Civil Engineer (Recent Graduate)

Summary

Reclamation is seeking a career professional looking for an opportunity to capitalize on their expertise as a Civil Engineer in the Research and Development Office. This position supports R&D Office programs and activities by combining technical knowledge of water management related science and engineering with project/program management principles. The employee will have opportunities to engage and support other office programs/activities in response to both anticipated and emerging workload.

Duties

This is a Recent Graduate position under the Pathways Program and is open to individuals who have obtained a qualifying degree or certificate from an accredited educational institution or completed a qualifying career or technical education program within the previous two years. Veterans with service obligations may apply up to six years after graduation. The program provides a one-year full-time developmental experience in federal agencies. Additional information can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/working-in-government/unique-hiring-paths/recent-graduates. As a Civil Engineer (Recent Graduate) your duties may include, but are not limited to, the following: Collaborate with scientists and engineers on technical research projects Review researcher inventions, support patent and licensing efforts, and coordinate use of technology transfer authorities Facilitate internal and external research solicitations Review interim and final work products from funded research projects Serve as COR / GOTR on science and engineering projects Develop program documentation such as standard operating procedures and outreach materials Engage with Bureau-wide communities of practice in support of professional excellence; may include development of training, tools/resources, and best practices Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level. Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen or National Suitability for employment, as determined by background investigation Direct Deposit participation required. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more, visit www.dhs.gov/EVerify/. Must meet Pathways eligibility requirements Must meet the eligibility requirements for the Recent Graduate Program. Recent Graduates will enter a formal training program with a mentor and execute an Individual Development Plan outlining training requirements and program expectations. Recent Graduates must receive at least 40 hours of formal training directly linked to their employment field. Recent Graduates serve a trial period for the duration of their excepted service appointment. Recent Graduates will be required to sign a Pathways Recent Graduate Participant Agreement. Applicants must provide documentation of completion within the previous 2 years of a qualifying associates, bachelors, masters, professional, doctorate, degree or certificate from a qualifying educational institution. Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service Driver's License: This position requires the incumbent to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of their official duties. Selectee must hold and maintain a valid state driver's license throughout their employment in this position. You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 2 nights per month. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, the duration of the Recent Graduates excepted service appointment is counted as a trial period. During this time, your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. This trial 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. Additional Requirements located under qualifications Qualifications

Requirements Continued... Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a 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 trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. ELIGIBILITY: Recent College Graduate This appointment will be made under the noncompetitive College Graduate hiring authority. To be eligible an applicant must have received a bachelor's or advanced degree ( i.e. master's, Ph.D., or J.D) within 2 years of applying for employment under this authority. For these purposes, the graduate must have received a baccalaureate or advanced from an institution of higher education in accordance with section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as codified at 20 U.S.C. 1001(a). In the case of an applicant who has completed a period of no less than four years of intervening obligated uniform service, they must apply within than two years of release or discharged from that uniformed service. All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/29/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience. In addition to Recent Graduates eligibility, you must meet the Individual Occupational Requirements (IOR) for this position. Please review the Education section below for the specific IOR requirements. You must also meet the qualification requirements below for the grade level for which you are applying: To qualify for the GS-9, you must meet one of the following: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-7 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience may include conducting analyses or investigations related to civil engineering in an industry setting under the guidance or oversight of senior staff, including gathering and analyzing data and assisting with engineering designs and calculations; supporting the development of written and visual materials for project documentation and technical reports, including routine technical aspects of project preparation; and presenting technical information, such as project or progress updates, to internal groups or in other informal settings. - OR - Education: Two years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree, or a master's or equivalent graduate degree, in engineering or a directly related field that provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. - OR - Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of qualifying graduate-level education and specialized experience that, when combined, meets 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate education in excess of 1 full year of graduate-level education may be used toward this combination. To calculate your percentage, determine the percentage of qualifying graduate education completed beyond the first year toward the additional year of graduate education required for the GS-9. Then divide the number of months of qualifying GS-7 level specialized experience by 12. Add the two percentages together. The total must equal at least 100% to qualify. You must submit transcripts and include the hours worked per week for your qualifying experience. To qualify for the GS-11, you must meet one of the following: Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-9 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience may include conducting analyses or investigations related to civil engineering in an industry setting with limited oversight, including responsibility for completing smaller projects or significant portions of larger projects; playing a substantial role in developing project documentation and technical reports, including technical content, conclusions, design rationale, and recommendations; and presenting technical information to internal management and/or external audiences, including translating complex technical material for mixed or non-technical audiences. - OR - Education: Three years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree, or a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, in engineering or a directly related field that provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. - OR - Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of qualifying graduate-level education and specialized experience that, when combined, meets 100% of the qualification requirement. Only graduate education in excess of 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education may be used toward this combination. To calculate your percentage, determine the percentage of qualifying graduate education completed beyond the first 2 years toward the additional year of graduate education required for the GS-11. Then divide the number of months of qualifying GS-9 level specialized experience by 12. Add the two percentages together. The total must equal at least 100% to qualify. You must submit transcripts and include the hours worked per week for your qualifying experience. 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.

Education

This position has an Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR), to meet this basic requirement applicants must meet one of the following (A or B): A. Education: A Bachelor's degree or higher in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: Lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); OR 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: 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. 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, or Puerto Rico. 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 A above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program. 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. To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts from an accredited institution with your name, school name, credit hours, course level, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Transcripts do not need to be official, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work. If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet qualification requirements, you must show that your education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above. Once the application process is complete, your resume and supporting documentation will be used to determine whether you meet the job qualifications listed on this announcement. Please be sure your resume includes detailed information to support your qualifications for this position. Resumes must not exceed two single-sided pages and resumes longer than two pages will not be accepted. You may only submit one resume. 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. If you are a preference eligible candidate, you will be listed at the top of whichever quality category your rating places you in. CP/CPS veterans are placed at the top of the highest category for all positions except professional and scientific positions at GS-9 and higher. 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. You will be assessed in the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics): COMPETENCIES BULLETS Civil Engineering Oral Communication Written Communication 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. 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. Other Information

A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected. The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay. This is an excepted service, developmental appointment expected to last one year under the Pathways Recent Graduates Program. If selected, you will be required to complete a Participant Agreement in which it shall document the anticipated start and end dates for this developmental appointment. The agency may noncompetitively convert a Recent Graduate who is a U.S. Citizen to a term or permanent appointment in the competitive service as long as they successfully complete the one year developmental program and meet the OPM Qualification Standards for the targeted occupational series. Promotion to the full performance level is neither guaranteed nor implied and will be based solely on your ability to satisfactorily perform the work of the position, existing work at the higher grade level, and recommendation by the position's supervisor. If otherwise eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The decision to offer an incentive will be made on a case-by-case basis and is neither promised nor guaranteed. For information visit: Recruitment Incentive or Relocation Incentive. A continued service agreement may be required if it is determined you are eligible for a permanent change in duty station (PCS), recruitment, or relocation incentive. Physical Demands: The work regularly combines both office and field assignments. Field work requires physical exertion, such as long periods of standing, or recurring and considerable walking, stooping, bending, crouching, crawling, and climbing such as in regular and periodic construction activities and field inspections. Work may also include frequent lifting of moderately heavy items weighing less than 50 pounds. Field assignments may also involve driving motor vehicles to work sites, some of which may be remote, and include overnight stays in remote locations. Working Conditions: The work involves regular and recurring exposure to moderate risks, discomforts, and unpleasantness such as: high noise levels, infectious materials, or toxic or irritating chemicals; travel in safety approved small aircraft and water craft; high winds and low or high temperatures; infestation of dangerous reptiles or poisonous plants, snakes, or insects; adverse weather conditions; noxious fumes; flammable liquids; or radiation. The work involves performing tasks in close proximity to rotating heavy mechanical and electrical machinery and may involve working within confined spaces for extensive periods of time. Special safety precautions such as protective clothing and gear are necessary. Safety precautions and protocols are observed at all times and the incumbent complies with safety instructions and regulations and ensures individual and others' safety by promptly reporting unsafe acts, unsafe conditions, and accidents to the supervisor. The duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.