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Public Affairs Specialist

Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary of the Interior
This job announcement has closed

Summary

The Office of Wildland Fire (OWF) is located in the Office of the Secretary in Washington, D.C.   The Office reports to the Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management, and Budget through the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Safety, Resource Protection, and Emergency Services. The Office is responsible for oversight of the DOI's Wildland Fire Management program in its entirety, ensuring consistency of policy and programs, providing advice to DOI leadership on wildland fire management issues, managing enterprise systems and applications, and coordinating with other Federal agencies, particularly the Department of Agriculture Forest Service (Forest Service), State foresters, Tribes, state and local governments, and a variety of stakeholder groups, including volunteer firefighters, industry, and non-governmental organizations. The Office leads, supports, and participates in a variety of interagency governance activities.

The Office is also responsible for providing Departmental guidance, policy and oversight in accordance with Congressional mandates and Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit recommendations to the Wildland Fire Management agencies. OWF is the liaison with Congressional members, GAO, federal political appointees, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and other federal oversight entities.

This position is located in Boise, ID.

This vacancy may be used to fill additional positions as vacancies become available. 

Salary Information
GS-13 ($87,252 - $113,428) per annum.  First time hires to the Federal government normally start at the lower salary range of the grade level.

Office of Wildland Fire has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
06/12/2018 to 07/03/2018
Salary
$87,252 to - $113,428 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 13
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Boise, ID
1 vacancy
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - Some travel may be required periodically
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—Relocation may be authorized.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-Time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Drug test
No
Announcement number
OS-6050-18-KB-105 (MP)
Control number
501984900

This job is open to

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Duties

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At the full performance level(GS-13)the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to the following:

  • Develops national-level internal and external strategic communications plans, including content for social media, web, and digital media.  Ensures that products reflect the views, positions, and policies of the Secretary of the Interior and the Administration. Keeps OWF and DAS-PRE leadership informed of public reaction to announced plans, policies, and activities.  Analyzes and interprets a wide range of public perceptions and attitudes covering all aspects of Office of Wildland Fire policies, programs, and responsibilities and determines the best course of actions.
  • Serves as OWF's liaison with the Department's Office of Communications, and establishes and maintains effective relationships and lines of communication between OWF and media representatives, counterparts at other Federal agencies, and other stakeholders and patners. Oversees official public communications made on behalf the Department concerning Departmental or office policies, programs, actions, decisions and/or opinions.  Serves as one of the spokespersons for the Department for incoming media inquiries and for proactive media efforts.
  • Responsible for developing comprehensive communications plans including the full suite of communications materials, including but not limited to press releases, key messages, talking points, speeches, press roll out plans, factsheets, infographics, Q&As, brochures, and other documents and materials. Takes a proactive approach with the media to place stories about the Wildland Fire Management program, policies, priorities, and goals.  In doing so, also looks to coordinate with other offices in DAS-PRE to advance joint messaging where appropriate to do so, and the staff form bureaus and offices to ensure coordinated messaging.
  • In coordination with DOI’s Office of Digital Media, develops comprehensive social media strategies that support OWF’s communications efforts and advance messaging for major policy and program announcements and understanding of the Wildland Fire Management program and priorities. Develops content for use on a variety of social media platforms. Also coordinates with the Office of New Media on management and oversight of the OWF's website, including the development of content, use of photos and videos, structure and organization.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must be a U.S. Citizen.
  • You will be subject to a background/suitability investigation/determination
  • You will be required to have federal payments made by Direct Deposit.
  • You must submit ALL required documents and a completed questionnaire.

Selective Service: If you are a male applicant born after December 31, 1959, you must certify that you have registered with the Selective Service system, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. See http://www.sss.gov/

Qualifications

To qualify for this position you must meet the Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.  


Specialized Experience:

Note: At the GS-13 level you may not substitute education for experience.

To qualify for the GS-13 level, applicants must possess at least one full year of specialized experience. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level (GS-12). 

Specialized experience is defined as: 

  1. Develop and transmit information to a variety of internal and external audiences that helps to enhance the understanding of programs, policies, and goals through communications materials tailored to the targeted audience.
  2. Establish and maintain effective working relationships with the media and partners, including Tribal contacts, counterparts in other Federal agencies, representatives in state and local governments, or other stakeholder groups.
  3. Development and use of a variety of methods and techniques in achieving communication goals such as news releases, infographics, op-eds, letters to the editor, radio and television scripts, feature articles, personal appearances, news conferences, exhibits, brochures, etc.
  4. Develop of strategic plans for social media and digital media, including content for the web and social media platforms.

Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualification Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions and is available at OPM's website: https://www.opm.gov/qualifications/standards/indexes/num-ndx.asp

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Merit Promotion candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements by the closing date of the announcement. 

Additional information

Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.

Identification of promotion potential in this announcement does not constitute a commitment or an obligation on the part of management to promote the employee selected at some future date. Promotion will depend upon administrative approval and the continuing need for and performance of higher-level duties.

The application contains information subject to the Privacy Act (P.L. 93-579, 5 USC 552a). The information is used to determine qualifications for employment, and is authorized under Title 5, USC, Section 3302 and 3361.

Important Note: All Department of the Interior (DOI) employees are subject to the conflict of interest restrictions imposed upon all employees of the Executive Branch of the Federal Government and may be required to file a Financial Disclosure Report. In addition, DOI employees, GS-15 and above, who work in the Office of the Secretary; along with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) employees (at ALL grade levels), are further restricted concerning their interests in Federal lands and resources administered or controlled by the Department of the Interior. This includes holding stock in energy corporations which lease Federal lands (e.g.: oil, gas, coal, alternative energy resources, etc.). If you have any such investments you should contact the DOI, BOEM or BSEE Ethics Office before accepting employment. DOI employees are held to the highest level of integrity. Employees must be objective and impartial in the performance of their work. All potential issues (e.g.: work-related interactions with friends, family members, or previous employers) must be disclosed at the time of application or during the interview process.

NOTICE: This employer participates in E-Verify and will utilize your Form I-9 information to confirm you are authorized to work in the U.S.

How you will be evaluated

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

Once the application process is complete, we will review your application to ensure you meet the job requirements. To determine if you are qualified for this job, a review of your resume, supporting documentation and responses to the online questionnaire will be made. Your responses to the online assessment will be used to measure the degree to which your background matches the requirements for this position. However, your resume must support your responses to the scored occupational questionnaire, or your score may be lowered. The best qualified candidates will be identified for referral to the hiring manager and may be invited for an interview.

Your answers to the on-line assessment will be used to evaluate your competencies in the following areas:

  1. Public Information and Outreach - Ability to manage the coordination and implementation of an effective, efficient, and inclusive outreach program to all audiences including news and trade media, federal, state and local government officials, Tribal representatives, partners and other stakeholder groups, and the general public.
  2. Interpersonal Communication - Ability to develop and maintain contacts and build partnerships with members of the media, staff in other agencies, federal, State, and local government officials, Tribal representatives, partners and other stakeholder groups, and business, civic and other public interest organizations.

To preview questions please click here.

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