Supervisory Interdisciplinary (General Engineer/Physical Scientist/Mathematician)

Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to U.S. Citizen or National; and Career transition eligibles (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL).

Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following:

- Leads development, calibration, validation, and application of water resources models including CALSIM 3, DSM2, SCHISM, HEC-RAS, water temperature, hydrology, and water quality models for CVP and Delta operations.
- Provides technical authority and policy guidance on systemwide water modeling issues to senior leadership and interagency partners.
- Designs and reviews complex studies incorporating hydrology, water supply, water quality, temperature, climate change, environmental standards, and compliance requirements.
- Oversees the entire modeling program including system operations, hydrologic, groundwater/surface water, temperature, power, and fisheries modeling systems.
- Establishes, maintains, and enforces modeling standards, technical adequacy requirements, QA/QC processes, and complete documentation practices.
- Identifies modeling capability gaps, evaluates modeling systems used by external partners, and ensures alignment and integration across programs.
- Applies statistical analysis, optimization, scenario evaluation, and decision-support methodologies to generate defensible analytical outputs.- Translates complex scientific modeling results into executive-ready materials, policy recommendations, and operational decision information.
- Supervises engineers, scientists, and technical specialists through performance management, workload planning, training, hiring actions, discipline, and staff development.
- Ensures equitable access to training, recognition, promotion, and development opportunities through active implementation of EEO and inclusive leadership principles.
- Resolves workplace issues, grievances, and process barriers to improve organizational efficiency and mission delivery.
- Represents BOR in technical negotiations with Federal, State, local, tribal, NGO, and contractor partners on sensitive water operations and modeling issues.
- Develops technical specifications and contract requirements for model development or enhancement and oversees contractor performance.
- Monitors scientific literature, incorporates emerging modeling techniques, and ensures application of state-of-the-science methodologies.
- Represents BOR in public meetings, interagency forums, regulatory settings, and litigation support requiring defense of modeling assumptions and results.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Direct Deposit participation required.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more, visit www.dhs.gov/EVerify/.
• Must have and maintain a valid driver's license throughout employment.
• A financial disclosure report will be required within 30 days of 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.

This is a supervisory position that may require completion of a supervisory probationary period.

*Additional Requirements located under qualifications*

Qualifications

Qualifications:

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-09/24/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

This is an interdisciplinary position that may be filed in any of the following series: GS-0801 General Engineer, GS-1301 Physical Scientist, or GS-1520 Mathematician depending on the qualifications of the selected candidate.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR GS-0801, GENERAL ENGINEER SERIES:

1. 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-

2. 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 1.

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.)

QUALIFICATIONS FOR GS-1301, GENERAL PHYSICAL SCIENCE SERIES:

1. Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.

-OR-

2. Combination of education and experience: education equivalent to one of the majors shown above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience, or additional education.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR GS-1520, MATHEMATICS SERIES:

1. Degree: mathematics; or the equivalent of a major that included at least 24 semester hours in mathematics.

-OR-

2. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in mathematics (including at least 24 semester hours in mathematics), as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

In addition to meeting the educational requirements above:

To qualify for this position at the GS-13 grade level: You must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience:

• Experience leading development, calibration, and application of water resources models such as CALSIM 3, DSM2, SCHISM, HEC-RAS, and water temperature or water quality models.
• Experience producing regulatory and operational analyses incorporating hydrology, climate change, environmental performance measures, and compliance requirements.
• Experience establishing modeling standards including assumptions, Quality assessments/Quality checks processes, documentation standards, uncertainty analysis, and defensible methodologies.
• Experience managing a multi-model technical program involving hydrologic, operational, groundwater/surface water, power, or fisheries modeling.
• Experience applying statistical methods, optimization techniques, and scenario analysis to support operational and policy decisions.
• Experience preparing executive-level briefs that translate complex technical modeling results into policy or operational decisions.
• Experience supervising engineers, scientists, or modelers including assigning work, evaluating performance, conducting hiring actions, and supporting training and development.
• Experience in implementing recruitment, development, and recognition programs.
• Experience conducting interagency negotiations and resolving disputes on modeling assumptions, methodology, or technical standards.
• Experience developing technical specifications and managing contracts related to model development or enhancement.
• Experience presenting and defending modeling work in interagency forums, regulatory settings, public meetings, or legal proceedings.

Volunteer Experience: 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). 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.

How you will be evaluated

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

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g. resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of any additional assessment(s) required for this position.

Your resume must not exceed 2 pages. Only the document submitted as the "Resume" under the Documents section will be used to determine your qualifications/eligibility and for rating purposes. In the event you submit more than one resume, only the latest submission will be reviewed.

You will be assessed in the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Hydrology
• Leadership
• Modeling and Simulation
• Oral Communication
• Strategic Thinking

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires successful completion of additional assessment(s), including a structured resume review. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.

Current or former displaced Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, you must be well-qualified, score at least 85 (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry.

Providing false or misleading information on your resume or supporting documentation may result in removal from consideration or other action consistent with applicable federal hiring regulations. Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.

The following documents are required and must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on 09/24/2026 - unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement:

1. Resume which includes a list of all significant jobs held and duties performed, with dates in month-year format (include month/day/year format if needed for 52 weeks of experience), and indicate hours worked per week (or full-time). Your resume must clearly show how long you have held each grade/rank. Resumes must not exceed two single-sided pages and resumes longer than two pages will not be accepted. The minimum font size is 10-point for all body text. All resumes must maintain a minimum 0.5-inch margins on all sides to ensure readability and prevent excessive content compression. Including supplemental pages or attachments disguised as resume extensions are prohibited and will not be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications. Your 2-page resume must contain information sufficient to make a valid determination that you fully meet the specialized experience requirements. If you have federal experience, you should include series, and grade for each position held, and if experience is part of a career ladder position, you must clearly distinguish the job duties and length of time working for each grade level. More information on how to write a Federal Resume: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include
2. Complete All Required Assessments.
3. All college transcript(s), if qualifying based on education. Please submit both undergraduate and graduate level transcripts, as applicable.
4. Veterans Preference Documentation, if applicable. Veterans must submit a copy of your latest Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, DD-214 (member 4 copy) or other Documentation of Service and Separation under Honorable Conditions, as listed on the SF15. If you are a Disabled Veteran, Purple Heart Recipient, or Parent or Spouse of a Disabled or Deceased Veteran, you must submit all additional proof required by the SF15, and if applicable, a completed SF15. You may request a copy of your Department of Veterans Affairs letter from www.va.gov/records/ or call 1-800-827-1000. If you are a veteran within 120 days of discharge, you must submit signed documentation from the Armed Forces certifying: 1) your expected release/retirement from active duty, 2) under honorable conditions, 3) your pay grade/rank/rate at time of discharge, 4) dates of active-duty service, 5) any campaign or expeditionary medals received, & 6) dated within 120 days of your separation.
5. Interagency Career Transition (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP): You MUST submit proof of eligibility including 1) copy of the agency notice, e.g., RIF Separation Notice, Notice of Proposed Removal, etc.; 2) SF-50s (Notifications of Personnel Action) showing career/conditional tenure competitive status, promotion potential and duty location; and 3) your most recent performance appraisal. To exercise selection priority, displaced or surplus Federal employees must be well qualified. For more information visit: USAJOBS Help Center - Career Transition Programs (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL).

Failure to submit any of the above-mentioned required documents will result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted.

Do not submit photographs with your application package. Documents with photographs may not be seen by hiring officials - you must remove your image from all documents.

Do not upload Adobe portfolio documents. Adobe portfolio documents are not viewable by our agency's staffing offices.

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