Mechanical Engineer Job

Vacancy No. DESTIMP-12999664-26-VL Department Federal Bureau of Investigation
Salary $90,925.00 to $139,684.00 Grade 13 to 14
Perm/Temp Permanent FT/PT Full-time
Open Date 7/10/2026 Close Date 7/24/2026
Job Link Apply Online Who may apply Public
Locations:
Huntsville, ALWashington, DCQuantico, VA


Mechanical Engineer

Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation

Summary

The Facilities Branch of the Finance and Facilities Division provides a range of facilities management and real estate support, logistic services, engineering and design, construction planning and management across multiple sections. These sections include the National Capital Region and Field Operations Support Sections in the Washington, DC area; Real Property Management Section, in Quantico, VA (FBI Academy); and Redstone Facilities Services Section in Huntsville, AL (FBI Redstone campus).

This job is open to

The public

U.S. Citizens, Nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.

Federal employees - Competitive service

Current federal employees whose agencies follow the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's hiring rules and pay scales.

Federal employees - Excepted service

Current federal employees whose agencies have their own hiring rules, pay scales and evaluation criteria.

Internal to an agency

Current federal employees of the hiring agency that posted the job announcement.

Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)

Federal employees whose job, agency or department was eliminated and are eligible for priority over other applicants.

Veterans

Veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces or a spouse, widow, widower or parent of a veteran, who may be eligible for derived preference

Military spouses

Military spouses of active duty service members or whose spouse is 100 percent disabled or died on active duty.

Individuals with disabilities

Individuals who are eligible under Schedule A.

Clarification from the agency

All U.S. Citizens.

Duties

GS-13:

  • Designs, layouts and construction of complex mechanical systems such as plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fuel storage and distribution in the FBI facilities.
  • Reviews designs, plans, specifications, and analyses for technical accuracy, regulatory compliance, industry standards, and FBI requirements. Recommends design changes as needed and ensures contractor-submitted mechanical equipment and shop drawings meet specifications.
  • Performs heating/cooling load calculations, heat transfer, pressure calculations, duct/pipe sizing, and other tasks to support mechanical design and equipment selection for HVAC systems. Provides design support for engineering studies, code reviews, field investigations, and report generation.
  • Conducts field inspections to review existing mechanical utilities as well as ongoing and proposed projects. These reviews include items that affect existing systems, specifications, and cost estimates. Based on analysis of information obtained, provides recommendations of appropriate actions to be taken to higher level mechanical engineers.
  • Analyze existing equipment and systems to determine their overall efficiency and to provide recommendations concerning use in the new facility or replacement, repair or improvements.
  • Prepares or oversees preparation of in-depth technical reports/papers concerning complex mechanical engineering matters. Such reports are further used to determine current and long-range program needs of the Bureau.
  • Provides engineering support to facilities systems; driving upgrade projects from concept to completion, as required for continuous improvement of the facilities systems to ensure that support and services of the department meet the highest quality standards and performance.
GS-14 (in addition to the above):
  • Serves as the senior technical authority for mechanical engineering aspects of the planning, design, construction and alteration of FBI facilities. Provides guidance and oversight for the planning, budgetary and operational aspects of same. These responsibilities range from establishing preventive maintenance requirements for a small piece of mechanical equipment to design and management of major construction projects.
  • Prepares designs for aspects of unique or highly complex facilities and provides oversight to mechanical design efforts of outside companies and/or FBI personnel concerning FBI facilities. Oversees and reviews complex mechanical design work for FBI facilities, ensuring compliance with industry standards, coordination with other engineering disciplines, and proper integration into overall projects, while serving as the final technical authority on mechanical design changes.
  • Provides authoritative technical engineering expertise and guidance to consultants, shops personnel and other engineering personnel for activities concerning full range of mechanical systems. Serves as consultant and member of the FBI Architect and Engineering (A&E) review board on difficult and controversial matters.
  • Provides professional expertise and advice on matters involving design and construction for FBI projects and its architectural, engineering and construction contractors, other government agencies and private lessors. Provides guidance on areas not covered in project specifications or requiring specialized knowledge of FBI facilities and security systems.
  • Prepares or oversees preparation of contract packages including specifications and technical requirements. Conducts negotiation of contracts in conjunction with contracting officer. As necessary, certifies technical adequacy/accuracy of services provided by contractors and their compliance with contract terms.

Requirements

Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. citizen
  • Must be able to obtain a Top Secret clearance
  • Some travel may be required

PHYSICAL DEMANDS
Work is primarily sedentary in an office setting or the on-site construction trailer; however, frequent: on-site inspections will require walking, bending, stooping, and climbing. Lifting of heavy materials and objects will also be required.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
Majority of work is performed in an office setting or an on-site construction trailer. The work environment will consists of inclement weather, proximity to unfinished construction materials, negotiating partially completed building structural components, exposure to high voltage electrical vaults and rotating mechanical equipment. Travel is required to and from Headquarters, the construction site, and other locations to attend meetings regarding the construction project.

Qualifications

GS-13: Applicant must possess at least one (1) year of SE equivalent to the GS- 12 grade level. SE is defined as follows:

  • Experience in designing and overseeing design and construction of commercial buildings, government buildings, critical facilities, and data centers and have a strong knowledge of mechanical systems design for plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fuel storage and distribution.
  • Performing and reviewing cooling load calculations, heat transfer, pressure calculations, ductwork, pipe sizing, and any other calculations required to support the mechanical design and equipment sizing/selection as related to building engineered systems and various other tasks related to the design of HVAC systems.
  • Knowledge of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), standards and Federal, State, and local regulations in governing mechanical systems as well as skill in inspection of construction projects to ensure conformance with these codes and regulations.

GS-14: Applicant must possess at least one (1) year of SE equivalent to the GS-13 grade level. SE (in addition to the above) is defined as follows:
  • Knowledge of other engineering disciplines such as structural, architectural and electrical sufficient to permit initial judgments or critical evaluations of findings and recommendations of other expert sources consulted.
  • Ability to modify and adapt standards, equipment and techniques to resolve a variety of engineering problems as well as ensure continuation of services without interruption or to prevent excessive downtime.
  • Ability to apply new developments or experimental theories to problems not readily treatable by standard methods to solve a variety of highly complex technical problems.

Education

Positive Education Requirement
This position has a specific education requirement; all applicants must verify completion of this basic educational requirement by submitting a copy of their college transcripts by the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Basic Requirements:

A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a 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)1, 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)2 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 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.)

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above requirements provided you can show foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States.

Additional information

The FBI is in the Executive Branch of the federal government. It is one of the components of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI is the principle investigative arm of the DOJ. All FBI positions are in the excepted service.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your application will be evaluated using the FBI's Candidate Rating Procedures. Your resume and supporting documents will be reviewed to verify that you meet the job qualifications listed in this announcement. Applicants must meet the qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

If you are found minimally qualified, your application will move forward to additional phases of the review process.

The competencies will be used in a Structured Resume Review to objectively evaluate applicant resumes. Do not provide a separate narrative written statement. Rather you must describe in your resume how your past work experience demonstrates that you possess the competencies identified below. Your resume should demonstrate that you possess the following competencies.

Competencies:

  • Analytic Thinking
  • Engineering and Technology
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Communication
  • Flexibility/Adaptability

Required Documents

  1. Utilizing the Resume Builder, outline your relevant work experience and associated start and end dates. Uploaded resumes will not be reviewed or used for qualification purposes.
  1. Other supporting documents (if applicable):
    • College transcripts, if qualifying based on education or if there is a positive education requirement
    • Former civilian Federal employees must submit a copy of your MOST RECENT SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) showing your tenure, grade and step, salary, and type of position occupied (i.e., Excepted or Competitive); or similar Notification of Personnel Action documentation, i.e., Transcript of Service, Form 1150, etc. This is a requirement to verify your Time in Grade (TIG). Actions such as promotion, within grade increase, or reassignment actions must be submitted as your most recent SF 50.
    • Most recent Performance Appraisal; not applicable to current FBI employees
      Veterans: DD 214; Disabled Veterans: DD 214, SF-15, and VA letter dated 1991 or later
    • Memorandum for Record (MFR): Work performed outside assigned duties (that would not normally be documented on an SF-50, i. e., back-up duties), has to be documented in detail by an immediate supervisor in order to receive full credit for amount of time worked in that position. If no documentation is furnished no credit will be given for time worked in that position. The following notations must be specified in the documentation:
      • Percent of time worked in the particular position (cannot conflict with main duties.
      • The month/year work began
        Frequency worked (i.e., daily, monthly, etc.)
      • Specific duties performed

How to Apply

To apply for the Mechanical Engineer position, please click here.

Agency contact information

Mary Arbelo
Email
marbelo@fbi.gov
Address
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20535
US

Next steps

Once your complete application is received, we will conduct an evaluation of your qualifications and determine your ranking. The Most Competitive candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview. You will be notified of your status throughout the process.

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The FBI's mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. We employ 38,000 people at locations around the globe. In addition to our Headquarters in Washington, D.C., we have 56 Field Offices in major U.S. cities, plus more than 350 satellite offices, called resident agencies, in cities and towns across the nation. In addition, we have more than 60 international offices, called legal attaches (legats), in U.S. embassies worldwide.

Agency contact information

Mary Arbelo
Email
marbelo@fbi.gov
Address
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20535
US