Civil Engineer (Hydraulics)

• Provides expert technical analyses review mentoring and advice as a technical specialist in hydraulics and fluid mechanics in areas such as performance of spillways outlet works gates and valves hydraulic equipment penstocks turbines canals flow measurement devices and fish passage and protection features.
• Performs analyses related to complex hydraulic engineering problems such as cavitation transients in pipelines air entrainment energy dissipation canal operation and control and environmental hydraulics by planning directing and conducting laboratory studies with working scale models numerical models and field investigations.
• Serves as the research team leader developing and promoting the development of new technologies methods and standards of practice to advance the state-of-the-art in hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics and proposing planning and directing hydraulic research including laboratory numerical and field studies.
• Prepares and presents written reports research proposals and publications and performs peer review of technical studies issues and findings.
• Consults and coordinates with Reclamation staff stakeholders and external entities to resolve technical questions related to hydraulic design and performance presents highly technical results and analyses and serves on technical and interagency committees.
• Directs trains and mentors less experienced staff on engineering activities in the laboratory and field required for model development and testing such as advising on methods data collection and analyses.
• Leads technical teams and develops monitors and manages project plans for large hydraulic studies including outlining project scope schedule and budget and coordinating and communicating with other groups or offices.

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Males born aftermust be registered for Selective Service.
• Direct Deposit participation required.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more visit have a current Professional Engineer (PE) license by any State the District of Columbia Guam or Puerto Rico.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period to evaluate your fitness and whether your continuation of employment advances the public interest.

This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest meet the organization goals and mission of the agency and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the determining if your employment advances the public interest the agency will consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Under applicable law the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies in writing that the individuals employment should continue and that their appointment should be the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification in writing that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications:

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 09/29/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300 Subpart F.

For current Federal employees if hours worked per week are not included on your resume you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees your resume must state either full-time (or 40 hours a week) or part-time with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience.

Minimum Qualification Requirements: To qualify for this position you must meet the following minimum qualifications:
Basic Educational Requirement AND Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.

Basic Educational Requirements: In addition to the specialized experience requirements for this position you must meet at least one of the following:

Basic Requirements:
A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable the program must:
(1) lead to a bachelors 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)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 Boards 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)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.

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 bachelors degree in an appropriate scientific field e.g. engineering technology physics chemistry architecture computer science mathematics hydrology or geology maybe accepted in lieu of a bachelors 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.