Clarification from the agency

The Public

This is a term position (more than 1 year) with an initial appointment expecting to last at least 13 months but may be extended up to a total of four years, or more based on any changes to regulations governing the number of years term appointments may last, without further competition. Term positions do not convey permanent status in the Federal service.

Is responsible for, or makes significant contributions to, the resources management plan, interpretive prospectus, and spin-off documents such as specific plans, action plans, revisions, and fiscal and budget documents. Serves as an advisor to park management on cultural resources. Identifies, evaluates, and monitors cultural resources, identifies potential threats, and makes recommendations to management regarding status and mitigation of impacts (present and future).
Represents the superintendent when working with others on archeological matters. Develops and maintains liaisons and effective working relations with related groups and individuals, agencies, and the public. Attends management and professional conferences and other events for the purposes of exchanging information and advancing advocacy for park stewardship.
Coordinates park cultural resources strategies and programs with those on adjacent lands for the purposes of achieving broad protection strategies and minimizing human impacts. Negotiates cooperative and interagency agreements and other cooperative instruments needed to effectively carry out resource stewardship goals.
Determines research needs and coordinates efforts toward obtaining research through various programs, grants, and contracts. Reviews archeological research project proposals, scopes of work, and task directives prepared for planning and other management purposes, including resources management plans. Serves as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative for projects conducted through contracts, interagency agreements, and cooperative agreements. Coordinates research and reviews documents.
Plans and conducts archeological research for planning documents, including general management plans, resources management plans, environmental impact statements, environmental assessments, archeological overviews and assessments, and archeological field investigations of all types, as required to meet the needs of the park. In cooperation with appropriate staff, researchers, and partners, the incumbent designs, implements, and supervises multi-phased archeological projects involving documentary, archival, and collections research; field investigations (both survey and excavation); laboratory analysis of recovered data; and professional report writing.
Assembles bibliographies and acquaints park staff with recent archeological scholarship pertinent to the park's resources and themes. Summarizes and interprets highly technical materials for park staff. Produces and maintains a site-specific database for the park. Provides peer review for NPS and non-NPS archeological studies, as requested. Seeks peer review for own work.
Incorporates appropriate GIS technology into job to provide comprehensive and scientifically sound answers to inquiries from managers and others. Uses automatic methods of data collection, analysis or illustration. Inputs data into digital form and uses computer applications for data analysis, manipulation, and presentation.
Is responsible for or makes significant contributions to the preparation of historic preservation documentation, compliance, and background materials for clearances, permits, licenses, etc., as required by Section 106 and Section 110 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Archeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA), NPS Management Policies, and cultural resources management guideline for planning and construction projects that involve cultural resources for all park undertakings.
Recommends, plans for, and executes archeological investigations required to meet NHPA, ARPA, NPS guidelines, and the research needs of the park. Reviews projects initiated by park staff and makes recommendations for approval to managers. Consults with cultural resource professionals to keep informed of new developments, research, etc. Evaluates pertinent professional literature and provides management with recommendations. May carry out program management duties by developing work plans and schedules, scopes of work, cost estimates, and proposals and/or grants to justify funding requests and accomplish goals. May administer and track project funds and prepare accomplishment reports, as needed. Maintains awareness of applicable funding sources within NPS and outside. May represent park on NPS regional task groups or similar organizations. Makes presentations in parks, public gatherings, and professional meetings.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
• Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required.
• Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
• You will be required to complete a one-year trial period.
• You will be required to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of your official duties; a valid driver's license is required. You will be required to submit a Motor Vehicle Operator's License and Driving Record. You must also submit (within a State sealed envelope or submitted directly by the State authorities), and at your own expense, all certified driving records from all States that disclose all valid driver's licenses, whether current or past, possessed by you.
• You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.
• 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.
• You may be required to travel overnight away from home. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/01/2021-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience.

For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

For this position, you will need to meet both basic requirements and professional experience/education requirements for an Archeologist GS-0193-11
Individual Occupational Requirements - Basic Requirements
1. Education: Degree that included 3 semester hours each in the following course areas:

• History of archeology.
• Archeology of a major geographical area such as North America or Africa.
• Regional archeology, archeological cultures, or sites in a specific part or portion of a major geographical area to acquire or develop a foundation for regional specialization for professional development.
• Theory and methods of archeology. Methods include, but are not limited to, typology, classification, sampling, cultural evolution, diffusion, dating, and analytical techniques.
• Archeological field school, to provide a basic understanding of theoretical and practical approaches to research design implementation, field preservation techniques, and report preparation by participation in actual field work.

AND Six semester hours of related course work in:

• geography, geology, or cultural geography;
• history, historiography, or historical archeology;
• environmental studies;
• scientific writing (nonfiction English composition); and/or
• surveying;

AND Archeological field school.
OR 2. Related Curriculum: degree in anthropology (with emphasis on ethnology, physical anthropology, or scientific linguistics), history, American studies, or a related discipline may be accepted as satisfying in full the educational requirements, provided the curriculum supplied academic course work sufficiently similar to the requirements in A.1 (including archeological field school).
OR 3. Experience: Four years of archeological work experience that demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles and theories of professional archeology. The work experience must have included archeology field experience, which may include that gained in an archeological field school. Field experience should have included a combination of professional experience in archeological survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, and preparation of written materials. Applicants with such field experience should, after additional experience under the direction of a higher grade archeologist, be able to demonstrate the ability to be a crew chief, directing the work of others at a single location as a part of a larger archeological project.

To qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: develop and complete archeological research, including problem definition and work planning, implementation of data collection, written summary of methods and results, and final publication of work. Contribution to interdisciplinary environmental planning and resources management teams, providing information on archeological resources and contributing to, or reviewing, planning, inventory, assessment, and compliance documents. Design, implement, and supervise archeological projects involving documentary, archival, and collections research; field investigations (both survey and excavation); laboratory analysis of recovered data; and professional report writing. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least three years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in Archeology from an accredited college or university in a field directly related to this position. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. For example, I have 6 months of the specialized experience equivalent to GS-09 (50 percent of the experience requirement) and 45 semester hours or 68 quarter hours of appropriate directly related graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement). Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts.

Volunteer 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.

How you will be evaluated

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

A review of your resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the Occupational Questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses provided in the Occupational Questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation, you will be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your score may be adjusted accordingly. If a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully; errors or omissions may affect your rating.

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/11234879, and the result of the additional assessments required for this position.

In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed below that are required to successfully perform the job.

You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Attention to Detail
• Flexibility
• History and Archaeology
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Oral Communication
• Research
• Self-Management
• Teamwork
• Technical Competence
• Writing

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Candidates will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. These procedures place candidates with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Veterans with a service connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher. Under Category Rating, candidates will be rated and ranked into one of three categories:

• Best Qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position
• Well Qualified - applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in most of the requirements of the job
• Qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in some, but not all of the requirements of the job.