Duties
These positions are located within the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), Gulf of America Region (GOAR), District Field Office, within various District Offices in Houma, LA, Lake Charles, LA, Lafayette, LA, Angleton, TX and Jefferson, LA.
At the full performance level (GS-12) the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to the following:
1. Reviews new permits for surface and subsea production safety systems and/or wells for correctness and adequacy of data submitted.
2. Conducts engineering analysis of equipment and operations on the OCS and prepares detailed engineering reports to assist with policy development.
3. In collaboration with the supervisor, plans and schedules inspections of the full range of offshore facilities, including those with a record of safety violations or with new, modified, and advanced facilities, systems, or components with no inspection precedents.
4. Conducts inspections as a team leader involving the full range of operations such as drilling, workover/completion, plugging and abandonment, environmental quality, hydrogen sulfide operations and activities on the OCS.
5. Conducts or leads investigations of accidents involving offshore facilities or operations, including major, unusual, or unprecedented in nature involving fires or explosions or severe disasters involving violations of law.
6. Conducts reviews of Incidents of Non-Compliance (INCs) for the purpose of recommending compliance reviews for possible civil penalties. Initiates compliance reviews and drafts reports.
Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework only during an emergency or natural disaster.
Salary Information
GS-05: $46,979 - $61,073 per annum
GS-07: $58,193 - $75,653 per annum
GS-09: $71,181 - $92,541 per annum.
First time hires to the Federal government normally start at the lower salary range of the grade level.
This vacancy may be used to fill additional positions as vacancies become available.
Requirements
Conditions of employment
- You must be a U.S. Citizen.
- You will be subject to a background/suitability investigation/determination.
- You will be required to have federal payments made by Direct Deposit.
- You must submit ALL required documents and complete any required questionnaires.
- Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service system, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law.
- You will be required to complete a Financial Disclosure Form within 30 days of your appointment.
- As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider:
- your performance and conduct;
- the needs and interests of the agency;
- whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
- whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated.
Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualification Requirements: To qualify for this position, you must meet the (1) Basic Educational Requirements AND/OR (2) Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.
To be eligible for this position, you must meet either A or B below for the series to which you are applying.
Petroleum Engineering Series, 0881:
Individual Occupational Requirements
(1) Basic Educational Requirements:
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.) Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.
-AND-
(2) Specialized Experience In order to qualify for this position, you must meet either A, B, or C for the grade to which you are applying.
GS-05 Minimum Qualifications:
To qualify for the GS-05, all applicants who meet the basic education requirements described in the individual occupational requirements are fully qualified for the GS-5 grade level.
GS-7
A. Specialized Experience:
To qualify for the GS-07, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-05 grade level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience:
1) Assisting with routine engineering assignments; AND
2) Assisting in the maintenance of computer programs and databases utilized in engineering evaluations; AND
3) Assisting with the compilation, analysis, and interpretation of basic engineering data.
Must Meet ALL
-OR
B. Education: You may substitute education (education that is directly related) for experience at the GS-07 level if you have achieved: one year of progressively higher-level graduate level education; Superior Academic Achievement at the baccalaureate level in an engineering program (For more info: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualificationpolicies/#url=e4f); or successful completion of a 5-year program of study of at least 160 semester hours leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering.
-OR
C. Qualifying combination of Education and Experience: Appropriate Combinations of Graduate Education and Professional Experience that totals 100% of the requirement for the GS-7 grade level.
- A combination of graduate level education and specialized experience that totals 100% of the requirement for the GS-07.
-OR-
- Applicants with an engineering Bachelor's degree who have appropriate experience as a technician equivalent to grade GS-5 may have such experience credited for grade GS-7 only on a month-for-month basis up to a maximum of 12 months.
A. GS-9 Specialized Experience:
To qualify for the GS-09, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience:
1) Reviewing and analyzing inspection reports and statistical data for trends in order to identify safety issues that may need closer study; AND
2) Reviewing new applications and modifications to surface and subsea well permits for correctness and adequacy of data submitted.
Must Meet ALL
-OR
B. Education: You may substitute graduate education for experience if you have achieved: a combination of superior academic achievement and 1 year of appropriate professional experience that is related to the position; 2 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree; or a master's or equivalent graduate degree.
-OR
C. Qualifying combination of Education and Experience: A combination of successfully completed graduate level education (only successfully completed graduate level education beyond the first year is creditable towards meeting this requirement), and specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level that totals 100% of the requirement for this grade level; or combination of superior academic achievement and 1 year of appropriate Professional Experience.
Education
Education: If this position requires specific educational course work to qualify, or you are qualifying based in whole or part on education, you are required to provide transcripts as proof of meeting the requirements.
Foreign Education: Education completed in colleges or universities outside the United States may be used to meet the specific educational requirements as stated above. You must provide acceptable documentation that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. For more information on how foreign education is evaluated, visit: http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-policies/#url=e4
Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualification Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions and is available at OPM's website: https://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/num-ndx.asp
All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.
Additional information
This position will be filled under the Field Unit Local Hiring Authority. Eligibility is limited to applicants who reside within the defined local commuting area at the time of application. For this announcement, the local commuting area is the area from which individuals can reasonably commute to the duty station under normal conditions. The defined vicinity for this position is:
- The defined vicinity for the Angleton, TX location is: 50 miles from 4005 Technology Drive, Suite 2090, Angleton, TX 77515.
- The defined vicinity for the Lake Charles, LA location is: 50 miles from 800 VF Factory Outlet Dr., Suite 103, Iowa, LA 70647.
- The defined vicinity for the Lafayette, LA location is: 50 miles from 102 Versailles Blvd., Suite 401, Lafayette, LA 70501.
- The defined vicinity for the Houma, LA location is: 50 miles from 3866 Highway 56, Houma, LA 70363.
- The defined vicinity for the Jefferson, LA location is: 50 miles from 800 W. Commerce Road, New Orleans, LA 70123. e.
. See the Required Documents section for information on how to verify current residence.
The application contains information subject to the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579, 5 USC 552a). The information is used to determine qualifications for employment, and is authorized under Title 5, USC, Section 3302 and 3361.
Important Note: All Department of the Interior (DOI) employees are subject to the conflict of interest restrictions imposed upon all employees of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government and may be required to file a Financial Disclosure Report. In addition, DOI employees, GS-15 and above, who work in the Office of the Secretary; along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) employees (at ALL grade levels), are further restricted concerning their interests in Federal lands and resources administered or controlled by the Department of the Interior. This includes holding stock in energy corporations which lease Federal lands (e.g.: oil, gas, coal, alternative energy resources, etc.). If you have any such investments you should contact the DOI, BOEM or BSEE Ethics Office before accepting employment. DOI employees are held to the highest level of integrity. Employees must be objective and impartial in the performance of their work. All potential issues (e.g.: work-related interactions with friends, family members, or previous employers) must be disclosed at the time of application or during the interview process.
NOTICE: This employer participates in E-Verify and will utilize your Form I-9 information to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.A preliminary background check must be completed before a new employee can begin work with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The preliminary background check consists of a search of Office of Personnel Management and Department of Defense background investigation files and an FBI National Criminal History Fingerprint Check; it may take up to 3 weeks to complete. If selected for this position, you will be extended a tentative offer of employment pending a satisfactory background check. Current Federal employees or individuals with an existing completed background investigation may not be required to undergo another background check; these will be handled on a case-by-case basis in coordination with the Bureau security office.
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.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How you will be evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
This position is being filled under the Field Unit Local Hiring Authority. Under this authority, competitive rating, ranking, and veterans' preference procedures do not apply. The Servicing Human Resources Office will determine whether applicants meet the qualification and eligibility requirements described in this announcement. Applicants who meet these requirements may be referred to the selecting official on a certificate of eligibles for consideration.
You must certify that you will maintain a permanent and exclusive residence within the defined vicinity of the field unit(s) listed in this announcement.
Resumes must not exceed two single-sided pages. If more than 2 pages are submitted, only the first 2 pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications. If your resume is incomplete or does not demonstrate that you meet the qualification or residency requirements described in this announcement, you may be determined ineligible or not qualified for further consideration.
If you include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language and/or false or misleading information in your application package, you will be ineligible for further consideration.
Identification of promotion potential in this announcement does not constitute a commitment or an obligation on the part of management to promote the employee selected at some future date. Promotion will depend upon administrative approval and the continuing need for and performance of higher-level duties.