MECHANICAL ENGINEER

This position advertised has been exempted from the federal civilian hiring freeze.

Current FBI employees are ineligible to apply if serving under the same conditions as that for which is advertised, including:

• Appointing organization (FBI)
• Type of position (full-time, part-time, etc.)
• Same or higher grade
• Duty location (city or state)
• Type of appointment (permanent, temporary, etc.)

Job Opening: 65494
Opening Date: July 10, 2026
Closing Date: July 24, 2026 at 11:59 pm (ET)

Job Title Mechanical Engineer

Full Performance Level GS-14

Division Finance and Facilities Division

Unit Real Property Management Section

Location Washington D.C.; Quantico, VA; or Huntsville, AL

Working Hours 8:00 am - 4:30 pm (Flexible)

Job Type Full Time/Permanent

Who May Apply All U.S. Citizens

Number of Positions Available 1

Questions Email: HRS Mary Arbelo at marbelo@fbi.gov

Salary
GS-13: $90,925.00 - $118,204.00

GS-14: $107,446.00 - $139,684.00

The salary shown is the BASE SALARY for the grade level. The appropriate locality pay will be applied according to the location of the official duty station.

Additional selections may be made from this announcement to fill positions within the same division when the position includes substantially the same duties, responsibilities, and qualifications.

JOB SUMMARY

The Facilities Branch of the Finance and Facilities Division provides a wide range of facilities support and management services across multiple sections. These sections and responsibilities include: #LI-FBI

• The National Capital Region Section: Provides timely, suitable, modern, safe and secure working environments/facilities and provides quality facility support services for the HQ Divisions in the Washington, DC area.
• The Real Property Management Section: Administers professional and responsive facilities management, including engineering and design research; construction and spatial modification solutions; maintenance and energy monitoring; and logistical services for the tenant organizations at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA.
• The Redstone Facilities Services Section: Responsible for all planning, construction, occupancy, facilities, and services located across the FBI Redstone campus, Huntsville, AL.
• The Field Operations Support Section: Provides real estate and facility support services for the FBI's 56 Field Office property portfolios and international Legat locations. This section also supports the FBI's fleet inventory and firearms range program.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• Must be able to obtain a Top Secret clearance
• Some travel may be required

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

Work is primarily sedentary in an office setting or the on-site construction trailer; however, frequent: on-site inspections will require walking, bending, stooping, and climbing. Lifting of heavy materials and objects will also be required.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

Majority of work is performed in an office setting or an on-site construction trailer. The work environment will consists of inclement weather, proximity to unfinished construction materials, negotiating partially completed building structural components, exposure to high voltage electrical vaults and rotating mechanical equipment. Travel is required to and from Headquarters, the construction site, and other locations to attend meetings regarding the construction project.

MAJOR DUTIES:

GS-13:

• Designs, layouts and construction of complex mechanical systems such as plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fuel storage and distribution in the FBI facilities.
• Reviews designs, plans, specifications, and analyses for technical accuracy, regulatory compliance, industry standards, and FBI requirements. Recommends design changes as needed and ensures contractor-submitted mechanical equipment and shop drawings meet specifications.
• Performs heating/cooling load calculations, heat transfer, pressure calculations, duct/pipe sizing, and other tasks to support mechanical design and equipment selection for HVAC systems. Provides design support for engineering studies, code reviews, field investigations, and report generation.
• Conducts field inspections to review existing mechanical utilities as well as ongoing and proposed projects. These reviews include items that affect existing systems, specifications, and cost estimates. Based on analysis of information obtained, provides recommendations of appropriate actions to be taken to higher level mechanical engineers.
• Analyze existing equipment and systems to determine their overall efficiency and to provide recommendations concerning use in the new facility or replacement, repair or improvements.
• Prepares or oversees preparation of in-depth technical reports/papers concerning complex mechanical engineering matters. Such reports are further used to determine current and long-range program needs of the Bureau.
• Provides engineering support to facilities systems; driving upgrade projects from concept to completion, as required for continuous improvement of the facilities systems to ensure that support and services of the department meet the highest quality standards and performance.

GS-14 (in addition to the above):

• Serves as the senior technical authority for mechanical engineering aspects of the planning, design, construction and alteration of FBI facilities. Provides guidance and oversight for the planning, budgetary and operational aspects of same. These responsibilities range from establishing preventive maintenance requirements for a small piece of mechanical equipment to design and management of major construction projects.
• Prepares designs for aspects of unique or highly complex facilities and provides oversight to mechanical design efforts of outside companies and/or FBI personnel concerning FBI facilities. Oversees and reviews complex mechanical design work for FBI facilities, ensuring compliance with industry standards, coordination with other engineering disciplines, and proper integration into overall projects, while serving as the final technical authority on mechanical design changes.
• Provides authoritative technical engineering expertise and guidance to consultants, shops personnel and other engineering personnel for activities concerning full range of mechanical systems. Serves as consultant and member of the FBI Architect and Engineering (A&E) review board on difficult and controversial matters.
• Provides professional expertise and advice on matters involving design and construction for FBI projects and its architectural, engineering and construction contractors, other government agencies and private lessors. Provides guidance on areas not covered in project specifications or requiring specialized knowledge of FBI facilities and security systems.
• Prepares or oversees preparation of contract packages including specifications and technical requirements. Conducts negotiation of contracts in conjunction with contracting officer. As necessary, certifies technical adequacy/accuracy of services provided by contractors and their compliance with contract terms.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EVALUATIONS

Please ensure that your specialized experience and requirements are clearly identifiable in your resume. Your application will be evaluated using the FBI's Candidate Rating Procedures. Your resume and supporting documents will be reviewed to verify that you meet the job qualifications listed in this announcement. Applicants must meet the qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

If you are found minimally qualified, your application will move forward to additional phases of the review process.

The competencies will be used in a Structured Resume Review to objectively evaluate applicant resumes. Do not provide a separate narrative written statement. Rather you must describe in your resume how your past work experience demonstrates that you possess the competencies identified below. Your resume should demonstrate that you possess the following competencies.

Competencie s:

• Analytic Thinking
• Engineering and Technology
• Mechanical Engineering
• Communication
• Flexibility/Adaptability

Positive Education Requirement
This position has a specific education requirement; all applicants must verify completion of this basic educational requirement by submitting a copy of their college transcripts by the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Basic Requirements:

A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a 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 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.)

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above requirements provided you can show foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States.

Specialized Experience (SE)

GS-13: Applicant must possess at least one (1) year of SE equivalent to the GS- 12 grade level. SE is defined as follows:

• Experience in designing and overseeing design and construction of commercial buildings, government buildings, critical facilities, and data centers and have a strong knowledge of mechanical systems design for plumbing, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fuel storage and distribution.
• Performing and reviewing cooling load calculations, heat transfer, pressure calculations, ductwork, pipe sizing, and any other calculations required to support the mechanical design and equipment sizing/selection as related to building engineered systems and various other tasks related to the design of HVAC systems.
• Knowledge of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), standards and Federal, State, and local regulations in governing mechanical systems as well as skill in inspection of construction projects to ensure conformance with these codes and regulations.

GS-14: Applicant must possess at least one (1) year of SE equivalent to the GS-13 grade level. SE (in addition to the above) is defined as follows:

• Knowledge of other engineering disciplines such as structural, architectural and electrical sufficient to permit initial judgments or critical evaluations of findings and recommendations of other expert sources consulted.
• Ability to modify and adapt standards, equipment and techniques to resolve a variety of engineering problems as well as ensure continuation of services without interruption or to prevent excessive downtime.
• Ability to apply new developments or experimental theories to problems not readily treatable by standard methods to solve a variety of highly complex technical problems.

HOW TO APPLY

For detailed instructions related to applying, uploading documents, withdrawing an application or updating your application, please review instructions on . If applying online is a hardship, please use the contact information listed in the vacancy announcement prior to the closing date for assistance.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

To apply to this position, interested applicants must provide a complete application package by the closing date which includes:

Utilizing the Resume Builder, outline your relevant work experience and associated start and end dates. Uploaded resumes will not be reviewed or used for qualification purposes.

Other supporting documents (if applicable):

• College transcripts, if qualifying based on education or if there is a positive education requirement
• Former civilian Federal employees must submit a copy of your MOST RECENT SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) showing your tenure, grade and step, salary, and type of position occupied (i.e., Excepted or Competitive); or similar Notification of Personnel Action documentation, i.e., Transcript of Service, Form 1150, etc. This is a requirement to verify your Time in Grade (TIG). Actions such as promotion, within grade increase, or reassignment actions must be submitted as your most recent SF 50.
• Most recent Performance Appraisal; not applicable to current FBI employees
  Veterans: DD 214; Disabled Veterans: DD 214, SF-15, and VA letter dated 1991 or later
• Memorandum for Record (MFR): Work performed outside assigned duties (that would not normally be documented on an SF-50, i. e., back-up duties), has to be documented in detail by an immediate supervisor in order to receive full credit for amount of time worked in that position. If no documentation is furnished no credit will be given for time worked in that position. The following notations must be specified in the documentation:
  • Percent of time worked in the particular position (cannot conflict with main duties.
  • The month/year work began
    Frequency worked (i.e., daily, monthly, etc.)
  • Specific duties performed

Attach the Memorandum for Record to your application in the "Cover Letters and Attachments" section of My Career Tools on the Careers Home page. Please upload the attachment as type "Other."

While applicants might see these documents in their profile, HR Specialists may be unable to access them. Therefore, all applicants MUST upload another copy to ensure that staffing units can review the complete application.

Please note: Failure to provide the necessary and relevant information required by this vacancy announcement may disqualify you from consideration. Incomplete applications will not be supplemented with additional requests for information; your application will be evaluated solely on the information you submit. You must complete the application process and submit all required documents by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on the announcement's closing date.

WHAT TO EXPECT NEXT

Once your complete application is received, we will conduct an evaluation of your qualifications and determine your ranking. The Most Competitive candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview. You will be notified of your status throughout the process.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

• The FBI is in the Executive Branch of the federal government. It is one of the components of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI is the principle investigative arm of the DOJ. All FBI positions are in the excepted service.
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens and consent to a complete background investigation, urinalysis, and polygraph. You must be suitable for Federal employment; as determined by a background investigation.
• Positions with fitness for duty requirements or those that require international travel may require proof of certain vaccinations.
• Management may select any grade for which this position has been announced.
• Identification of promotion potential in this announcement does not constitute a commitment or an obligation on the part of management to promote the employee selected at some future date. Promotion will depend upon administrative approval and the continuing need for an actual assignment and performance of higher-level duties.
• If you are selected, you will be required to serve a two-year probationary period. Probationary employees are precluded from being considered for all job opportunities until 12-months of their 24-month probationary period has concluded. Probationary Employees may be c