Facilities Engineer

US-Agricultural-Research-Servic; Athens (GA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) in Athens, GA seeks a Facilities Engineer to support the USNPRC Facilities Operations Director in maintaining complex biosafety and biocontainment facilities and general physical infrastructure.

The role requires applying mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering principles, interpreting blueprints and system drawings, and developing project requirements and scopes of work for repairs, renovations, and new construction, including projects

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• ABET-accredited program or coursework covering core engineering areas.
• Professional registration/licensure (EI/EIT/PE) or FE exam completed.
• Educational background must include calculus and engineering science.

Skills

Engineering principles

Blueprints & drawings

Project management

Facility operations

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

ABET-accredited program

FE exam or licensure (EI/EIT/PE)

Related curriculum with 60+ credits in engineering sciences

Job description

This position is located within the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Southeast Area, US National Poultry Research Center (USNPRC), Athens, GA.

The primary purpose of the position is to provide professional engineering services to the USNPRC Facilities Operations Director in support of that official's responsibilities in the overall operations and maintenance of USNPRC special purpose biosafety and biocontainment facilities and general physical facilities. Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

Basic Requirements for Facilities Engineer, GS-0801:

You must have either a degree in 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

You must have a 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 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 allinclusive.)

AND

In addition to the basic requirements above, all applicants must also meet the following minimum qualification requirements:

Specialized Experience:

Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the Facilities Engineer, GS-0801-13 is at least one year of specialized experience comparable to at least the GS-12 grade level, in the federal government, or its non-Federal equivalent, which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is described as experience applying mechanical, electrical, and civil engineering principles to operate and maintain complex biosafety and biocontainment facilities, laboratories, and animal housing; interpreting building blueprints and system drawings; developing Project Requirement Documents (PRDs) and Scopes of Work (SOWs) for facility repair, construction, and renovation; and managing projects and construction activities; and managing construction projects valued greater than $3 million and conducting facility condition assessments to prepare capital project plans.

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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.