Wildland Firefighter (Regional Operations Specialist) - Direct Hire Authority

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Duties

• Provides strategic long-range planning, leadership, guidance, coordination, and evaluation for regional/state wildland fire and aviation programs in the bureau and interagency community.
• Serves as the National Park Service Southeast Region Regional Operations Specialist under the Branch of Wildland Fire and Aviation/Division of Visitor and Resource Protection.
• Assesses the effectiveness of fire management programs including operations, aviation, fuels management, prevention, planning, and training; Participates in the development of new regional/state wildland fire and aviation management policy.
• Analyzes and assesses existing Departmental and Bureau policy and procedures to evaluate overall effectiveness in meeting Bureau objectives at the regional and/or state level.
• Serves as senior technical expert and provides high level technical guidance on wildland fire and aviation management activities that affect resource management plans and associated region/statewide resource and land management programs for state/regional/tribal and local wildland fire management offices/units.
• Serves as a technical authority providing guidance, advice and support for policy interpretation and implementation to fire management agencies across the United States to all organizational levels in respective areas of expertise.
• Serves as State/Regional level subject matter expert in resource need forecasting and allocation.
• Serves as a wildland fire management program expert and technical advisor to unit, tribal, state, or regional office managers.
• Produces updated policies and guidelines and ensures unique missions of each bureau are represented during development.
• Reviews, analyzes, interprets, and disseminates existing and new departmental and bureau policy originating from the national office.
  
  

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Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be registered for Selective Service or exempt.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
• Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Must be 18 years of age at time of close date of announcement.
• Must pass the Work Capacity Test for certain Interagency Fire Program Management or Fire Program Management positions.
• This is a Drug Test Designated Position. You will be required to submit to a drug test and receive a negative drug test result prior to appointment. In addition, this position is subject to random testing for illegal drug use.
• Prior primary/rigorous wildland firefighting experience is required.
• Willing to live/work in remote locations (volatile/unpredictable).
• You will be required to operate a government motor vehicle as part of your official duties; a valid driver's license is required.
• You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service fire uniform standards.
• You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.
• If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
• Incumbent will be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.
• Prior to appointment, you must be determined physically fit by an authorized government physician to perform strenuous and physically demanding duties; and pass a medical examination given by an authorized government physician.
• You will also be required to complete periodic medical examinations throughout employment.
• Subject to frequent extended travel up to 14 nights a month particularly during fire season, and you must obtain a government charge card for travel.
• This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.
  
  

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year - month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount qualified specialized experience. If an applicant's resume is incomplete or does not support the requirements for minimum qualifications or specialized experience a rating of "ineligible" or "not qualified" will be applied and no consideration for employment will be granted.

Basic Qualification Requirements

• Candidates must possess Primary/Rigorous wildland firefighting experience, gained through fire line work in containment, control, suppression or use of wildland fire. You must clearly demonstrate this experience in your resume, including the months, days and hours per week at which the work was performed in order to be considered. AND
  
  

In addition to the requirements described above, the following additional experience are required for the grade specified.

For The GS-12 Level

One year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level, or higher in the Federal service, or equivalent; Examples of specialized experience include: Advising leadership and staff at the regional and field level on fire management policy and implementation strategies to ensure that intent is clear and expectations are met; Assessing the effectiveness of fire management programs including operation, aviation, fuels management, prevention, planning, and training; Serving as a subject matter expert in resource need forecasting and allocation.

Secondary Firefighter Retirement Coverage - Applicants for this secondary administrative fire fighter position under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 8336 (c) (CSRS) and 5 U.S.C. 8412 (d), must possess knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques of wildland firefighting as demonstrated by direct wildland firefighting experience. In order to receive credit, you must provide a written description of your experience in wildland firefighting. Education without hands-on wildland firefighting experience does not meet this requirement. Periods of wildland firefighting experience, gained through militia and rural fire departments, can also be credited. Wildland fire is defined as any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland. Two distinct types of wildland fire have been defined and include wildfire and prescribed fires as follows: Wildfire: Unplanned ignitions or prescribed fires that are declared wildfires. Prescribed Fires: Planned ignitions. This description includes only fireline experience on a Prescribed Fire; it does not include experience in the planning stages. Prescribed fire experience must be supplemented by fire suppression experience in order to be creditable as previous wildland firefighting 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.

Education

There is no substitution of education for experience at the grade level(s) of this announcement.

Additional information

This notice is being issued to recruit personnel to occupations for which a critical hiring need has been identified. To assist in filling these positions, OPM has granted the Department of the Interior "Direct Hire Authority".

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay.

A Recruitment Incentive May Be Authorized for a newly selected employee when appointed to a permanent, temporary, or term position. A Federal employee who is transferring to the National Park Service from another component, bureau or Federal agency and who does not meet the conditions under 5 CFR

• 575.102 is not eligible for a recruitment incentive.
  
  

A Relocation Incentive May Be Authorized for a Federal employee when the employee must move, as directed by the National Park Service (NPS) either through a management directed reassignment or selection for employment, to a different location at least 50 miles away from the one where his/her position of record held at time of selection is currently located, due to a need of the NPS. A relocation incentive is not the same as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move and, as such, may be granted in conjunction with one another.

Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary; however, some physical exertion on fire line site visit assignments is required. Walking on rough, uneven terrain, long periods of standing, and exposure to extreme heat, smoke and temperatures is required.

Working Conditions: Work is normally performed in an office setting. During the wildland fire season, field work may involve high risk exposure to potentially dangerous situating or stress; work environment involves occasional exposure to moderate risks and discomforts which usually requires protective equipment to be worn. A range of safety and other precautions are required. Exposure to risks such as wildfire, heat, smoke, falling rocks and trees, etc., are part of the job during wildland fire season. Work may require flying in small fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft. Incumbent will adhere to all safety rules and regulating as prescribed in manuals/supplements or by the designated Safety Officer.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Applicants will be evaluated based on how whether they meet the qualification requirements.

Upon receipt of the completed application package, a review of your application will be made to ensure basic qualification requirements are met.

This vacancy will be filled through a Direct Hire Authority. Veterans Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants do not apply to positions filled under this Authority. All qualified applicants, as determined by the SHRO, will be referred for consideration. While managers and supervisors are not required to conduct interviews, it is highly recommended that they do so in order to assess the competencies of each applicant.

If an applicant's resume is incomplete or does not support the requirements for minimum qualifications or specialized experience a rating of "ineligible" or "not qualified" will be applied and no consideration for employment will be granted.

If a determination is made that an applicant has inflated qualifications or experience on the resume, the applicant will receive no consideration for the position, as per OPM regulations.