Federal government hiring has a reputation for being challenging. The application process is considered by some to be laborious, and the timeline from application to hiring can stretch into months.
Not this time. The Jacksonville District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cutting through all of that bureaucracy to fill up to 35 critical engineering positions, and plans to do the hiring by the end of February, said William Wigner, the deputy chief of the Jacksonville District’s Engineering Division.
“We are trying to focus on senior level engineers with five to ten years’ experience in the types of projects we do,” said Wigner. “Obviously the ecosystem restoration work in Florida is one of the areas we need to hire for, but we’re also looking for projects in Puerto Rico and for a lot of coastal storm protection projects. Florida has a pretty extensive coastline, so there are a lot of projects here.”
Because the need is so critical to fill these positions quickly, Wigner said the Corps of Engineers was granted direct hire authority. Direct hiring authority is authorized by the Office of Personnel management to agencies that have a prove critical hiring need or shortage of candidates, and it allows the agency to expedite the process by modifying and expediting the hiring process to fill the positions quickly.
Job seekers need only send a copy of their resume and unofficial school transcripts by email to HRJAX@usace.army.mil with the subject line of SAJ_EngineerRecruitment. Deadline for resumes is Jan. 15, and interviews will take place Jan. 21-22.
Wigner said all the positions are for civil engineers, but the specialty within civil engineering varies.
“They need a degree in some sort of civil engineering, but civil engineers come in a variety of shapes and sizes,” he said. “We are looking for geotechnical engineers, structural engineers, army contract administrators, environmental engineers, cost engineers, and military and civil site engineers.”
The ideal candidate would be a senior level engineer with five to ten years of experience working on military engineer projects. The duty location is Jacksonville, Fla., but the work is for projects throughout the state and in Puerto Rico.
“In engineering division, we are not responsible for overseeing construction, but we do a lot of design work and preparing construction contract documents,” Wigner said.
The work itself is some of the most rewarding and impactful an engineer can do, Wigner said.
“I came to work for the Jacksonville District right out of college, and I thought I would work here for a little while until I got bored with the work. I ended up never getting bored with the work,” Wigner said. “The work that we do here is unlike anything people would get exposed to in any other place. There are very few agencies that do the type of work that we do. It’s large, it’s exciting, and it has a positive impact on the community.”
The types of projects the new engineers will help design are in three primary categories:
Learn more about the open positions in the Jacksonville District by visiting https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/NowHiring/.