Interdisciplinary General Engineer/Physical Scientist (Permitting Specialist)

The Department of Energy (DOE) has direct hire authority to fill scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics positions at the GS-11 through GS-15 grade level. Direct hire authority allows DOE to hire faster than the traditional government hiring process. In using this authority, DOE still abides by the Merit System Principles and all federal and DOE hiring regulations.

About The Position

Office/Division Overview

The Federal Partnerships division represents the Office of Carbon Management in interactions with other government agencies on environmental, legislative, and regulatory matters related to carbon management issues. The division leads interagency engagement for the Office and facilitates dialogue on regulatory and permitting issues among industry, states, and other interested parties to advance the Office of Carbon Management’s mission. Development of commercial carbon storage facilities and associated transport infrastructure, including pipelines will require significant regulatory and permitting expertise and interagency engagement on matters related to land access, leasing, and environmental regulations at the state and federal level, both onshore and offshore. The division develops and maintains policy, regulatory, and permitting expertise needed to implement Department of Energy (DOE) research and development programs and to contribute to other administration or congressionally mandated requirements related to deployment of carbon management technologies. DOE is required by Congress to consult with other agencies in areas, such as environmental regulations; tax credits; congressionally mandated efforts, including task forces and/or reports; as well as provide technical support to these other agencies as they undertake their work. To meet these needs, the Federal Partnerships division provides interagency coordination with other federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Treasury, Department of Transportation, Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, and others.

This position broadly supports the advancement of carbon management technologies through capacity building and inter-agency engagement and contributes to the division’s portfolio of inter-agency carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) coordination, collaboration, and capacity building activities.

Job Description

The incumbent in this position will:

• Coordinate activities to support effective, timely, and efficient environmental reviews and authorizations related to CCUS. This would include identifying gaps and/or barriers that need to be addressed to execute the Department of Energy’s carbon management programs, supporting inter-agency engagement, and coordinating technical assistance and capacity building for permitting of geologic storage of carbon.
• Leverage the expertise of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management and inter-agency colleagues, national laboratories, and others.
• Contribute to the development of robust technical capacity building for a wide range of federal, state, and local regulators on topics such as site characterization, storage capacity evaluation, and operation and monitoring approaches. This could include contributing to the development of training curricula, coordinating technical trainings, and developing other resources and tools.

Knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with this position:

• Excellent project management skills and ability to effectively contribute to projects and/or teams of significant size, scope, and complexity.
• Skill in effective communication (oral and written) and meeting management.
• Knowledge of CCUS, potentially including geologic basin characterization and modeling, environmental permitting processes (e.g., Underground Injection Control Class VI, National Environmental Policy Act), and subsurface geologic or groundwater monitoring.

Who Can Apply

All U.S. citizens are eligible to apply.

How to Apply

Step 1: Visit the Clean Energy Jobs Corps page and click “Apply Now.”

• Complete the Personal and Professional information.
• Under Additional Information, select or enter: Permitting Specialist
• In the “Disclosures” step, under “Applicant Source,” select “Other” and provide the referral code: #FECM Position Number: IRA00246 to direct your resume to the appropriate hiring manager.
• Complete all other steps of the application and hit “Submit.

Step 2: Send an email that includes your resume with the subject line, “Application for Permitting Specialist - IRA00246” to fecmhiring@hq.doe.gov.

You must submit a resume to be considered for the position. Please include the following information in the email with your resume:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Grade level for which you want to be considered

Your privacy is important to us. DO NOT include the following information in your email or resume: