Clarification from the agency

Applications will be accepted from any U.S. Citizen. DIRECT HIRING AUTHORITY will be used to fill this position.

• Functions as the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) for the park's exclusive-use helicopter contracts.
• Provides leadership in advanced fire management and command positions such as an incident commander, aerial operations supervisor, and prescribed fire burn boss as an aerial resource in the park, zone, and region.
• Works with a variety of complex technical problems relating to fire weather, smoke management, fire behavior, and computer fire modeling.
• Coordinates with the Park's Branch Chief of Emergency Services to develop effective and safe programs for accomplishing helicopter involved medevac and search and rescue missions.
• Provides leadership and direction to search and rescue personnel on operational missions by evaluating and analyzing the risk associated with the helicopter operations.
• Manages all aerial operations through appropriate risk management while following agency policies and procedures.
• Ensures that helicopter facilities and operations programs are maintained and managed within the scope of agency standards.
• Manages complex aviation budgets for several wildland fire incidents, search and rescue operations, and emergency preparedness or severity accounts.
• Ensures that adequate review, analysis and reporting are completed after incidents/accidents/near misses.
• Manages a unique training program that develop safe and experienced helicopter crew members and helicopter managers.

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.
• 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.
• Must pass the Work Capacity Test for certain Interagency Fire Program Management (IFPM) or Fire Program Management (FPM) positions.
• Minimum of 90 days of 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.
• Required Occupancy Position - must live in Park housing in Grand Canyon Village, AZ

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.

To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

For more information on the qualifications for this position, go to: Transportation Specialist Series 2101 (opm.gov)

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. Your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and 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.

Basic Qualification Requirements:

Undergraduate and Graduate Education:
Major study -- accounting, business administration, business or commercial law, commerce, economics, engineering, finance, industrial management, statistics, traffic management, transportation, motor mechanics, or other fields related to the position.
OR
Experience that demonstrated a knowledge of the transportation function(s) of the position.
AND
Candidates must possess a minimum of 90-days of 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
Certification in at least ONE of the following:

• Helicopter Manager (HMGB); OR
• Resource/All Hazard Incident Helicopter Manager (HEAM); OR

A copy of the document(s) which contains proof of certification or attainment of this requirement MUST be attached to the application - Red Cards are not acceptable documentation.

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

For the GS-11 level: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 grade level;
OR
Successful completion of at least a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, 3 full years of progressively higher- level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M. You must include transcripts.
OR
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. You must include your resume with hours worked per week annotated, as well as transcripts.

Examples of specialized experience are: Developed strategies and tactics to implement effective aircraft fire suppression operations; ensured helicopter facilities and operations programs are maintained and managed within the scope of agency standards; managed complex aviation issues in the fire program operations related to wilderness program implementation and overflight restrictions; served as a Contracting Officers Representative (COR) or Contracting Officers Technical Representative(COTR) for exclusive-use helicopter contracts, aircraft rental agreements, on-call helicopter contracts; provided program training of Helitack crew as well as others involved in aerial fire management missions; provided leadership in the fire and aviation safety program.

This position has been identified as one of the key fire management positions under the Interagency Fire Program management (IFPM) Standard. This position requires selectee to meet the minimum qualification standards for IFPM prior to being placed into the position. For more information on IFPM, click here.

Selective Factors:

• Helicopter Manager (HMGB) AND
• Helibase Manager (HEBM) AND
• Incident Commander Type 4 (ICT4) AND
• 90 Days WLFF experience

In order to be considered for this position, copies of your Incident Qualification and Certification System (IQCS) Master Record (or equivalent training documents) which contain documented proof of the certification or attainment of the IFPM Selective Placement Factor for this position MUST be attached to your application. Red cards are not acceptable documentation. Currency Requirement: Required to maintain currency once hired into the position. Currency of NWCG qualifications is not required for selection. If not currently qualified, the applicant must provide documented evidence that they have been fully qualified in the past, and are able to regain currency within one year of being hired. Failure to provide this documentation will result in disqualification.

Secondary Firefighter Retirement Coverage - Candidates must possess a minimum of 90-days of 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. This experience can be met by serving in a temporary, seasonal, or equivalent private sector fire position for no less than 90 days. 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. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

This is a secondary-administrative firefighter position under the special retirement provisions of 5 U.S. C. 8336 (c) (CSRS) and 5 U. S. C. 8412 (d) (FERS). PLEASE NOTE: Applicants may meet qualification requirements but may not be eligible for special retirement coverage. If such an applicant is selected, they will be placed in the regular retirement system. FERS TRANSITION REQUIREMENT: To be eligible for Secondary retirement coverage under FERS, an employee must: 1) transfer directly (without a break in service exceeding 3 days) from a primary position to a secondary position, AND 2) complete 3 years of service in a primary rigorous position including any such service during which no FERS deductions were withheld, AND 3) must be continuously employed in a secondary position(s) since moving from a primary rigorous position, except for any break in employment from a secondary position that began with involuntary separation (not for cause). It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure this office has enough information to determine your special retirement status to ensure you do not lose benefits (normally through submission of your work history or other documentation that demonstrates work history of approved covered positions). You must let this office know if you are in a Primary coverage position.

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.