Interdisciplinary Engineer GS-0801/0810/0830/0850-14 (02461)

Position Overview/Duties

Serves as the technical lead for the Over the Horizon Radar project who will use expert technical engineering knowledge and design management competencies to lead a team of in-house and AE engineers and scientists producing design products and supporting reviews during construction.

Executes and/or directs actions exploring, reconciling, and resolving major uncertainties, unique situations, obscure problems, or conflicting objectives.

Serves as a coach, facilitator, and/or negotiator in coordinating team initiatives and in consensus building activities among team members.

Manages the mega-project through individual and team efforts, accomplishing the following functions:

• Utilizing a professional knowledge of engineering specialties (civil, geotechnical, hydraulic, hydrologic, structural, mechanical, electrical, etc.), the employee serves as the mega-project Lead Engineer, exercising technical guidance and direction over 20-40 engineers and scientists distributed across the GS-7 to GS-13 grade levels, augmented by AE services, to accomplish highly detailed and technically difficult work.
• Utilizing professional knowledge of USACE guidance and policy related to design, construction and safety, the Lead Engineer will be utilizing professional judgment to ensure that all products meet established USACE guidance and policy.
• The Lead Engineer will be engaged in the development and review of acquisition strategy; development of contract structure; development of contract type; review of project plans and specifications prior to contract advertisement to determine practicability from construction standpoint; whether physical obstructions or other construction difficulties have been anticipated; whether materials selected are readily available.
• Supports Construction Division by observing and investigating construction at all stages to identify problems, taking timely action to change designs or recommend modifications to designer and/or contract to solve problems such as unforeseen site conditions, design errors or omissions, customer requested changes, or changed criteria. Reviews quality assurance inspection of construction operations for compliance with plans and specifications; interprets plans and specifications; confers with contractor to resolve disputes at Construction’s request.
• Maintains program reference materials, project files, and relevant background documents and makes available policies, procedures, and instructions from the supervisor. Maintains current knowledge to answer questions from team members on procedures, policies, directives, etc. Prepares reports and maintains records of work accomplishments and administrative information and coordinates the preparation and presentation of project.

Basic Requirement for Engineers

A. Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree (or higher degree) in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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.

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.