Duties

Summary

About the Position:

This position is with the Institute for Water Resources (IWR), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alexandria, VA 22315.

This position will be filled on a permanent basis. Position is being filled at the GS-12 or target GS-13 grade level.

Duties described reflect the full performance GS-13 grade level. Duties will be performed in a developmental capacity under close supervision.
Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

• Serves as a subject matter specialist; participates in independent research, and collaborative study efforts undertaken by the Institute for Water Resources (IWR).
• Contributes toward the development of new Civil Works planning, environmental, investment decision-making, regulatory, natural resource management, and/or watershed evaluation methodologies.
• Improves planning techniques for water projects, programs, or integrated water and land-related systems, or proposals for establishing new water resources policies or procedures.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - 10% Business Travel may be expected for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
13

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Appointment may be subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• This position requires proof in the form of transcripts, certifications, and licenses for the Occupational Series applied under.

Qualifications

ADDITIONAL ABOUT THE POSITION:

Management may select at any of the grade levels announced. This recruitment provides promotion opportunity to the target grade of the position without further competition when selectee is eligible and recommended by management.

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-Appropriated Fund Instrumentality (NAFI)
• 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/or 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 .

These positions has a positive education requirement. To view the educational requirements, go to the links listed below for each series you are interested in applying for on the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website:

Community Planner (series 0020) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0000/community-planning-series-0020/

Social Scientist (series 0101) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0100/social-science-series-0101/

Economist (series 0110) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0100/economist-series-0110/

Geographer (series 0150) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0100/geography-series-0150/

Sociologist (series 0184) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0100/sociology-series-0184/

Landscape Architecture (series 0807) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/landscape-architecture-series-0807/

General Biological Scientist (series 0401) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0400/general-natural-resources-management-and-biological-sciences-series-0401/

General Engineer (series 0801) Civil Engineer (series 0810) and Environmental Engineer (series 0810) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/civil-engineering-series-0810/

General Physical Scientist (series 1301) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1300/general-physical-science-series-1301/

Geologist (series 1350) - https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1300/geology-series-1350/

In addition to meeting the education requirements for one of the above series, you must also meet the following:

GS-12 Specialized Experience: To qualify based on your experience, your resume must describe at least one year of experience which prepared you to do the work in this job. Specialized experience which includes: Participates as a member of multi-disciplinary study, project, and research teams, and inter-governmental project delivery teams to address water resources policy problems.

This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-11).

GS-13 Specialized Experience: To qualify based on your experience, your resume must describe at least one year of experience which prepared you to do the work in this job. Specialized experience which includes: Conducts studies, and monitors contract study efforts to develop improvements and establish guidance, for field offices engaged in the conduct of a Nation-wide water resources program.

This definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-12).

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

• Information Management
• Program/Project Management
• Written Communication

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-11).

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-12).

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

Completion of education requirements MUST be from the closing date of the announcement.

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 (CP) 18 position.
• You may claim military spouse preference (MSP).
• If a MSP applicant is determined best qualified and selected, placement must be at the full performance level for priority consideration.
• Multiple positions may be filled from this announcement.
• Salary includes applicable locality pay or Local Market Supplement.
• When you perform a Civilian Permanent Change of Station (PCS) with the government, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers the majority of your entitlements to be taxable. Visit https://www.dfas.mil/civilianemployees/civrelo/Civilian-Moving-Expenses-Tax-Deduction/ for more information.
• 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 .
• Permanent Change of Station (PCS) allowances may be authorized, subject to the provisions of the Joint Travel Regulations and an agency determination that a PCS move is 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).
• This position has an individual occupational requirement and/or allows for substitution of education for experience. If you meet this requirement based on education you MUST submit a copy of your transcript with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses
• This position requires a job-related license or certification. You MUST submit a copy of your license or certification with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. See: Transcripts and Licenses

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.