CIVIL ENGINEER

Bureau of Reclamation; Lakewood (CO); On-site; USD 95,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

The Bureau of Reclamation seeks a Civil Engineer for the Department of the Interior to support the Technical Service Center’s Plant Structures, Civil Structures, Construction Management and Specifications, Geotechnical, and Materials and Corrosion Laboratory groups in Lakewood, CO.

Minimum qualifications include an ABET‑accredited engineering degree or equivalent, plus specialized experience in planning, organizing, and managing engineering projects with emphasis on timely deliverables.

Qualifications

• Engineering degree with ABET accreditation or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Current professional registration or licensure or passing FE exam for progression.
• Ability to document hours worked per week for qualification credit.

Skills

Project planning

Scheduling

Resource coordination

Quality deliverables

Technical product review

Civil engineering knowledge

Education

ABET-accredited engineering degree

Professional registration or licensure (EI/EIT/PE)

Job description

You will serve as a CIVIL ENGINEER for the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.
Vacancies are available within the Technical Service Center's Plant Structures, Civil Structures, Construction Management and Specifications, Geotechnical, and Materials and Corrosion Laboratory groups.

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/12/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

To receive credit for experience, 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. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

This position requires a special qualification that has been determined to be essential to perform the duties and will be used as a screen out element. If you do not provide evidence that you possess the following selective factor(s), you will be rated not qualified.

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:

• 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. 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) , 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.
  2. 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.
  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 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.)

To qualify for this position at the GS‑12 grade level:

Specialized Experience Requirement

You must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS‑11 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 or programs, including scheduling, coordinating resources, and ensuring timely, high‑quality deliverables. Reviewing or development of technical products (such as designs, analyses, reports, or studies) to ensure accuracy, adequacy, and compliance with standards. Applying professional engineering and science related knowledge relevant to civil engineering in support of water storage and conveyance, water treatment, hydropower, pumping plant, or related technical systems. You must include hours per week worked.

Volunteer 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.