Qualification requirements in the vacancy announcements are based on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook, which contains federal qualification standards. This handbook is available on the Office of Personnel Management's website located at: https://www.opm.gov/policy.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS:
This position has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) for the 0800 Series as described below that must be met:
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
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, t he 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 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.)
SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must posses one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. The experience need not have been in the Federal government.
To qualify for the AD-03/GS-11:
Applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of experience at the AD-02/GS-09 grade level or equivalent pay band in the Federal service. This experience includes:
Conducting studies and using both real time state estimation and offline power flow tools, to gain proficiency sufficient to provide technical direction for changing system configurations, switching activities related to forced outages, and general switching.
OR
SUBSTITUTION OF EDUCATION: Three (3) years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, if related.
OR
Combination of education and experience to successfully perform the duties of the position.
To qualify for the AD-04/GS-12:
Applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of experience at the AD-03/GS-11 grade level or equivalent pay band in the Federal service. This experience
MUST include all the following:
- Investigating and providing electrical engineering oversight and expertise in developing operating procedures for constrained path or congested transmission management; and
- Providing technical assistance to real-time personnel groups such as Automatic Generation Control (AGC), Transmission Switching Operations (TSO), Transmission Scheduling and Security (TSS), Outage Coordination; and
- Using both real time state estimation and offline power flow tools, to gain proficiency sufficient to provide technical direction for changing system configurations, switching activities related to forced outages, and general switching; and
- Hold certification in either a Reliability Coordinator or Balancing and Interchange North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) certification. NOTE: YOU MUST PROVIDE A COPY OF NERC CERTIFICATE WITH YOUR APPLICATION. FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN YOUR REMOVAL OF CONSIDERATION AT THE AD-4)
"Experience" refers to paid and unpaid experience. Examples of qualifying unpaid experience may include: volunteer work done through National Service programs (such as Peace Corps and AmeriCorps); as well as work for other community-based philanthropic and social organizations. Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills; and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary and requires sitting in one position for long periods of time with intense concentration. Must possess normal color vision, visual acuity and hearing sufficiently to detect audible and visual alarms presented and have the ability to mentally analyze material observed and form a logical and appropriate course of action.
Work Environment: The work is performed primarily in an office setting. The position is in association with the continuous operation control center, requiring incumbent to work up to 12 hour rotating shifts, including nights, weekends, and holidays to provide 24/7 control center engineering support.