Series 0850

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineers who design and maintain electrical equipment and power systems, from generation and distribution to building electrical systems.

Plain-language description based on the OPM series definition.

0800 Engineering and Architecture Group · General Schedule

See open 0850 jobs on USAJOBS Compare with another series Back to Series Directory

At a glance

Job postings, last 12 months: 1,230
Open now: 82
Trend (last 3 months vs. 3 before): Rising (+34%)
Demand score: 93/100
Remote opportunity score: 70/100
Veteran opportunity score: 88/100

What these scores mean

Grades and pay

Typical grades

GS-11 to GS-14

Most common promotion potential: GS-12

GS pay plan, used by 82% of this series' postings.

Typical posted salary range

$106,437 to $145,483 per year

Median of the yearly salary ranges in posted announcements.

Who can apply

Share of job postings in the last 12 months, by who the announcement was open to.

Open to the public: 58%
Federal employees and other special groups only: 42%
Listed a veterans hiring path: 32%
Telework eligible (open now): 70%
Fully remote (open now): 0%

Who is hiring and where

Top hiring departments

Department of the Army (624)
Department of the Navy (285)
Department of Energy (128)
Department of the Air Force (78)
Department of Homeland Security (31)

Top states

Washington (172)
Texas (96)
Maryland (95)
District of Columbia (86)
Virginia (84)

Hiring patterns

Based on job announcements since Mar 2017. How patterns are calculated

When this series usually posts jobs

Postings are spread fairly evenly through the year, so there is no clear best month to look.

Typical postings for series 0850 by calendar month, compared with an average month
Month	Compared with an average month
January	About average
February	8% above average
March	8% above average
April	9% above average
May	About average
June	About average
July	About average
August	7% above average
September	About average
October	5% above average
November	5% below average
December	24% below average

Postings by fiscal year

The federal fiscal year runs from October 1 to September 30. Fiscal years 2025 and 2026 include the government-wide hiring freeze that began in January 2025.

Job announcements for series 0850 by fiscal year
Fiscal year	Postings
FY 2018	1,922
FY 2019	1,978
FY 2020	1,946
FY 2021	1,835
FY 2022	2,499
FY 2023	2,539
FY 2024	2,394
FY 2025	1,016
FY 2026	1,132

Postings by month, last 12 months

Job announcements for series 0850 opened each month
Month	Postings
Dec 2025	50
Jan 2026	63
Feb 2026	86
Mar 2026	87
Apr 2026	136
May 2026	124
Jun 2026	73
Jul 2026	120
Aug 2026	136
Sep 2026	142
Oct 2026	147
Nov 2026 (month to date)	66

0801 General Engineering 3,680 postings in 12 months
0810 Civil Engineering 1,496 postings in 12 months
0830 Mechanical Engineering 1,428 postings in 12 months
0802 Engineering Technical 1,075 postings in 12 months
0808 Architecture 919 postings in 12 months

About this data

Job numbers come from the USAJOBS API: 244,223 job announcements opened from December 1, 2025 to November 15, 2026, plus 12,260 announcements open on November 15, 2026. Canceled announcements are not counted. Series descriptions summarize the OPM Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families.

These figures describe posted job announcements, not hiring outcomes. Always read the official announcement and its qualification requirements before applying. How the scores are calculated.