Civil Engineer at Forest Service — Tucson, AZ

This GS-12 civil engineer position with the Forest Service's Southwestern Region covers Coronado National Forest, based in Tucson, and combines two roles that are often separate at other agencies: design authority over construction and maintenance plans, and contract oversight as an Engineering Representative or Contracting Officer's Representative, the federal designation for someone authorized to monitor a contractor's technical performance and compliance on the government's behalf. As the senior engineer on staff, the role also carries a training responsibility — mentoring other engineers and technicians across design, operation, maintenance, and monitoring — which distinguishes it from a purely technical mid-career civil engineer position. Forest Service civil engineering work differs from a typical municipal or private land-development role because the infrastructure involved — forest roads, recreation facilities, water systems, and administrative buildings — sits on federal land with its own maintenance, safety, and environmental compliance requirements, and funding cycles tied to the agency's national budget rather than local tax revenue or private development schedules. A state Professional Engineer license is generally required or strongly preferred at the GS-12 level and above for design authority and contracting-officer-representative responsibilities, obtained through the standard FE exam, four years of progressive experience, and the PE exam. Tucson and the broader Coronado National Forest region sit within a Southwestern Region engineering market shaped heavily by wildfire recovery, drought-driven water infrastructure needs, and a large base of public land requiring ongoing facilities maintenance — a different demand driver than the growth-driven private civil engineering market in Tucson's urban core, where land development and municipal infrastructure dominate instead.