Summary This position is located at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plains Area (PA), National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, KS.
The mission of the Engineering Project Management Group is to oversee and ensure all NBAF systems and facilities are functional, ensuring the maintenance, replacement and repair are accomplished and documentation is updated and available. Duties Serves as a project manager and Contracting Officerâs Representative (COR) for all assigned projects. | Works with the Engineering Project Manager Supervisor in providing support in the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of NBAF facilities and systems projects. | Manages project integration, scope, cost, schedule, quality, resources, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholders. | Provides engineering and project management resource in support of the overall mission; and develops and/or reviews project packages for contract award while managing project through commissioning and close-out. | Provides multi-disciplinary engineering resource and project support for facility operations including maintenance, repair, and construction of NBAF infrastructure for architectural, civil, electrical, and mechanical components. | Utilizes engineering and project management computer programs to develop and/or review performance work statements, design drawings (AutoCAD and Revit), specifications, and cost estimates (RS Mean) and SpecsIntact, Costworks, etc. | Manages and oversees A-E design services task orders to include plan/ submittal reviews, payment evaluations, recommendations to the Contracting Officer (CO), and contractor evaluations. | Implement financial management and budget procedures to prepare financial estimates and budgets related to facilities and systems design and repair.
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. Please see Education section for basic education requirement.
AND
In addition to the basic requirements, all applicants must also meet the following minimum qualification requirements:
GS-12
Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: 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 providing engineering support for the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of facilities and systems projects; preparing cost estimates for assigned projects (such as escalation and inflation factors, description, and justifications); Developing, managing and scheduling facility construction or repair and service contracts; preparing formal contract documents for project procurement, evaluating and negotiating contractor proposals; and providing direct contractual oversight on projects for biocontainment facilities.
Physical Demands
Physical activity includes entering confined spaces, climbing ladders, stooping, bending and lifting up to 50 pounds with appropriate help. Some work may involve wearing personal protective equipment, including a respirator (N-95 or PAPR) or fully encapsulated positive pressure suit while entering infectious disease laboratories or animal facilities areas. Travel is required to attend meetings and conferences.
Work Environment
Work is performed in a variety of environments from typical offices to laboratories and biocontainment spaces. The work involves occasional exposure to potential biological hazards, chemical or process odors and fumes, electrical hazards, hot or cold environments, equipment noise, and heights. The incumbent is required to wear full face respirator when working in biological control areas; facial hair restrictions may be required in order to comply with proper operation of personal protective equipment. The health status of personnel is monitored periodically using biologic and serologic test and physical examinations. Restrictions against contact with birds and livestock outside the laboratory may apply after entering high security animal facilities that are working with disease agents foreign to the United States.
Conditions of Employment
- Motor Vehicle or Commercial Driver's License Required.
- Drug Test Required.
- Financial Disclosure Required.
- Department of Justice (DOJ) Security Risk Assessment (SRA) approval is required.
- National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI) clearance is required.
- Immunizations may be required.
- Respirator fitting and certification is required.
To comply with USDA personnel security requirements and requirements of the Federal Select Agent Program (FSAP) for access to information and areas with Biological Select Agents and Toxins (BSAT), including Tier One Select Agents at NBAF, the incumbent must meet the following:
- Pre-employment and random testing of substances of abuse;
- Participation in and adherence to the facility's Occupational Health Program;
- Participation in and adherence to the facility's Personal Reliability Program;
- The ability to obtain/maintain favorably adjudicated Background Investigations or Security clearances (required by USDA);
- The ability to obtain/maintain a favorable Security Risk Assessment (required by FSAP).
This is a Public Trust Position and requires that the incumbent be a United States Citizen. As a condition of employment, the requirements listed above must be met. The mission of NBAF includes research, diagnosis and training for animal diseases foreign to the United States (U.S.) for the purpose of protecting American agriculture and domestic food sources from their potentially devastating effects. NBAF is vital to successfully protecting U.S. agriculture from the intentional or non-intentional introduction of foreign animal diseases such as Foot-and-Mouth disease. The position supports the biocontainment facilities and may require entry into biosafety level (BSL) 3, 3 enhanced, 3 Ag and BSL-4 labs. The incumbent must demonstrate the physical and psychological capability to conduct normal duties that are appropriate to their position. To prevent the transmission of disease out of biocontainment and retention of the position, the incumbent must meet the following medical standards in a pre-employment medical examination conducted after the receipt of a preliminary job offer and on a periodic basis:
- Ability to shower out of biocontainment one or more times per day;
- Not have any skin condition which would prevent this;
- Body piercings must be able to be removed prior to entry;
- External medical assist devices must have the ability to be removed prior to entering or not impede the ability to enter biocontainment, and the individual must still be able to shower out safely without assistance;
- Ability to follow instructions regarding decontamination from biocontainment;
- Any medical condition which could create an unsafe environment for the individual or his/her co-workers, such as: insufficient control of a medical disorder which could result in sudden loss of consciousness; and inadequate vision and hearing required for safety in a laboratory environment.
Medical confidentiality will be maintained by the examining physician and only fitness (or unfit) for duty determination will be indicated. The incumbent will also be required to pass periodic fitness for duty physicals. In addition, a medical clearance will be required in the event that it becomes necessary to enter an area where an air purifying respirator or other respiratory protection is required. A baseline blood sample may be required for employees entering and working in the biocontainment facilities. For the health and safety of the incumbent and to prevent the spread of disease, immunization against diseases being studied at NBAF which are transmissible to humans may be required where the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for safety and effectiveness under the provision of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, as amended 21 USC 321-392. Where the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for investigational purposes, the incumbent will be advised that such immunization is voluntary.
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
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 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)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.)
How you will be evaluated You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
This is a Direct Hire Authority position. All applicants who meet the minimum qualifications, to include any selective placement factor(s), if applicable, will be referred to the selecting official. Before a certificate is issued to the selecting official, the resume is reviewed to ensure that you meet all the qualification requirements. A rating will not be used; veterans' preference does not apply due to the existence of the Direct Hire authority for this position.
Note: All answers provided in the on-line process must be substantiated by a resume. If, upon review, it is determined that your resume and/or supporting documents do not support your answer choices, your application may be removed from consideration.
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/13089622How to apply Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement.
Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages.
This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this.
To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents.
Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.
Other 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 based on an evaluation of the following competencies: Facilties Operations, General Engineering, Planning and Evaluating, and Technical Documentation. To be well-qualified, applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and must be proficient in most of the requirements of the job.
- This is a Testing Designated Position (TDP). Selectee must submit to a urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment and random testing thereafter. Final appointment/continued employment is conditional on negative results for illegal drug use.
- Selections made under this authority will be processed as new appointments to the civil service. Current civil service employees would therefore be given a new appointment to the civil service.
- If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied nor guaranteed.
- This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.
- If selected, you will be required to submit Form OGE-450 within 30 days of your initial appointment date, and annually thereafter. Selectee is subject to financial Disclosure Requirements in accordance with 5 CFR, Part 2635, Sub part E regarding business or personal transactions with applicants, borrowers, or business contacts who have or who are seeking business with this Agency. Selectee must be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance. If selected you will be subject to a National Agency Check and Inquiry (NACI) and a credit report.
- Due to the contagious nature to livestock of Foot-and-Mouth disease, and other diseases under study at NBAF, biosafety protocols specify a personal quarantine for employees working on specific infectious agents in designated areas of NBAF. As a condition for employment, all personnel entering these areas at NBAF shall not be in contact with specific susceptible animals and their premises away from NBAF for a period of five (5) days after leaving the area. Currently, restricted species are cattle, sheep, goats, deer, other ruminants, and swine. Contact with horses, birds (agricultural and pet birds) and rabbits are normally permitted, but restrictions may be placed on staff working with or near infectious agents affecting these species. Restricted livestock or other restricted animals may not be housed on the premises where the employee lives and where the quarantine cannot be enforced. Employees who violate this requirement may be removed from employment or subject to other disciplinary actions.
