To be eligible for appointment under the College Graduate authority, applicants must meet requirement A or B.
A. Applicants who have completed a bachelor's or graduate degree from a qualifying educational institution within the previous two years or within 30 days of the vacancy closing date (07/01/2024).
OR
B. Veterans who have completed a bachelor's or graduate degree from a qualifying educational institution and have an intervening period of obligated service of at least four years in the uniformed services. The two-year eligibility period begins on the date of discharge or release from the uniformed service.
In addition to meeting the eligibility listed above, you must also meet the education and/or experience requirements described below.
Basic Requirement:
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:
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.)
Note: An applicant who meets the basic requirements as specified in A or B above, except as noted under B.1., may qualify for positions in any branch of engineering unless selective factors indicate otherwise.
Minimum Qualifications:
Specialized Experience: Applicants must have 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level, GS-07 in the Federal Service.
Specialized experience must include one (1) of the following:
- Conducted studies to identify, evaluate safety problems and administrative issues;
- Implemented and evaluated a safety program;
- Created written reports and detailed basic findings for use in final reports;
- Experience with drafting publications, journal articles, books, and all forms of manuscripts; or,
- Experience with reviewing inspection reports, mine records, and other source material;
OR
Education in lieu of specialized experience: Possess a master's or equivalent graduate degree that provided the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do the work of this position; OR, Possess two (2) full years of progressively higher level graduate education that provided the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to do the work of this position;
OR
Combination of education and experience: Possess a combination of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in or related to the work of this position and graduate level education that provided the specific knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of this position.
Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled.