Summary

This position is with Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), Technical Support, Mine Emergency Operations (MEO) Division.

MSHA works to prevent death, illness and injury from mining; promote safe and healthful workplaces for U.S. miners. MSHA carries out the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) as amended by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act of 2006.

Duties

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• Provides engineering expertise and analyzes highly complex technical problems associated with mine emergencies, investigations, and while planning for mine emergency preparedness.
• Advises the Director of Technical Support and other high-level Agency officials on a wide range of technical issues during a mine emergency and while maintaining mine emergency preparedness.
• Provides national oversight and conducts internal audits of District preparedness, emergency equipment, training programs and mine emergency response plans.
• Represents the Agency at national and international conferences and on committees relating to mine emergency regulations, policies, and procedures.
• Plans, directs, and reviews the work of subordinate staff, comprised of engineers, scientists, and technical specialists.
• Provides advice, counsel and/or instructions to individual employees on technical and administrative matters.
• Coordinates MSHA mine emergency activities with State officials, labor representatives, and mine operators, as well as other equipment or service provider that may be on-site.
• Identifies training needs and ensures that appropriate training is provided.
• Develops, conducts, and critiques Mine Emergency Response Drills to simulate actual mine emergencies and provides evaluations and recommendations to appropriate Agency personnel and mine operators.
• Provides advice on all aspects of mine explosion and fire related issues.
• Disseminates complex technical, regulator and accident-related information to top Agency officials, field entities, mine operators, labor organizations, manufacturers, State Inspection agencies, other Federal Agencies, Congress, and the public.
• Organizes and conducts open meetings, seminars, and symposiums to share information, improve communications, and develop relationships that will facilitate cooperation during the mine emergencies.
• Directs the analysis, evaluation and testing of new systems, equipment and response techniques to further enhance emergency preparedness.
• Periodically evaluates the effectiveness of the Office's efforts and programs, and institutes changes as necessary.
• Advises high-level Agency officials of findings from the analysis of mine fires, explosions and other mine emergencies and offers suggestions or recommendations for proactive prevention of similar events.
• Manages MSHA's mine emergency personnel including training and logistical support, and assures mine emergency readiness and preparedness.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must be at least 16 years old.
• Requires a probationary period if the requirement has not been met.
• Candidate required to obtain the necessary security/investigation level.
• Subject to financial disclosure requirements.
• Requires medical exam and must maintain physical requirements.
• Requires a supervisory probationary period if the requirement has not been met.
• Requires a valid driver's license.

Qualifications

In addition to the basic requirements as described in the Education section, your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience and/or additional education requirements defined below. If qualifying based on experience, be sure these types of examples are evident in your resume.

Specialized Experience is the experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the position successfully, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level.

For this position, specialized experience is defined as professional engineering work the demonstrates a thorough comprehensive knowledge of concepts, principles, and practices of engineering in the mining industry including knowledge of rock mechanics concepts and methods of experimental stress analysis, underground mining equipment, and a comprehensive knowledge of long-wall mining as practiced in the United States.

Must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, experience and skills to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Specialized experience must include all of the following:

• Provides engineering expertise and analyzes highly complex technical problems associated with mine emergencies.
• Manages mine emergency personnel, including training and logical (supplies and equipment) support, and assures mine emergency readiness and preparedness.
• Experience related to conducting and participating in Mine Emergency Response Drills to simulate actual mine emergencies and provide evaluations and recommendations to appropriate Agency personnel and mine operators.
• Facilitating a consensus in the face of opposing viewpoints in critical mine safety and health matters.
• Plans, directs, and reviews the work of subordinate staff, comprised of engineers, scientists and other technical specialists.

Education

You must meet the Basic Requirements to qualify for Supervisor General Engineer, as described below. Transcripts must be submitted to verify education requirements.

Basic Requirement: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), 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) 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.)

Any applicant falsely claiming an academic degree from an accredited school will be subject to actions ranging from disqualification from federal employment to removal from federal service.

If your education was completed at a foreign college or university, you must show comparability to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States and comparability to applicable minimum coursework requirements for this position. Click Evaluation of Foreign Education for more information.

Benefits

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.