Duties

Summary

This position is located within Agricultural Research Service, Field Organization, Northeast Area, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Office of the Director, Safety Occupational Health & Environmental Staff, Beltsville, Maryland.

The incumbent provides technical consultation to solve complicated or undefined environmental management aspects that may impact health and safety throughout the campus, facility services systems, and animal and crop farm operations.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

• Plans, organizes, and administers comprehensive waste site cleanup and remediation for projects under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) authority and non-CERCLA environmental remediation activities.
• Assists in planning and directing Preliminary Assessment and Site Investigations (PA/SI) and Preliminary Assessments for the U.S. National Arboretum (D.C.). Evaluates sites for inclusion in cleanup program.
• Provides technical expertise for a Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study (RI/FS) for the Center, plus any pre-RI/FS activities.
• Leads in the preparation of environmental impact assessments and reviews, and interprets and enforces regulatory guidelines to ensure compliance.
• Assists in developing strategies and plans to bring the BARC?s operations into compliance, determines variances where necessary, and establishes policies, guidelines, and training.
• Provides technical consultation to solve complicated or undefined aspects of environmental management that may impact health and safety throughout campus including CERCLA sites as well as research, facility, and farming operations.
• Assists in negotiating Interagency Agreements, consent orders, or other legally binding agreements with the Environmental Protection Agency and Maryland Department of the Environment.
• Serves as a technical expert for interpreting, developing, and applying local regulations, policies and procedures, standards, education and training programs, and operational strategies necessary to achieve the missions, goals, and objectives.
• Assists in the review, analysis, and interpretation of environmental standards and guidelines from Federal, State, and Local entities to identify current and potential impacts on The Center's working conditions and environment.
• Prepares detailed reports and administrative briefings for high-level NEA management and headquarters review.
• Prepares the scope of work in consultation with the EMU manager and writes appropriate Statements of Work (SOW).
• Serves as a BARC contracting officer representative (COR) to work with the Area Office or Headquarters (HQ) Facility Division to develop, review, and execute major federally-funded environmental management projects.
• Assists the Environmental Management Unit manager in the practice of materials and content for public hearings involving CERCLA and non-CERCLA waste site activities.
• Serves on Technical Evaluation Panels to select contractors.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
12

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a US Citizen or US National
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt
• Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check
• Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.
• Direct Deposit ? Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/
• Must be able to obtain Federal Acquisition Certification- Contracting Officer's Representative (FAC-COR) Level 1 certification within the first two years of employment and pursue FAC-COR Level II certification.
• The incumbent is required to earn Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) every two years to maintain certification.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

Basic Requirements:
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 the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (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

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), 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) 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 include 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

Specialized Experience : Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised.

GS-11:
Qualifying experience for GS-11 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-09 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience ensuring environmental compliance for human health and safety; performing environmental planning, identification and cleanup of environmental contamination; restoring and sustaining environmental conservation in compliance with both the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and non-CERCLA cleanup and remediation efforts; and preparing detailed status reports or management briefings.

Or

Education: 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Related degrees may include Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or Environmental Engineering as related to hazardous waste clean-up or management.

Or

A combination of PhD level education and experience as described above.

GS-12:
Qualifying experience for GS-12 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-11 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience, specialized experience is experience ensuring environmental compliance for human health and safety; performing environmental planning, identification and cleanup of environmental contamination; restoring and sustaining environmental conservation in compliance with both the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and non-CERCLA cleanup and remediation efforts; preparing detailed status reports or management briefings; and serving as contract officer or overseeing contract management and budget development.

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 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

Please see above for education qualification requirement information.

Additional information

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the OPM website for information on how to apply as a CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

Physical Demands:
The work within the office is mostly sedentary. However, onsite inspections involve walking, bending, climbing and stooping. Field situations may result in potentially strenuous physical demands working outside in inclement weather, walking in snow or mud, or wading in a stream.

Work Environment:
Although most work is performed in an office, on-site inspections and field work potentially involve adverse weather, temperature extreme, exposure to hazardous chemicals, moving equipment, heights, closed spaces, high noise potentially required according to particular situations. Personal protective equipment and clothing is required.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Applications will be evaluated in accordance with Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) Delegated Examining Procedures and USDA policy using category rating. Applicants who meet basic minimum qualifications will be placed in one of three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified. Within these categories, applicants eligible for veteran's preference will receive selection priority over non-veterans. Category placement will be determined based on applicants' quality of experience and the extent they possess the following knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA) or competencies:

• Administration and Management
• Environmental Engineer
• Oral Communication

Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position. Those determined to be in the best qualified category will be referred to the selecting official for consideration.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities, or you may be found ineligible. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action up to including removal from the Federal service.

Clicking the link below will present a preview of the application form; i.e. the online questionnaire. The application form link below will only provide a preview and does not initiate the application process. To initiate the online application process, click the "Apply" button to the right.

To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/11085054

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Not Required

Drug test required
No

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

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

The following documents are required for your applicant package to be complete. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration.

• Resume that includes:1) personal information such as name, address, contact information; 2) education; 3) detailed work experience related to this position as described in the major duties including work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment; title, series, grade (if applicable); 4) other qualifications.
• If education is required or you are using education to qualify, you must submit a copy of your college transcripts. An unofficial copy is sufficient with the application if it includes your name and the necessary course information; however, if you are selected, you will be required to submit official transcripts prior to entering on duty. Education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university. If any education was completed at a foreign institute, you must submit with your application evidence that the institute was appropriately accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as equivalent to U.S. education standards. There are private organizations that specialize in this evaluation and a fee is normally associated with this service. For a list of private organizations that evaluate education, visit the NACES website. All transcripts must be in English or include an English translation.
• If claiming veteran's preference, you must submit a DD214, Certificate of Release from Active Duty, which shows dates of service and discharge under honorable conditions.If currently on active duty you must submit a certification of expected discharge or release from active duty service under honorable conditions not later than 120 days after the date the certification is submitted.Veteran's preference must be verified prior to appointment.Without this documentation, you will not receive veteran's preference and your application will be evaluated based on the material(s) submitted.
• If claiming 10-point veteran's preference you must provide the DD214 or certification requirements (see above bullet), plus the proof of entitlement of this preference as listed on the SF-15 Application for 10-point Veterans' Preference. The SF-15 should be included but is not required. Failure to submit these documents could result in the determination that there is insufficient documentation to support your claim for 10-point preference. For more information on veterans' preference visit FEDSHIREVETS
• Surplus or displaced employees eligible for CTAP, RPL, or ICTAP priority must provide: proof of eligibility (RIF separation notice, notice of proposed removal for declining a transfer of function or directed reassignment to another commuting area, notice of disability annuity termination), SF-50 documenting separation (as applicable), and your most recent SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with your application per 5 CFR 330.