Duties

Summary

About the Position: This position is located in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Philadelphia District, Operations Division, Technical Support Branch, Survey Section. This position is being filled at the GS-5 level and the selectee may be non-competitively promoted to the target grade level (GS-6).
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Responsibilities

• You will assist in conducting hydrographic and/or topographic surveys for dredging and construction projects ensuring that prescribed survey procedures are followed.
• Follow instructions of team leaders ensuring that accuracy standards and time frames are met.
• Perform hydrographic and topographic surveying work requiring a knowledge of principles and field procedures of surveying the use, care, and adjustment of surveying instruments.
• Prepare, inspect, make adjustments and calibrate equipment, including on-board electronic equipment necessary for the conduct of the survey.
• Compute checkpoints, prepare survey work sheet or map for X-Y plotter, and prepare survey data for entry into computer.
• Assist in preparing maps and charts of channel and soundings, utilizing the automatic X-Y plotter and PC-based computer system.
• Make preliminary field adjustment of level closures and traverse horizon closure and passes the information on to higher-grade personnel for final adjustment.
• Prepare field sketch and obtain measurements necessary to complete descriptions in uncomplicated areas making sure all necessary information is obtained for completion of work.

Travel Required

50% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
6

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• This position has a Temporary Duty (TDY) or business travel requirement of 50% of the time.
• The duties of this position require the incumbent to possess or obtain and maintain a valid state Driver's License in one of the 50 U.S. states or possessions to operate vehicles.
• This position requires the incumbent to obtain a Boating Safety Certification within 12 months of appointment.
• This position requires the completion of a pre-employment Physical Examination and every two years thereafter to ensure the continued, required level of physical health and ability or fitness to perform the duties of the position.
• This position has a requirement to lift up to 50 lbs. in the regular performance of duties.
• Appointment to this position is subject to a two year probationary period unless the appointee has previously met the requirements as described in 5 CFR Part 315.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

• Current Department of Army Civilian Employees
• Current Permanent Department of Defense (DOD) Civilian Employee (non-Army)
• Domestic Defense Industrial Base/Major Range and Test Facilities Base Civilian Personnel Workforce
• Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan
• Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act
• Military Spouses, under Executive Order (E.O.) 13473
• Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer
• Priority Placement Program, DoD Military Spouse Preference (MSP) Eligible
• Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA) of 1998

In order to qualify, you must meet the education and experience requirements described below. 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). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application. Additional information about transcripts is in this document .

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience which includes: 1) Experience in assisting with hydrographic and/or topographic surveys in accordance with industry standards, principles, and procedures. 2) Experience in using various surveying tools and equipment such as horizontal positioning systems global position systems, automatic X-Y plotter, optical instruments. 3) Experience in performing computations, adjustments, and graphic portrayals of field data. This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-04).

OR

Education: Successful completion of a four year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree from an accredited or pre-accredited institution (a) with major study in an appropriate field of surveying, engineering, construction, or industrial technology, or (b) that included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of courses such as surveying, engineering, industrial technology, construction, physics, drafting, forestry, geography, navigation, cartography, physical science, or mathematics. (NOTE: You must attach a copy of your transcripts for verification).

OR

Combination of Education and Experience: A combination of education and experience may be used to qualify for this position as long as the computed percentage of the requirements is at least 100%. To compute the percentage of the requirements, divide your total months of experience by 12. Then divide your semester hours of education beyond two years (total semester hours minus 60) by 60. Add the two percentages.

You will be evaluated on the basis of your level of competency in the following areas:

• Planning and Evaluating
• Surveying
• Technical Competence
• Technology Application

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-04).

Education

FOREIGN EDUCATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html

Additional information

• Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration.
• You will be required to provide proof of U.S. Citizenship.
• Two year trial/probationary period may be required.
• Direct deposit of pay is required.
• Selection is subject to restrictions resulting from Department of Defense referral system for displaced employees.
• If you have retired from federal service and you are interested in employment as a reemployed annuitant, see the information in the Reemployed Annuitant information sheet.
• This is a Career Program (CP18 - Engineers and Scientists) position
• Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement.
• Salary includes applicable locality pay or Local Market Supplement.
• Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). If you are a Federal employee in the competitive service and your agency has notified you in writing that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: (1) meet ICTAP eligibility criteria; (2) be rated well-qualified for the position with a score of 90 or above; and, (3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your ICTAP eligibility. Additional information about the program is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website .
• If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .
• Payment of Permanent Change of Station (PCS) costs is not authorized, based on a determination that a PCS move is not in the Government interest.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Once the announcement has closed, a review of your application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) will be used to determine whether you meet the qualification requirements listed on this announcement. If you are minimally qualified, your résumé and supporting documentation will be compared against your responses to the assessment questionnaire to determine your level of experience. If, after reviewing your résumé and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

You should list any relevant performance appraisals and incentive awards in your resume as that information may be taken into consideration during the selection process. If selected, you may be required to provide supporting documentation.

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

Required Documents

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Applicant Merit Checklist and Proof of Eligibility .As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply.

If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume:

• Your resume may be submitted in any format and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations and you may not be considered for this vacancy.
• For qualifications determinations your resume must contain hours worked per week and the dates of employment (i.e., HRS per week and month/year to month/year or month/year to present). If your resume does not contain this information, your application will be marked as incomplete and you will not receive consideration for this position.
• For additional information see: What to include in your resume .

2. Other supporting documents:

• Cover Letter, optional
• Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable
• Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration.
• Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old).

NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.