Explore a new career with the BLM - where our people are our most precious resource. This position is located at the Idaho State Office in Boise, Idaho. To learn about Boise and the surrounding areas, click here. Remote work is NOT an option for this position. This position is permanently on-site in a BLM office in Southern Idaho which will be negotiated upon selection. If the selected BLM office cannot host the position, the selectee would be notified and offered the default location in Boise.

Duties

Provide expert leadership and geological and mining engineering advice, guidance, and technical support to BLM leadership and staff for one or more minerals program areas. Review and provide policy guidance and quality control for permitting actions and associated analysis documents (e.g., Environmental Impact Statements, Environmental Analyses). Monitor and perform program audits to ensure internal consistency, assess staffing and training levels, and facilitate compliance with general Bureau regulations as well as State Office policies and procedures by the field offices. Perform mineral examinations such as mineral patent and validity examinations, common variety determinations, and mineral in character determinations. Develop policy and technical standards to be applied statewide for their program area and conducts studies and analyses on complex technical geological and mining engineering issues. Provide written and oral assistance to BLM mineral adjudicators, public room employees, customers, field offices, and other Federal agency minerals staff on questions concerning mineral resources on public lands. Represent the State Director at meetings of business, professional, governmental, educational, and scientific and various user and interest groups. Develop portions of the State’s long-range programming for the minerals programs. Provide statewide oversight and coordination of reclamation bonding and associated reviews.

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.
• 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.
• You must obtain and maintain qualifications as a BLM Certified Review Mineral Examiner (CRME) and Certified Mineral Examiner (CME). The CME and CRME certification must be completed within 5 years of selection or as soon as practicable afterward.

Qualifications

In addition to meeting the Individual Occupational Requirement (see Education section) and in order to be rated as qualified for this position, we must be able to determine that you meet the specialized experience requirement. Please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience. For GS-12: You must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-11 grade level that is equivalent in difficulty and complexity. Specialized experience for this position includes but is not limited to: 1) interpreting laws, regulations, policies, or procedures related to at least one of the following minerals program areas: locatable, fluid (e.g., geothermal), non-energy leasable (e.g., phosphate), or salable minerals; 2) preparing written reports and briefing management or external customers on technical minerals topics; 3) reviewing minerals plans and preparing environmental analysis documents as part of an interdisciplinary team; 4) inspecting mining operations and reclamation activities. For GS-13: You must possess one (1) full year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the GS-12 grade level that is equivalent in difficulty and complexity. Specialized experience for this position includes but is not limited to: 1) interpreting and applying laws, regulations, policies, or procedures related to at least two of the following minerals program areas: locatable, fluid (e.g., geothermal), non-energy leasable (e.g., phosphate), or salable minerals; 2) communicating with internal and external customers including organizational leaders on minerals issues; 3) reviewing minerals plans and environmental analysis documents; 4) evaluating mineral resources; 5) managing a budget for an office, program, or project. 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. Federal employees in the competitive service are also subject to the Time-In-Grade requirement in accordance with 5 CFR 300.604. If you are a current Federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks at the next lower grade level. Physical Demands: Although most of the work is in the office, occasionally the incumbent conducts studies in the field or observation of work operations in surface and underground mining operations. The incumbent is required to travel by 4-wheel drive vehicle or on foot over rugged, slippery, and/or hazardous terrain and perform duties that require recurring bending, crouching, stooping, reaching, or lifting. Work may occasionally include lifting of moderately heavy items such as equipment and samples that weigh up to 50 pounds. Work Environment: The work is performed primarily in an office setting. However, when necessary to complete the work, there may be outdoor exposure to extreme temperatures and inclement weather, as well as topographic extremes. The incumbent may be subjected to hostile wildlife, chemical and physical hazards. Fieldwork can involve rocky, steep terrain or underground mines that are dark, wet, cold, and dangerous. The use of protective safety equipment (i.e., hard hats, steel-toed shoes, and safety glasses) is mandatory when visiting mine sites. The incumbent will adhere to all safety rules and regulations as prescribed in manuals/supplements or by the designated Safety Officer.

Education

You must first meet one of the following Individual Occupational Requirements to be eligible for this position:

For the Mining Engineering Series:
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 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 all inclusive.)

For the Geology Series:
A. Degree: geology, plus 20 additional semester hours in any combination of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biological science, structural, chemical, civil, mining or petroleum engineering, computer science, planetary geology, comparative planetology, geophysics, meteorology, hydrology, oceanography, physical geography, marine geology, and cartography. -OR-

B. Combination of education and experience -- course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Experience: Acceptable experience may have been gained through geological field or laboratory work that provided a means of obtaining professional knowledge of the theory and application of the principles of geology and closely related sciences, e.g., geophysics, geochemistry, or hydrology. Such work generally must have involved making close observations, taking samples, handling various types of instruments and equipment, assembling geologic data from source materials, and analyzing and reporting findings orally and in writing. Experience that involved only one phase of geology work, e.g., collecting samples, would not be acceptable as providing the required professional knowledge of the theory and principles of geology. In some situations, professional scientific experience in other fields may be accepted in part as professional geological experience. Such experience must have been preceded by appropriate education in geology or by professional geological experience, and must have contributed directly and significantly to the applicant's professional geological competence. Examples include some positions in geophysics, mining engineering, soils science, physical oceanography, hydrology, climatology, biology, analytic or experimental chemistry, metallurgy, and comparable fields where the normal duties or results of investigations have been extended to the solution of geologic problems by the applicant. Ordinary functions of positions such as seismic, computer, petroleum or mining engineer, mine superintendent, or metallurgist generally are not considered professional geological experience. To receive credit for geological experience obtained in positions that are not full-time professional geological positions, the applicant is responsible for indicating clearly the actual time or percentage of time devoted to geologic duties within such positions, and for giving adequate descriptions of the geologic functions.

Contacts

• Address BLM Idaho State Office BLM Idaho State Office, ID-953 1387 South Vinnell Way Boise, ID 83709-3904 US
• Name: Idaho HR
• Phone: 208-373-3921
• Email: [email protected]