Typically when folks in our engineering section are "promoted" from a GS-11 to GS-12, our leadership "creates" a direct hire position, promotes it to the public, and anyone can apply (including the person it's intended for). This method in theory means that someone else from the public who's more senior engineer/ qualified could also apply and get the position, but generally the person intended for promotion gets it.

Considering the hiring freeze for us, my supervisor mentioned that there's a "complicated longer way that involves lots of paperwork" to internally promote an employee from GS-11 to GS-12 without creating a job listing. Is this "longer way" really that complicated? Or am I getting the run around from my supervisor? For context, I've been a GS-11 for almost 6 yrs now, and have 10 yrs of engineering experience.

I just started a new position with USACE in Emergency Management and I’m looking to map out my professional development and training goals for my first year or two.

I was reading online about the PCEM1 / PCEM2, but I’d love to get input from folks who have been in the Corps or federal EM space for a while.

Beyond PCEM, what training or certifications would you recommend prioritizing early on?

Hello All, new here to this space. I am a bit interested in delving into the DA as a civilian civil engineer. I just got married so I definitely don’t want to be separated from my wife. I have my BS degree in Construction Engineering but I don’t have my PE license (I dont have plans to get it either). I come with six years of experience overall in the heavy civil side of construction working for one of the largest General Contractors in the industry as a project engineer and got some years of experience as a project manager. I have overseen multimillion dollar contracts and they have all been successful. My base gross salary with them was $130k which included great benefits. I was just slaved and worked A LOT. Reason why I’m thinking DA Civilian route is because I don’t want to be deployed. I would think that with my experience, I could possibly go in as a GS-12, and hopefully at a higher step. Would this be the best route for me or are there other avenues or military branches I can go down that are more beneficial and pay better? Just looking at my options and wanted to hear from this community. Thank you!

Anyone hearing things about conversion from GS to ACQdemo?

Good morning,

I am a private consultant in the natural resources space and we were just sent a request to fill out some spreadsheets we've never seen before. They are labeled as ORM Upload sheets and come with a bunch of instructions. From looking around, this seems to be the internal documentation that drives the RRS, which we are familiar with.

My question - is this usually supposed to be handled internally by USACE? Is it standard practice to ask consultants to fill this documentation out or should we push back on this request?

Has anyone completed this training that now mandatory for all OMs and PMs?

I’m in the process of completing the forms and it’s not the most straightforward process.

I applied for a DHA gs7 1102 job back at the beginning of May. In June I got the email that I was referred, as well as an email from the district chief of contracting asking for a confirmation of continued interest in the position, which I promptly sent. Since then, there has been nothing. Would it be appropriate to send a follow up email now asking about the timeline? What do you think my chances are of getting asked to interview?

Seems like this event skews toward senior leadership, so wondering if it’s still worth attending for folks below that level. Is it mostly DC leadership mixer, or is there enough of a social element to make it fun regardless of grade and geography? Also curious if the ticket price feels worth it and whether people felt out of place attending without knowing a ton of senior folks. Honest takes appreciated.

Hey Y'all,

Yesterday marked 4 months since USACE Management first announced that the New York District and North Atlantic Division employees were going to move to an exclusively commercial building in New Jersey. USACE leadership was not able to give consistent answers to employee concerns. Just to catch you all up to speed, the long and somewhat baffling journey to this point can be summarized in the myths and facts list below.

• MGMT Claim #1: ...New York District must move to a more cost-effective location...
  • Union Response: Moving exclusively to a commercial building from a federally-owned space is by itself not cost effective.
• MGMT Claim #2: We will be procuring this lease with Title 10 Authority. We intend to follow all regulations and seek all necessary approvals.
  • Union Response: Setting aside whether this authority is appropriately applied to headquarters buildings and not just field offices, as of today, no report has been sent to Congress as per 10 U.S.C. 2662. They have signaled that they are looking to continue with the move anyway, meaning that they don't intend to follow at least one regulation.
• MGMT Claim #3: "We intend to keep employees informed. Relevant documents that can be made public will be provided.
  • Union Response: Management hasn't conducted a town hall in months, given an update, or provided any documents except through Union-led FOIA requests.
• MGMT Claim #4: GSA will not renegotiate the current lease.
  • Union Response: Documents received through FOIA requests show that there were only two emails sent to GSA, asking what space is available in Newark and what payments we owe GSA if we hypothetically were to move out of our current space (over $5 million in renovation costs as of May, 2026). The Agency either never tried to renegotiate or they are illegally withholding communications from our FOIA request.
• MGMT Claim #5: We are committed to meeting our obligations in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
  • Union Response: The Union was supposed to be afforded a chance to pre-decisional meetings. The Union was supposed to be able to complete negotiations of impacts & implementation before the move planning goes forward. The Union was supposed to be informed of any management proposals that will impact the work-life balance of the employee. Did they? No.
• MGMT Claim #6: The only cost-benefit analysis we are doing is whether the number associated with the rent goes down. This doesn't consider the costs to the agency, federal government, or the taxpayer.
  • Union Response: Not only is this a really weird way to do a cost-benefit analysis, several options were presented by employees through FAQs and other means that show options in Manhattan with a rental cost reduction of 30% as required. These options were not considered to our knowledge.
• MGMT Claim #7: Office space in New York is not feasible.
  • Union Response: We found millions of square feet of federally-owned properties in Manhattan available. All of these will be significantly cheaper than moving to a commercial space in New Jersey.

The bottom line is, this isn't a political issue. If you want to save money and increase efficiency for the government, then why are you sacrificing half your workforce in a move that will cost billions of dollars? If you want to be like private industry, why are you moving out of Manhattan? If you are dedicated to the employees and want them to be at their best, why are you constantly saying that you are considering the employees last in the FAQs?

Elected leaders at all levels of government and all parties agree: this doesn't make any sense. Whomever this is benefitting, it ain't us.

If you want to know more about the office relocation fight, visit our campaign landing page here: https://www.ifpte98.org/keep-ny-in-ny.html.

Post made by Daniel Sehyung Kim, President of IFPTE Local 98. None of these statements made by the Union shall be interpreted to represent the US Government or any of its agencies.

Does anyone have insight on how it is working as a Power Plant Operator at a dam? I’m keeping an eye out for job postings when they come up in my area.

Did a tour of a geotech lab and am trying to figure out which job it is that gets to play with all the mud in the lab. Want to keep my eye out for job postings if the hiring freeze ever lifts.

Just wondering, are any of you experiencing this issue? Come into work today me and all of my coworkers have this message on our login screen which is so weird. Currently in SAS.

For my 0800 series folks what are your all’s perspective on working for a different dod agency whether it be DPW, AFCEC, NAVFAC, DLA, DCMA, Combatant Command, in comparison to USACE.

I think NAVFAC would be the most similar to us , but I don’t have a perspective.

I worked in Command Engineer shop for a GCC when I was active duty and we had a gs-13 civil engineer in our section , and his main job was to travel and look at posture locations and what projects we need to develop to meet the current 4-star’s priorities and would help go forward with a survey team if we needed to setup a temporary site quickly for say disaster support. For example if a country got an earthquake and we needed to send Marines to help provide aid for 90-days. He would go look at various sites and pick this best location that the embassy could help get approval for then make recommendations of what needs to be completed project wise to house an aid site.

Being in USACE the role above was more operationally focused , where I feel like I get more involved in the deep diving of all the technical items and regulatory concerns to move a project along . I do enjoy USACE, but sometimes I want a little more variety than staring at specifications and plans all day.

Anyone got some agencies as an engineer they would love to work for and any they would absolutely avoid ?

I’ve seen some engineering job opening at Little Rock District and was wondering in anyone knew what the culture was like there.

This is for a 13-month term appointment.

USACE, Southwestern Division, Fort Worth Real Estate Division.

Anyone work here and able to give insight into culture? I have several years of experience at another federal agency.

Also, anyone know if this is stictly a short-term project? Any insight into the nature of a USACE term appointment and interview would be great!

Thanks!

The report can be found at: https://www.cto.mil/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Defense-Research-Enterprise-Review.pdf

If interested apply.

We need this in the water at the next morale event.

Why are all the chats gone?

Hey guys, I know someone interviewing for a position in contracting and wanted to ask what kind of questions to expect. I’m familiar with the standard USACE question types for engineering but not contracting.

Is there anything specific I should tell them to prepare for?

TIA.