Explore a new career with the BLM - where our people are our most precious resource. This position is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Information about Salt Lake City and the surrounding area can be found here. We expect to fill one vacancy at this time; however, additional positions may be filled from this announcement if they become available.

Duties

This position serves as the Mining Engineer Coal Program Lead for the Utah Division of Lands and Minerals, Branch of Solid Minerals. Provides guidance, including writing Instruction Memorandums and Information Bulletins, oversight of the coal program, coal land use planning, tract delineation, and project National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis. Prepares Geologic and Engineering Reports for leasing and lease modifications. Prepares Fair Market Value Reports using Income approach (Discounted Cash Flow), Market approach (comparable sales), and/or Cost approach for minerals either sold, leased (includes lease modifications) or exchanged. Prepares and presents briefings to Federal agencies, State agencies, and the public concerning the federal coal management program. Resolves sensitive issues on complex public land matters related to mineral development. Reviews major, unique, or controversial exploration plans, mine plans (Resource Recovery and Protection Plans), engineering reports, and environmental studies to ensure conformance with laws and regulations. Coordinates with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) and Division of Oil, Gas and Mining on mining plans and permitting issues and Utah Geologic Survey on resource information. Provides consultation, training, and engineering technical guidance in coal exploration, leasing, development, operation, and Inspection and Enforcement/Production Verification principles necessary to manage the public lands. Responds to Congressional inquiries requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), assist with administrative records for court proceedings, and provides information for response to the State Director or Director’s Office. Manage and provide direction on geologic and engineering data systems and mining applications such as modeling software to independently determine maximum economic recovery for mine plan approval and production verification. Assist the locatable, abandoned mine and salable programs with engineering evaluations as needed.

Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship is required.
• Be sure to read the How to Apply and Required Documents Sections.
• You cannot hold an active real estate license: nor can you have an interest or hold stocks in firms with interest in Federal Lands.
• Direct Deposit Required.
• Appointment will be subject to a favorably adjudicated background/suitability investigation/determination.
• Your resume must contain enough information to show that you meet the qualification requirements as defined in the announcement. In addition, your responses to the questions must adequately reflect in your resume.
• If selected for this position, you will be required to annually complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450 within 30 days of reporting to duty. You will be required to provide this information annually.
• An applicant appointed to this position must possess (or obtain within 30 days of entrance on duty) and maintain a valid state driver's license while employed in this position.
• May require a one year probationary period.

Qualifications

Selective Placement Factors: 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. Those who do not provide evidence they possess the following selective factor(s) will be rated not qualified: Applicant must be able to possess and maintain a valid driver's license to drive a government vehicle. Applicant must either be or become a BLM mineral mine inspector within one year of obtaining the position. This includes the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) 40-hour Underground and Surface New Miner and Coal and Other Solid Leasable Minerals Mine Inspector Certification Course. In order to be rated as qualified for this position, we must be able to determine that you meet the qualification requirements - please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience. In addition to the Basic Education requirements, to qualify at the GS-13 level you must meet the following: Specialized Experience: Applicants must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-12 level comparable in difficulty and complexity to perform the duties of a Mining Engineer. Qualifying specialized experience includes: reviewing or evaluating exploration, development, and production plans for compliance with regulations, safety, and environmental factors; examining mineral properties utilizing software tools which may include ArcMap, AutoCAD, Carlson, Vulcan, or other similar software; analyzing the geological formations to determine if geological features above and below the mineralized zone will require a specialized mine design; writing inspection reports or similar reports for technical and regulatory adequacy by incorporating figures, maps, and pictures for clarification; and calculating and/or writing evaluations for current mineral values utilizing the principles of Income (Discounted Cash Flow or DCF), Market (comparable sales) or Cost approach to determine Fair Market Value (FMV). Please note there are no educational substitutions at this grade level. 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. You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of the announcement. Physical Demands: The work is usually sedentary in an office environment, requiring high concentration levels and subjected to pressures associated with meeting deadlines and sudden shifts in workload priorities. Work performed with production oversight may involve regular and recurring District and Field Office visits with concomitant on-site inspections. Field and inspection work may include walking, lifting items weighing less than 50 pounds, or driving a 4x4 vehicle over rough terrain during extreme weather conditions. Work Environment: The work environment in the office typically involves completing technical work in a short time frame. These short time frames and heavy workloads commonly involve relatively high-stress situations. Fieldwork and inspections may include walking or driving over rough terrain in harsh weather conditions. Fieldwork requires frequent surface and underground mining operations visits, necessarily exposing the employee to hazardous mine conditions, complex and dangerous mobile mining machinery, large trucks, blasting operations, drilling equipment, etc. Underground in coal mines will be dark, wet, and cold in the winter, with uneven surfaces and electrical cables on the floor and the mine roof. Safety equipment such as goggles, steel-toe shoes or boots, and self-rescuers is mandatory during these visits. The incumbent will require a working knowledge of MSHA and OSHA regulations and will be required to take self-rescuer and other mine safety training as needed. There may be times when assisting with non-energy inspections, including very narrow (down to 18" in width) and small enclosed workspaces in underground vein-type deposits or climbing sets of ladders up to 299 feet or more, are required in some cases. Understanding ventilation principles of airflow, oxygen-deficient air or carbon dioxide (CO2) (sometimes called black damp) limits, methane (CH4) explosive limits (sometimes called firedamp), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exposure limits (sometimes called stink damp), and carbon monoxide (CO) (sometimes called white damp) limits are required.

Education

This position has a positive education requirement which requires that you have:

• 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) 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:

1. Professional registration or licensure - Current registration as an Engineering 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 through a State Board's eminence provision as a 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 specifies in the basic requirements above. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described above.
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.)

Contacts

• Address BLM Utah State Office BLM Utah State Office, UT-953 400 West 200 South Suite 500 Salt Lake City, UT 84101 US
• Name: BLM Utah HR Recruitment Team
• Email: [email protected]