This position is located in the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, , Oklahoma and Central Plains Agricultural Research Center, Agroclimate & Hydraulic Engineering Research Unit in El Reno, Oklahoma. In this position, you will be responsible for conducting research to develop technologies including support tools, computational models, and conservation structures to quantify, evaluate, and manage the effects of land use and conservation management practices.

Duties

Develops unique data collection methodologies utilizing field instrumentation including cloud-based technologies in the field to quantify the processes controlling surface and groundwater flow and their interactions. Conceives, plans, organizes, implements, and executes a research program covering broad applied and basic areas of remote-sensing, hydrologic, water erosion, and water quality research. Identifies, tests, and applies sophisticated and novel geochemical, isotopic, and other environmental tracers to track the transformation and transport of nutrients, chemicals, and sediments from the field to the stream to the reservoir. Develops methods for predicting and controlling sediment yield and other pollutants across field and watershed scales with broad, nationwide applicability. Formulates conceptual and analytical models and decision support tools to predict hydrologic flow paths in plots, farms, and edge of field. Utilize specialized instrumentation (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and water vehicles (UWVs), sensors, Jet Erodibility Test (JET) device, fiber optic probe, GIS-based survey equipment, automated water quality samplers, etc.). Analyzes data using statistical methods (e.g., linear, non-linear, multi-variate, time series, and geospatial analysis) and mathematical. Prepares written products based on research to be reviewed and published in professional refereed journals, guidance documents, conference proceedings, standards among others. Manages a research program, including personnel, equipment, and fiscal resources following agency’s mission and scientific procedures, requirements, and protocols. Supervises employees, to include setting performance standards, monitoring performance, and guiding subordinates.

Requirements

• You must be a US Citizen or US National.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
• Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
• Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/
• Successful completion of a three year probationary period.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. In addition to meeting the basic requirements, applicants must also meet additional qualification requirements as stated below GS-12 Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service or possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or possess an equivalent combination of graduate level education and experience. Graduate education must be directly related to the work of the position and must have equipped applicants with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-12 level of this position are: Participating in field research related to erosion processes, chemical (.e.g., pesticides and herbicides), nutrient, and sediment transport, and water quality; providing technical information and consultation pertinent to the project by presenting at professional society meetings within and outside the organization in the area of specialization; and authored recent peer-reviewed publications involving watershed research, field studies addressing water quality, soil quality, and geomorphic impacts on hydrologic processes. GS-13 Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-13 level of this position are: Identifying, testing, and applying sophisticated and novel geochemical, isotopic, and other environmental tracers to track the transformation and transport of nutrients, chemicals, and sediments from the field to the stream to the reservoir; developing data collection methodologies utilizing field instrumentation including cloud-based technologies in the field to quantify the processes controlling surface and groundwater flow and their interactions; formulating conceptual and analytical models and decision support tools to predict hydrologic flow paths in plots; authoring recent peer-reviewed publications involving watershed research, field studies addressing water quality, soil quality, and geomorphic impacts on hydrologic processes, and forming and maintaining collaborations with a variety of stakeholders from other federal state, or local agencies, academia, non-government organizations, industry partners, both domestic and/or international. GS-14 Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-14 level of this position are: Leading and conducting transdisciplinary field research in multiple complex projects that address productivity and sustainability at field to farm scales and environmental impacts of agricultural practices and systems at landscape to regional scales; designing and running field and laboratory experiments as it relates to soil erosion processes; sediment, chemical, or nutrient transport; water resources infrastructure including but not limited to dams, spillways, levees, channels, grade stabilization structures; computational and/or physical modeling; climate change; flood routing; hydrology; sedimentation; remote sensing; water quality; or monitoring, inspecting, and/or modeling open channel flow, conservation practices impact to sediment and nutrient transport; publishing research results involving watershed research, field studies addressing water quality, soil quality, and geomorphic impacts on hydrologic processes; and reporting results at professional meetings and in manuscripts presented for publication; managing a research program, including personnel, equipment and fiscal resources; and supervising employees, to include setting performance standards, monitoring performance and guiding subordinates. GS-15 Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-15 level of this position are: Managing transdisciplinary field research in multiple complex projects that address productivity and sustainability at field to farm scales and environmental impacts of agricultural practices and systems; developing methods for controlling or managing water, erosion, sediment yield or other pollutants across field or watersheds; conducts erosion processes, chemical (.e.g., pesticides and herbicides), nutrient, and sediment transport, and water quality; leading production systems on water quality and water resources decision making; quantifying interactive effects of land use and management on hydrologic and agricultural responses; developing new or enhanced prediction models to evaluate water, erosion and sediment yield from fields, streams, or impoundments in agricultural watersheds; and authoring reviews for national and international scientific peers for implementing evolving technologies, addressing water quality, soil quality, or geomorphic impacts on hydrologic processes; and working with stakeholders, commodity groups, industry partners and university collaborators. 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. To further support your qualifications, it is strongly recommended that you submit a one-page abstract of your MS thesis and/or Ph.D. dissertation. Failure to do so could result in loss of your consideration/referral. Also, please submit a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of persons familiar with your stature, contributions, recognition; any honors or awards received; memberships in professional or honor societies; invitations to make presentations at scientific/technical meetings; scientific society office and committee assignments; presentations (other than invitation); and publications. Applicants must be available to report for duty at the time a selection is made. Selections are typically made within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.

Education

Basic Requirements for Engineering Series GS0-0810-0890:
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
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), 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) 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.).

Basic Requirements for Hydrology Series GS-1315
Degree: physical or natural science, or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in any combination of courses in hydrology, the physical sciences, geophysics, chemistry, engineering science, soils, mathematics, aquatic biology, atmospheric science, meteorology, geology, oceanography, or the management or conservation of water resources. The course work must have included at least 6 semester hours in calculus (including both differential and integral calculus), and at least 6 semester hours in physics. Calculus and physics, as described above, are requirements for all grade levels.
OR
Combination of education and experience -- course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Experience: Acceptable experience must have included performance of scientific functions related to the study of water resources, based on and requiring a professional knowledge of related sciences and the consistent application of basic scientific principles to the solution of theoretical and practical hydrologic problems. The following is illustrative of acceptable experience: field or laboratory work that would require application of hydrologic theory and related sciences such as geology, geo-chemistry, geophysics, or civil engineering to making observations, taking samples, operating instruments, assembling data from source materials, analyzing and interpreting data, and reporting findings orally and in writing. In some cases, professional scientific experience that is not clearly water resource experience may be acceptable if such experience was preceded by appropriate education in hydrology or by professional hydrology experience.

Contacts

• Address Agricultural Research Service 2150 Centre Avenue Building D, Suite 300 Fort Collins, CO 80526 US
• Name: Matthew Knoche
• Phone: (571) 418-0373
• Email: [email protected]