General Engineer (Cost Engineer)

The General Engineer (Cost Engineer) will serve as the senior Cost Estimator with responsibility for providing expert advice and guidance on a comprehensive cost engineering program for the Facilities Capital Program and the Repair Restoration and Alternation of Facilities Program within the Smithsonian Institution.

In this position you will:

• Provide professional and technical input during the preparation of cost estimates for major and minor construction projects.
• Participate in and/or conducts Value Engineering (VE) studies in accordance with Public Law.
• Review analyze and negotiate contractors proposals and bids to ensure quality and compliance with contract requirements and scope of work and to arrive at an equitable contract amount.
• Resolve issues problems and complexities related to projects that could affect the project cost such as incomplete scopes of work; construction schedules; and procurement methodologies.
• Prepare risk analysis of construction costs to assess the impact of political economic or other pricing influences on construction projects.
• Delegate team members responsibilities in accordance with supervisor for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the division.

• Requires career/career-conditional status or eligibility.
• Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.

Conditions of Employment

Qualification requirements including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date. See the Required Documents section for additional information.

For information on qualification requirements seeQualification Standards Handbook forGeneral Schedule Positionsviewable on OPM Website.

You must meet these Basic Education Requirements:(You must submit a copy of your transcript to show evidence of meeting this requirement in order to receive further consideration)

1. 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

1. 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:
2. 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.
3. Written Test-- Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE)2 examination or any other written test required for professional 1 For more information about EI and EIT registration requirements please visit the National Society of Professional Engineers website at: . 2 The FE examination is not administered by the U. S. Office of Personnel Management. For more information please visit: 2 registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States the District of Columbia Guam and Puerto Rico.
4. 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.
5. 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 may be 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. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

In addition to the basic qualification requirement above:

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 level in the Federal Service. For this position specialized experience is defined as experience in cost management and estimating; leading a cross-function team to develop project scope schedules and costs using forecasting scheduling techniques and risk analysis; and experience using concepts and principles of the construction industry and procurement strategies.

Your resume must be no more than two (2) pages and should clearly demonstrate how your experience aligns with the responsibilities and specialized experience required for this position. Do not copy language directly from the vacancy announcement as you will be deemed ineligible for consideration. Instead provide detailed descriptive information about your actual experience.

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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

Special Instructions for Foreign Education: If you are qualifying by education and/or you have education completed in a foreign college/university described above it is your responsibility to provide transcripts and proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study. For instructions on where to fax these documents see the Required Documents section of this announcement.

Or a Combination: Education and experience may be combined to meet the basic qualifications; For a full explanation of this option please see the Qualification Standards.

In aneffort to streamline our hiring process SI employees whose current position of record is in the same job series (801) and who are in a Federal competitive appointmentas this advertised position are not required to submit a transcript with your application package. However if selected you will be required to provide a copy of your transcript before your start date in the position.

Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures anyindividual who is currently holding or who has held within the previous 52 weeks a GeneralSchedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted servicemust meet time-in-grade requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of thegrade for which you are applying).