Summary Join our team as a Fire Protection Engineer, located in the prestigious Architect of the Capitol (AOC), Superintendent, Library Buildings and Grounds (LBG), Assistant Superintendent Facilities Support Division. You'll be entrusted with the role of an esteemed expert, overseeing fire protection systems for LBG. Your responsibilities will encompass the planning, design, construction, modification, operation, and maintenance of fire protection systems across various facilities and structures. Responsibilities The Fire Protection Engineer assists the Supervisory Fire Protection Engineer, Facilities Support Division with the fire protection systems, fire alarm systems and utilities in the Library Buildings and Grounds. Fire Protection Engineering Support Performs major, complex phases of specific assignments or projects designed to accomplish comprehensive goals of Fire Protection Engineering. Provides assistance to lower grade employees and exercises overall responsibility for assigned projects. Typical assignments may include: Surveying existing fire protection and fire alarm systems. Developing details of working drawings and preparing preliminary cost estimates for assigned features. Developing alternate layouts to determine feasibility, economy, suitability, and practicability of the current design. Developing conceptual solutions to improve design features. Identifies problems concerning fire protection systems, features of structures, and reviews shop drawings prepared by contractors to ensure compliance with contract requirements and national codes, calling attention to instances of non-compliance, modifications required, etc. Conducts regular interactions with other division staff and staff in other organizations in order to complete work assignments. Project Management With minor oversight, performs project management tasks such as: Developing project schedules, budgets, and coordination. Monitors project goals and objectives for timely completion. Identifies and reports items that are out of tolerance to Supervisory Fire Protection Engineer, Facilities Support Division. Identifies potential solutions to project challenges. Demonstrates ability to coordinate and collaborate with other trades to achieve project objectives. Program Management With minor oversight, performs program management tasks such as: developing approaches and processes for correcting regulatory and operating deficiencies. Records and tracks progress on the completion of the deficiency correction and provides periodic reports. Identifies and reports items that are out of tolerance to Supervisory Fire Protection Engineer, Facilities Support Division. Identifies potential solutions to program challenges. Demonstrates ability to coordinate and collaborate with other trades to achieve project objectives. Performs contractor oversight duties as a Contractor Office Technical Representative (COTR), modifying or rejecting task plans and other deliverables for fire protection systems. Evaluates overall effectiveness and assesses technical design submissions for compliance with national codes. Responsible for design and configuration of fire protection systems and final acceptance or rejection of fire protection system installations and modifications. Evaluates and approves all fire protection system requirements and operational procedures, preventive maintenance tasks, inspection plans, repairs, corrections, tests and priorities. Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be able to pass a drug test. Your resume and question responses must demonstrate the job-related KSAs. You must meet the definition of specialized experience. You must meet the education requirements. To be employed by the Architect of the Capitol in a paid position, an individual must meet one of the categories below: A citizen of the United States; A person who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence and is seeking citizenship as outlined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)(B); A person who is admitted as a refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157 or is granted asylum under 8 U.S.C. 1158 and has filed a declaration of intention to become a lawful permanent resident and then a citizen when eligible; A person who owes allegiance to the United States (nationals of American Samoa, Swains Island, and the Northern Mariana Islands, and nationals who meet other requirements described in 8 U.S.C. 1408); or A person who is currently an officer or employee of the Government of the United States Qualifications You must meet the United States Office of Personnel Management's (OPM) qualification requirements (including specialized experience and/or educational requirements) for the advertised position. You must meet all eligibility and qualifications requirements by the closing date of the job announcement. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on the OPM web site at OPM qualification standards Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level. Candidates for the GS-13 grade level must have at least 52 weeks of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as performing the following under minor oversight: Designing modifications to existing suppression systems and fire alarm systems in support of space renovation; Assessing and articulating compliance or non-compliance of projects during planning, design and construction phases Providing project management on the execution of fire protection focused system improvements and upgrades; and Performing contractor oversight functions as a Contractor Office Technical Representative (COTR). Education A. Degree: professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must: (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; 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: 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. 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. 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. 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 additional information on General Schedule Qualifications Standards for professional engineering positions, please visit: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/0800/files/all-professional-engineering-positions-0800.pdf Special Instructions for Foreign Education: Education completed outside of the United States must be deemed equivalent to that gained in conventional/accredited U.S. education programs to be acceptable for Federal employment. Qualifying education from colleges and universities in foreign countries must be evaluated in terms of equivalency to that acquired in U.S. colleges and universities. Applicants educated in whole or in part of foreign countries must submit sufficient evidence, including transcripts, to an accredited private organization for an equivalency evaluation of course work and degree. You must provide a copy of the letter containing the results of the equivalency evaluation with a course by course listing if selected. A copy of your transcript(s) will be required upon selection Additional Information Welcome Veterans. The Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) gives veterans' preference rights in the legislative branch to certain veterans as applied by the Congressional Accountability Act. Veterans' preference is applied on this vacancy announcement. If you are a veteran and have been separated under honorable conditions, you must submit a copy of your DD-214 or other proof of eligibility; SF-15, if applicable; and Department of Veterans Affairs documentation of disability, if applicable. For more information, please visit OPM vet guide If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service System. If you are exempt from registration under Selective Service Law, you must provide appropriate proof of exemption. Please visit the Selective Service System website for more information. DRUG TESTING: The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) is a Drug Free Workplace. As part of the AOC’s suitability assessment, a candidate tentatively selected for a position who is not currently an AOC employee is required to submit to screening for illegal drug use. Satisfactory completion of a drug test is a condition of employment with the Agency. A candidate must test negative prior to being eligible for appointment into a position. We will schedule, provide and cover the cost for the drug test. The selectee(s) under the vacancy announcement for this position is subject to a criminal record check by the U.S. Capitol Police and satisfactory adjudication to be eligible for employment at the Architect of the Capitol. The Architect of the Capitol is an E-VERIFY Participant. E-VERIFY is an Internet-based system that compares information from an employee's Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to data from U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment authorization in the United States. If you are selected for this position, the documentation that you present for purposes of completing the DHS Form I-9 will be verified through the DHS "E-VERIFY" electronic system. For more information on E-Verify, please visit http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/gc_1185221678150.shtm The Architect of the Capitol is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information and/or disability. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the agency. The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. Moving expenses are not authorized. Relocation expenses are not authorized. Probationary Period - A newly appointed selectee is subject to the completion of a one-year trial/probationary period, regardless of whether or not a trial/probationary period has been completed previously with the Architect of the Capitol or another Federal agency. This vacancy announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies in any of the jurisdictions of the Architect of the Capitol.All application materials become the property of the Architect of the Capitol. Note: Please be advised that federal retired annuitant candidates may only be considered as a temporary employee if the role can be filled in that capacity.