Summary

This position locates in the Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Region (PN), Office of the Regional Director, Construction and Engineering Group (CEG-[redacted]) located at Grand Coulee Field Office in Coulee Dam, Washington.

You may be required to travel overnight away from home for the purpose of visiting construction sites, performing field work, and attending meetings. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.

Duties

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At the full performance level (GS-13) the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provide senior-level oversight of complex mechanical construction activities, ensuring contractor work meets engineering standards, technical specifications, safety requirements, and environmental regulations across multiple regional projects.
• Lead and supervise a multidisciplinary workforce, including mechanical engineers and construction control personnel, by assigning and prioritizing work, establishing performance expectations, evaluating completed work, and supporting employee training and development.
• Coordinate and integrate mechanical, civil, and electrical construction activities, resolving technical issues, interpreting plans and specifications, and recommending adjustments to maintain quality, schedule, and cost objectives.
• Serve as the region's principal technical expert for mechanical engineering, reviewing construction documents, design specifications, contractor submittals, and proposed methods to assess feasibility, compliance, and project impacts.
• Conduct field inspections and project monitoring to verify contractor progress, identify and document deficiencies, recommend corrective actions, and ensure thorough and accurate reporting of project activities and installed materials.
• Support contract administration by collaborating with Contracting Officers to monitor contract performance, evaluate change requests, provide technical recommendations, and ensure that construction activities satisfy contractual requirements.
• Represent the Construction Engineering Group in meetings with contractors, project staff, and stakeholders, providing authoritative guidance on technical issues, compliance expectations, project status, and resolution of construction concerns.

Physical Demands/Work Environment: The work involves no physical demands in the normal office work structure; however, occasional visits to construction projects and associated work sites may be required. Visit to construction sites may involve stooping, climbing stairs and ladders, and walking on uneven surfaces, slopes, scaffolding. The position is a motor-vehicle operator position.

Work is primarily performed in an office setting, although there are field visits to construction sites and other facilities. Occasionally performed field work includes exposure to a wide variety of industrial work environments and weather conditions; hot and cold, rain and snow, mud and frozen ground, noisy machinery, and moving of heavy construction equipment. Travel may involve transportation in light and commercial aircraft, and overnight travel may result in a varying environment. The employee is responsible for the safe operation of motor vehicles. Driving must comply with the requirements established by Reclamation. Travel to and from field locations is required.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Direct Deposit participation required.
• Must have and maintain a valid driver's license throughout employment.
• Must have a current Professional Engineering (P.E.) license or registration.
• Must obtain a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) certification within one year of employment, training will be provided.
• You may be required to wear a uniform and comply with the uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.
• A financial disclosure report will be required within 30 days of appointment.
• You are required to complete training, obtain and maintain a government credit card with travel and purchase authority.
• You must be at least 18 years of age or older to operate government vehicles.
• This is a supervisory position that may require completion of a supervisory probationary period.

*Additional Requirements located under Additional Information*

Qualifications

Qualifications:

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/13/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

Selective Placement Factor: This position requires a special qualification that has been determined to be essential to perform the duties and will be used as a screen out element. If you do not provide evidence that you possess the following selective factor(s), you will be rated not qualified.

You must possess a current, valid Professional Engineer License. You must provide a copy of your license with your application package.

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Minimum Qualification Requirements: To qualify for this position, you must meet the following minimum qualifications:

Basic Educational Requirement AND Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.

Basic Educational Requirements: In addition to the specialized experience requirements for this position, you must meet at least one of the following (you must include a copy of your transcripts):

• 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)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.
  • 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.
  • 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.)

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To qualify for this position at the GS-13 grade level:

• Specialized Experience Requirement: you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular competencies needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. Examples of specialized experience may include: overseeing complex mechanical construction activities; directing the work of engineers or construction personnel; reviewing and evaluating contractor submittals, technical specifications, and engineering drawings; conducting field inspections to ensure compliance with safety, environmental, and technical requirements; coordinating mechanical engineering work with civil, electrical, or other technical disciplines; administering construction contracts or recommending contract modifications; and providing expert mechanical engineering guidance to contractors, project teams, or stakeholders.

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

You must submit a copy of your transcript(s) to support claimed education if substituting education for experience. Transcripts must include your name, school name, grades, credit hours earned, major(s), grade point average or class ranking, and date the degree was conferred, if applicable. A typed list of courses, grades, semester/quarter hours, GPA, etc. will not be accepted. Non-submission may result in being rated not qualified for the position. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work.

Foreign Education: To receive credit for education completed outside the United States, you must show proof that the education has been submitted to a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign educational credentials and such education has been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in conventional U.S. education programs. Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | U.S. Department of Education. https://www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/international-affairs/recognition-of-foreign-qualification

Additional information

Requirements Continued...

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated.

This probationary 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.

Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or 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 probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Additional vacancies may be filled using this job announcement.

First time hires to the Federal government normally start at the step 1 rate.

If otherwise eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The d