance, completion of all training requirements, and the availability of work at the next higher grade level.
Promotion is not automatic.