Job Summary

You will serve as an Economist for the Bureau of Reclamation responsible for project cost allocation and economic studies, and agricultural economic analyses.

Job Description

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 10/05/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Minimum Qualification Requirements: To qualify for this position, you must meet the basic education requirements and specialized experience: Basic Educational Requirements: you must meet at least one of the following: A. Degree: economics, that included at least 21 semester hours in economics and 3 semester hours in statistics, accounting, or calculus. -OR- B. Combination of education and experience: course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sector). Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience: conducting complex economic studies involving cost allocation, benefit-cost analysis, financial feasibility, or multi-purpose water/resource projects; Applying advanced economic models and analytical tools, such as agricultural production models, input-output models, optimization techniques, or farm-budgeting methods, to evaluate project costs, benefits, and repayment obligations; Developing and executing research plans to assess economic, financial, agricultural, or water-resource issues where guidelines are limited and significant judgment is required; Preparing authoritative technical reports and recommendations used for planning studies, environmental analyses, rate-setting, legislative or regulatory actions, or interagency coordination; Serving as an economic subject-matter expert, advising leadership, partner agencies, or stakeholders on economic methodologies, policy implications, and analytical findings; Evaluating repayment ability, payment capacity, or ability-to-pay for agricultural or municipal water users using detailed economic and financial analysis. Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.