Civil Engineer

Bureau of Reclamation; McCook (NE); On-site; USD 78,000 - 112,000; Full time

Job summary

Bureau of Reclamation in the United States invites applications for a Civil Engineer to help manage, develop, and protect water resources in the West. The position emphasizes environmentally and economically sound stewardship of public resources and requires meeting federal education and experience standards.

Basic Education Requirements include an ABET-accredited engineering degree and, where applicable, professional registration or equivalent demonstrated by FE exam, licensure, or 60 semester

Qualifications

• ABET-accredited engineering program with a bachelor’s degree.
• Combination of education and experience meeting FE exam or PE licensure requirements.
• Specialized experience at GS-11 level or higher, overseeing infrastructure projects.

Skills

Engineering principles

Project coordination

Education

ABET-accredited engineering program

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Job description

Reclamation is seeking a career professional looking for an opportunity to capitalize on their expertise as a Civil Engineer. Make a difference in the West by assisting with managing, developing, and protecting water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public.

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.

Basic Educational Requirement AND/OR Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.

Basic 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 or more program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET);
  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 professional 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), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico;
  • Written test -- evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam or the written test required for professional registration;
  • 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. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described in paragraph A;
  • Related curriculum -- successful completion of 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.

Specialized Experience: One full year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service or its non-Federal equivalent including experience providing oversight for the design or management of infrastructure projects and coordinating related projects and agreements with external groups such as Federal and state agencies or private organizations.

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; philanthro