Environmental Engineer/Physical Scientist/Environmental Scientist

Duties

Directs remedial activities at the most complex Superfund hazardous waste sites. Serves as technical lead on design, construction and enforcement issues of highly complex and or controversial remedial sites. Coordinate with federal, state and local agencies to plan, implement and oversee investigations, analyses and cleanups at sites as required by CERCLA. Disseminate scientific/technical information through oral briefings and written documents.

You will spend less than 25% of your work time on contracts, grants/cooperative agreements, and/or interagency agreements.

Qualifications

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. You need a degree or combination of education and experience as described below to qualify for this position.

Physical Scientist, 1301

1. Degree: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semesters 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 in A above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Environmental Engineer, 0819

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:

• 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, and 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 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.
• 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.)

In addition to the educational requirements, we are looking for at least one year of specialized experience related to this position as described below:

To qualify for the GS-14 level, you need to have at least one year of full time experience equivalent to the GS-13 level defined as Evaluating options and alternatives for making decisions and resolving issues where no precedent or guidelines exist; leading a team comprised of members possessing varying levels of experience, skills, orientation, or perspective.

Your answers to the online assessment will be used to evaluate your competencies in the following areas: 1) knowledge of contract management; 2) skill in managing remedial site cleanup; 3) knowledge of remedial site cleanup; 4) skill in leading a team; 5) skill in project management; 6) knowledge of Superfund environmental statutes; 7) knowledge of contract management; 8) skill in oral and written communication; 9) skill in developing professional relationships