Summary The position serves as a Lead General Engineer under the leadership of the Regional Director. You will be responsible for guiding and managing the technical work of assigned team members, coordinating tasks to ensure timely completion, and serve as a point of contact for the team members and management. This position requires strong leadership skills, excellent communication abilities, and a proactive approach to problem-solving. Duties
The Lead General Engineer:
- Gives expert advice and guidance in the implementation and completion of technical studies related to project development.
- Observes progress, verifies compliance with FTA requirements, regulations, and contract specifications and provides advice on problems and correction of deficiencies to ensure that recipients are meeting project schedules; ensures the implementation of relevant federal statutory and regulatory requirements.
- Provides senior engineering and project management assistance on a variety of complex capital, operating, recovery, and resiliency projects to ensure that projects remain on schedule and within budget and scope.
- Reviews and evaluates Project Management Plans, Real Estate Acquisition Management Plans, Contract Packaging Plans, Quality Management Plans, Force Account plans, monthly status reports, etc., to identify potential risks and violations of federal laws, regulations, and policies, and to ensure that projects remain on schedule, on budget, and within an agreed upon scope.
- Articulates and communicates to the Team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and timeframes for completion.
The ideal candidate for this position is an engineer who is looking for an excellent opportunity to join the Federal Transit Administration, work with transportation officials and meet the challenges of advancing transit systems. The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills and the ability to lead and provide specialized engineering assistance to the grantees, program managers, and senior staff to resolve problems and ensure successful delivery of Federal funded projects.
Qualifications
To meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must (1) meet the Education Requirement for the series, (2) provide a copy of transcripts for verification, AND (3) meet the education and experience qualifications for the grade at which you are requesting consideration.
To qualify for the GS-14, you must have at least one year of experience equal or equivalent to the GS-13, it must include:
- Experience leading, coordinating, and/or overseeing a group of individuals or a team by communicating assignments, projects, timeline due dates, and solving program issues.
- Experience verifying compliance with requirements, regulations, and contract specifications to ensure the implementation of relevant federal statutory and regulatory requirements.
- Experience analyzing, evaluating and proposing recommendations to engineering and project management problems, and presenting the findings to other employees or senior management officials.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (KSAs): Your qualifications will be evaluated on the basis of your level of knowledge, skills, abilities and/or competencies in the following areas:
- Project Management: Knowledge of the principles, methods, or tools for developing, scheduling, coordinating, and managing projects and resources, including monitoring and inspecting costs, work, and contractor performance.
- Compliance: Knowledge of procedures for assessing, evaluating, and monitoring programs or projects for compliance with Federal laws, regulations, and guidance.
- Oral Communication: Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
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.
For additional information about applying to Federal positions, please click on the following link: https://www.opm.gov/frequently-asked-questions/employment-faq/federal-hiring/how-do-i-apply-for-federal-jobs/
All applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.
Education
MANDATORY EDUCATION 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. <B>OR</b>
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) 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). All applicants must meet the education requirements under A or B to qualify for applying to an engineering position. Transcripts are required for this position.
Requirements
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:
As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:
- your performance and conduct;
- the needs and interests of the agency;
- whether your continued employment would advance the organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
- whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
- SELECTIVE SERVICE: Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for the Selective Service.
- GOVERNMENT TRAVEL CARD: This position involves travel. A government contractor-issued travel card will be issued and must be retained for official business only.
- BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION: A background security investigation is required for all selected individuals. Appointment will be subject to the applicant’s successful completion of the security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.
- PROBATIONARY PERIOD: Applicants may be required to successfully complete a one-year probationary period (unless already completed).
How you will be evaluated DESCRIBE YOUR EXPERIENCE: Please be clear and specific when describing your experience, as HR evaluates applications strictly on the facts provided and will not make assumptions. To receive full credit, your narrative responses must be written in paragraph format and explicitly match your resume. Begin each response by listing the exact position title, organization, employment dates (MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY), full- or part-time status, average weekly hours, and federal series/grade (if applicable). Within the body of the paragraph, clearly describe your specific duties, actions taken, tools used, and measurable outcomes. HR will cross-check these details against your resume; if your resume does not fully support every claim and timeframe, the experience will not be considered for credit, which may result in an ineligible determination.
All applicants: Your application will be reviewed in two phases determine how you move forward in the hiring process. Phase I: Your resume will be reviewed to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. ONLY two (2) pages of your resume will be reviewed. Additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume) will not be reviewed. Applicants passing “Phase I” will move on to the “Phase II” of the assessment process where your application will be reviewed and rated based on the KSAs/Competencies listed in the vacancy announcement by a Subject Matter Expert (SME).
You may preview questions for this vacancy. How to apply To be considered, you must submit all required resume details and applicable documents no later than 11:59 (EST) by the closing date of the announcement.
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If you are having difficulty applying online, please contact the DOT Automated Staffing Office via email at: Transjobs@dot.gov Other information The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits the Department of Transportation and its Operating Administrations from requesting an applicant's criminal history record before that individual receives a conditional offer of employment. In accordance with 5 U.S. Code § 9202(c) and 5 C.F.R § 920.201 certain positions are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Chance to Compete Act. Applicants who believe they have been subjected to a violation of the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, may submit a written complaint to the Department of Transportation by email at, FairChanceAct@dot.gov. To learn more, please visit our page at: The Fair Chance to Compete Act | US Department of Transportation
This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if similar vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.