CIVIL ENGINEER

Bureau of Reclamation; Provo (UT); On-site; USD 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

Bureau of Reclamation seeks engineering professionals for civil/structural projects at GS-11/12 level. You will prepare construction cost estimates, create CAD drawings, and write project specifications for dams, spillways and related works.

A PE license (or eligibility) and specialized experience are required, with potential for combined education to meet qualifications. Qualified candidates may contribute to contract plans, review project drawings, and mentor junior staff, while applying

Qualifications

• Engineering degree required with ABET accreditation or equivalent.
• Specialized experience in cost estimates for civil projects and CAD design.
• Licensure such as PE, or eligibility, is required for higher grades.

Skills

Cost estimation

CAD software

Writing specifications

Construction experience

Education

ABET-accredited engineering degree

Bachelor's degree in engineering

Tools

CAD software

Job description

Qualifications:

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 10/08/2026 - 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.

Minimum Qualification Requirements

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.
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 whoachieved 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)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 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.)

-AND- Specialized experience at the GS-11 level:

To qualify for this position at the GS-11, you must possess one year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-9 level in the Federal Service having demonstrated experience performing the following: preparing construction cost estimates from planning to the final Cost Estimate (Engineer's Estimate or Contractor Bid Proposal Estimate) for the construction of
one or more of the following: recreation facilities, earth dams, spillways, water diversion structures, pipelines, buildings, and/or bridges; using computer aided design (CAD) software in creating surfaces, alignments, corridors, and/or grading objects; writing specifications for the construction of heavy civil
projects.OR
Education: Successful completion of at least 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. (Degree must reflect the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work.). You must include transcripts.OR
Combination: You may combine specialized experience and education to meet the minimum qualifications.

Specialized experience at the GS-12 level:

To qualify for this position at the GS-12 grade level, you must possess a Professional Engineering (PE) License and one full year of professional experience equivalent to the GS-11 level in the Federal Service having demonstrated specialized experience performing the following: designing dams, retaining walls, and structures such as sheet pile and reinforced concrete; developing contract plans with specifications for civil and structural portions of a project; utilizing computer aided design (CAD) software to prepare contract drawings; reviewing and evaluating the work of engineering team members.

Professional Engineering registration is required by Reclamation Policy (GS-12 level only).

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.