General Engineer (Risk Value) at Department of State, Overseas Buildings Operations

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THIS IS A NON-STATUS, NON-PERMANENT POSITION. YOU DO NOT ACQUIRE A COMPETITIVE OR EXCEPTED SERVICE STATUS FROM THIS POSITION.

The Personal Services Contractor (PSC) position is located in the Department of State (DOS), Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations; Program Development, Coordination, and Support Directorate; Office of Cost Management (OBO/PDCS/COST). 

Duty 1 - Program Oversight/Advice 

Provides technical, operational, and administrative guidance to OBO elements and field personnel involving critical review and analysis of OBO design, construction, rehabilitation, and maintenance projects and the development of alternative solutions through the application of VE, International Project Risk Management Analyses, Embodied Carbon Analyses, and/or Life-cycle Cost Analyses methodologies.

Advises/assists the Senior Value Engineer in the formulation, development, planning, and management of the VE Program, as well as program oversight, technical guidance, and direction to OBO activities on VE methods and techniques.

Duty 2 - Policy Development/Program Analysis

Collaborates with the Senior Value Engineer in establishing and disseminating OBO policy, guidelines, and standard operating procedures for use by engineers and architects in the VE design and review process and in the application of VE to the design and construction of buildings and facilities abroad.

Analyzes program information up to the Top-Secret level and related activities, and tracks assigned workgroup’s taskings, document flow, estimate status, progress, and due dates to remind staff of pending completion times and meet the goals of the divisions.

Provides support to senior analysts by assisting in the establishment and dissemination of VE guidelines and procedures, analyzing policy impacts, tracking program tasks and progress, imbedding data collection methods, and integrating bureau sponsored improvements into program operations.

Duty 3 - Program Design Reviews

Provides technical and logistical assistance during program design reviews to ensure that the study team (whether in-house or contracted) conducts the study in accordance with standard VE and Risk Management practices and OBO guidelines.

Tracks VE proposals to ensure that they are appropriately critiqued and implemented.

Coordinates management review of VE implementation memoranda.

Duty 4 - Liaison/Workshop Assistance 

Assists in arranging and coordinating workshops.

Provides both technical and logistical assistance during the workshop.

Other Duties -Applies internal control measures to protect organizational integrity and prevent unauthorized use or misappropriation of sensitive and classified material up to the Secret level.

Performs other duties as assigned, including special projects, technical assessments, and advising/participating in other initiatives as directed by the Office Director or Senior Value Engineer. 

Basic Requirements:

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:

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 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.)

Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.

1 For more information about EI and EIT registration requirements, please visit the National Society of Professional Engineers website at: http://www.nspe.org .

2 The FE examination is not administered by the U. S. Office of Personnel Management. For more information, please visit: http://www.nspe.org/Licensure/HowtoGetLicensed/index.html .

The basic requirement of a professional engineering or architecture degree.

AACE-I certification or similar certification.

Applicants must meet all the required qualification requirements, including education, and any selective placement factors described below by the closing date of this announcement. Education may only be substituted in accordance with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Qualification Standards Handbook. Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order to be credited towards qualifications. Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. Click on the link for a list of accredited organizations recognized as specializing in interpretation of foreign education credentials.

IN ADDITION to the Basic Requirements above, you MUST also have 1 year of specialized experience that is related to the work of the position, is equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service, and demonstrates the following:

Experience reading blueprints and/or construction drawings, performing design calculations, data analysis, assisting with project planning, and preparing technical documents/reports. 

·       Experience preparing cost or technical reports and briefings to facilitate management personnel in decision making process.