Mechanical Engineer

Bureau-Wide (Bureau of Reclamation) - This is a Merit Promotion announcement for career and career conditional Bureau employees Career Transition eligibles (CTAP) Current or former time-limited employees eligible under Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) and those who are eligible under the hiring paths listed above. Refer to Required Documents section for more information.

Some of the major duties you will perform include but are not limited to the following:

• Provides expert advice technical expertise mentoring and consultative services for design procurement installation maintenance repair modification or replacement of large custom designed hydraulic control gates and discharge valves such as radial gates slide gates ring-follower gates knife gates jet-flow gates roller gates hollow-jet valves fixed-cone valves and associated hydraulic electric or manual operators for dams waterways pumping plants and hydroelectric generating plants.
• Performs peer review prepares complex and unique designs and teaches and mentors less experienced engineers producing new designs and design modifications installations solving complex design and operational problems.
• Direct large multidisciplinary teams with project funding coming from a variety of sources developing coordinated plans to address construction management activities and external client relations.
• Plans work to be accomplished coordinates and oversees work priorities and schedules and monitors budgets for on-going work.
• Provides a resource of mechanical in large hydraulic control gates discharge valves operators and associated equipment expertise for other TSC employees.
• Troubleshoots and advises on all types of field construction problems encountered mobilizes and coordinates the actions and resources of TSC staff and coordinates and integrates field construction staff in reaching or finding a solution.
• Instruct mentor and coordinate field and office engineering activities required for construction and data collection for design criteria construction site monitoring and administration of construction contracts.

• 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 possess and maintain a valid drivers license throughout employment.
• Professional Engineering (P.E.) registration is required for this position.

*Additional Requirements located under qualifications*

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 09/10/2026-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.

Individual Occupational Requirements: To qualify for this position you must meet the Individual Occupational Requirements:

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 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.)

To qualify for this position at the GS-14 grade level:

Experience: To qualify you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: Includes planning organizing and managing engineering projects including scheduling coordinating resources and ensuring timely high-quality deliverables. Reviewing or overseeing technical products (such as designs analyses reports or studies) to ensure accuracy adequacy and compliance with standards. Applying professional engineering/science knowledge relevant to mechanical engineering in support of water power hydropower pumping plant or related technical systems. You must include hours per week worked.