Duties

Summary

This position is located in the Deputy Commandant for Operations (CG-DCO), Assistant Commandant for Prevention Policy (CG-5P), Director/Deputy Director Commercial Regulations and Standards (CG-5PS) & (CG-5PS-D), Marine Safety Center, Washington, DC.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

You will serve as a electrical engineer and provide expertise on a broad range of electrical shipboard equipment and systems to Headquarters and CG field personnel and representatives of the marine industry.

Being a Coast Guard civilian makes you a valuable member of the Coast Guard team. Typical work assignments include:

• Analyzing designs and test procedures for a wide variety of shipboard electrical and electro mechanical systems submitted by specialists in marine electrical, power distribution, and control engineering.
• Drafting written correspondence to ship owners and operators, engineering consultants, equipment manufacturers, ship builders, Coast Guard Marine Safety Offices, and the Commandant.
• Providing regulatory interpretations that translate into technical requirements which can be understood by contractors and field personnel.
• Analyzing current technological developments in the design of shipboard electrical, marine, control, and alarm and monitoring systems to evaluate their impact on existing international and U.S. regulations and safety practices.
• Using technical expertise to identify areas of weakness in delegated plan review activities and providing feedback and recommendations to Authorized Classified Societies.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - Some travel may be required.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
13

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Unofficial transcripts must be submitted at the time of application.
• This position requires a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI).
• This position may require a one (1) year probation.

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. This includes Time-In-Grade requirements for current status employees applying through merit promotion procedures. Status applicants applying for a promotion must have 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade.

Qualifications

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:

• 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.)

AND

In addition to meeting the basic requirements above, applicants must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

To qualify for the GS-12 grade level, applicants must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 in the Federal service.

• Experience analyzing designs for a wide variety of shipboard electrical and electro-mechanical systems;
• Experience reviewing electrical plans and drafting written correspondence to convey technical issues and engineering principles and regulations;
• Experience evaluating test procedures and test results to ensure specifications and operational requirements are met;
• Experience evaluating programs for the analysis of electric plant short circuit studies and circuit breaker coordination studies of shipboard power distribution systems.
• Experience evaluating design and test of shipboard Dynamic positioning system and components.

To qualify for the GS-13 grade level, applicants must possess one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 in the Federal service.

Specialized experience includes the following:

• Experience analyzing designs for a wide variety of shipboard electrical and electro-mechanical systems;
• Experience reviewing electrical plans and drafting written correspondence to convey technical issues and engineering principles and regulations;
• Experience evaluating test procedures and test results to ensure specifications and operational requirements are met;
• Experience evaluating programs for the analysis of electric plant short circuit studies and circuit breaker coordination studies of shipboard power distribution systems.
• Experience evaluating design and test of shipboard Dynamic positioning system and components.

National Service Experience (i.e., 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.

The Office of Personnel management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule, C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Education

This position does have a positive education requirement. If you are including education on your resume, report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. See Required Documents section for detail.

FOREIGN EDUCATION: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications click here

Additional information

Applicants will be required to complete questions contained on the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) at the time a tentative job offer is made. Certain responses on the form could pose a problem with suitability for employment determinations.

If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete/make updates to the OF-306 and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application, prior to entry on duty. False statements on any part of the application may result in withdrawal of offer of employment, dismissal after beginning work, or imprisonment.

DHS uses e-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about e-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities at click here

Recruitment incentives may be authorized.

If selection is made below the full performance level, the incumbent may be promoted up to the target grade without further competition, if all legal and regulatory requirements are met and when recommended by the supervisor. However, promotion to the full performance level is not guaranteed and is dependent on successful performance at the lower grade level(s).

All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit.

The Department of Homeland Security encourages persons with disabilities to apply, to include persons with intellectual, severe physical or psychiatric disabilities, as defined by 5 CFR § 213.3102(u), and/or Disabled Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more as defined by 5 CFR § 315.707. Veterans , Peace Corps / VISTA volunteers , and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the required documentation, click on the links above or contact the Servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement.

More than 1 selection may be made from this announcement if additional identical vacancies in the same title, series, grade, and unit occur within 45 days from the date the certificate was issued.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for the application and hiring process, please contact 202-795-6255. Decisions on granting reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. Visit Reasonable Accommodation

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

We will review your résumé and supporting documentation to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you meet the minimum qualifications, your experience, education and training will be rated using the on-line self-assessment questions that are based on the following competencies or knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to perform this job:

Knowledge of concepts, theories, principles and practices of electrical engineering as applied to shipboard systems to analyze and evaluate complex electrical, electro-mechanical, communication, remote control and monitoring systems on commercial ships and offshore platforms.

Knowledge of the applicable statues, regulations, commercial ship design rules, standards and international conventions enforced by the United States.

Ability to utilize systems engineering practices and incorporate knowledge of other engineering disciplines including marine, mechanical, controls and material science into evaluation of shipboard designs.

Ability to analyze and evaluate technological developments in ship design for which published regulations may need further clarification of written policy.

Ability to effectively use computers and computer applications to evaluate ship designs and generate correspondence.

Your resume and responses to the self-assessment questions are an integral part of the process for determining your qualifications for the position. Therefore, you must support your responses to the self-assessment questions by providing examples of past and present experience in your resume.

If you are best qualified, you may be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.

Consideration will be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards as an indicator of quality of prior experience; no points will be assigned.

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

1. Resume
2. Completed online questionnaire
3. Current or former federal employees, submit a copy of most recent SF-50, Notice of Personnel Action, which demonstrates your eligibility for consideration, e.g., length of time you have been in your current/highest grade. Examples of appropriate SF-50s include promotions, with-in grade increases, NOT performance awards.
4. If qualifying based on education, submit a legible copy of your unofficial college transcript from an accredited college/university. The transcript must reflect the college/university name and/or logo. Applicants are highly encouraged to proactively order a copy of their official transcripts to be delivered to their home address so transcripts will be readily available if selected. If selected, official transcripts are required prior to establishing your start date. Foreign education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet education requirements if you can show that it is comparable to education received in U.S. accredited institutions. Provide proof with your application. Please see click here.
5. If claiming special priority selection rights under the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP), submit a copy of your agency notice, most recent performance rating and most recent SF-50, noting your current position, grade level and duty location. If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not ICTAP eligible. To be considered eligible, you must be placed in the well-qualified category for this position. Please see ICTAP eligibility.
6. If you are claiming veterans' preference, submit the following documents. Please see Feds Hire Vets for detail.
a. Veterans claiming 5 point veterans' preference must submit legible Member 4 Copy DD214(s) indicating Character of Service. 5-point preference will not be granted if appropriate documentation is not submitted.
b. 30% Disabled Veterans must submit their Member Copy 4 DD-214(s), which includes Character of Service, and VA Disability Letter with percentage of disability OR documentation of disability determination from a branch of the Armed Forces which reflects a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more.
c. Other 10 point Preference Eligibles must submit applicable Member Copy 4 DD-214(s), which includes Character of Service, and provide documentation of 10 point preference described on the back of the SF-15 . 10-point preference will not be granted if appropriate documentation is not submitted with your application.
d. If you are a current active duty military member who does not have a DD214 and is claiming preference under the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) Act, submit certification from the Armed Forces indicating that you will be discharged or released under honorable conditions from active duty within 120 days from the date on the certification. Certifications must be on letterhead from the appropriate military branch and include: military dates of service and expected discharge or release date, character of service, military rank, type of discharge and date when terminal leave will begin. Certifications must be signed by, or by direction of military members' military personnel offices, unit commanders or higher headquarters.
7. If requesting consideration under Executive Order 13473 , you must submit proof. To confirm eligibility for appointment based on the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2019 (NDAA), submit a copy of the marriage certificate to the military member and a copy of your spouses' active duty military orders (e.g., most recent military orders, PCS orders, etc.). Spouses of military members who are on retirement or separation PCS orders from active duty are not eligible to be appointed unless the member was injured with a 100% rating; or was released/discharged from active duty due to the member's death while on active duty. Widows or widowers, who are not remarried, of military service members who were killed on active duty must submit a DD-1300.
8. OPM must authorize employment offers for former or current Political Appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C or Non-Career SES employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information. Submit proof of your former or current status, such as your SF-50. Please see here.

All documentation as outlined above must be received by the closing date of the announcement. If you are unable to submit your documents electronically, you may fax or mail the documents. A fax cover sheet will be provided to you from the system with fax number and instructions. Required documents will also be accepted by mail and must be received by the closing date of the announcement. The mailing address is COMMANDANT (CG-123HQ), ATTN OFFICE OF CIVILIAN HUMAN RESOURCES (JOBS), US COAST GUARD, 2703 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR AVE SE STOP 7912, WASHINGTON, DC 20593-7912.

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.