Mechanical Engineer

Summary

This position is in Grand Coulee Power Office of the Bureau of Reclamation, within the Department of the Interior. The incumbent serves as an experienced mechanical engineer, providing mentorship and technical expertise for a variety of complex projects and activities at Grand Coulee Dam, the nation's largest hydropower facility, and the source of water for the Columbia Basin Project, serving irrigation water to more than 670,000 acres in Eastern Washington State.

Duties

At the full performance level (GS-12) the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to Technical Consultation and Guidance; Reviewing; and Engineering Analysis: Technical Consultation and Guidance: Provides technical expertise, mentorship, training, and advice to engineers, technicians, management, and internal and external stakeholders; contributes to engineering policies, technical guidelines, standards, procedures, and project objectives; and collaborates with technical teams and external partners to address complex mechanical engineering issues. Reviewing: Conducts and supports technical and peer reviews of designs, drawings, engineering analyses, specifications, cost estimates, contract documents, and related correspondence. Verifies technical accuracy, constructability, compliance with applicable policies and standards, and adherence to quality assurance requirements before documents are approved or accepted. Engineering Analysis: Performs advanced mechanical engineering studies and evaluations involving planning, data collection, modeling, risk analysis, instrumentation data, design development, diagnostic testing, commissioning, and operational support. Develops procedures and recommendations for unique or complex problems; evaluates equipment and systems; supports acceptance testing and maintenance activities; and prepares or reviews cost estimates for significant projects. At the GS-11 level, the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to Technical Consultation and Guidance; Reviewing; and Engineering Analysis Technical Consultation and Guidance: Provides technical support, guidance, and training to junior engineers, technicians, and internal partners. Assists in interpreting engineering analyses, supports team discussions, and assists senior engineers in developing technical standards and guidelines. At this level, consultation is advisory and collaborative-focused on reinforcing established policies and contributing to technical decision-making under the oversight of senior engineers. Reviewing: Conducts and assists in technical reviews and peer reviews of designs, drawings, calculations, specifications, cost estimates, and engineering analyses. Ensures technical accuracy, completeness, and adherence to applicable codes and standards. Confirms compliance with quality assurance requirements and assists in ensuring documents are ready for technical approval. Engineering Analysis: performs and coordinates engineering analyses that include technical planning, data collection, modeling, troubleshooting, and risk estimation. Provides engineering recommendations based on conventional and well-established methods. Provides analyses supporting feasibility studies, preliminary and final design work, contractor design submittals, equipment evaluations, and field acceptance testing. Assignments may involve multiple systems or complex facilities, applying established methodologies and precedents to address problems. Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level. This is an open continuous announcement in which applications are accepted over several months and reviewed according to multiple cut-off dates. Applicants who apply by the initial cut-off date will receive first consideration. The first cut-off date is 11:59 pm ET, 10/20/2026. Applicants will have 5 days to complete the required USA Hire Assessment after receiving the assessment notice. Applications will continue to be reviewed throughout the open period; however, additional referral certificates will only be issued when a hiring official has exhausted a current certificate and/or when additional vacancies arise. Final application disposition will be completed once all positions have been filled or the announcement reaches the end of the open period stated in the announcement.

Qualifications

Requirements Continued... Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Qualifications: All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-01/05/2027-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: To qualify for this position, you must meet the following minimum qualifications: Basic Educational Requirement AND/OR 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: Successfully completed a bachelor's or higher degree in Engineering in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). OR Successfully completed a bachelor's or higher degree in Engineering that included 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 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: 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