Skip to main content
U.S. flag
Back to results

Archeologist

Department of the Interior
Bureau of Reclamation
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located in the Western Colorado Area Office, Environmental and Cultural Group, Durango, CO and in the Albuquerque Area Office, Environment and Lands Division, in Albuquerque, NM. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as a technical staff specialist for the cultural resources program conducting archeological and related technical and/or administrative work with particular emphasis on inventory, identification, evaluation, protection, rehabilitation, and preservation.

Overview

Help
Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
05/31/2022 to 06/13/2022
This job will close when we have received 30 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$56,983 to - $74,074 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 11
Locations
Durango, CO
1 vacancy
Albuquerque, NM
1 vacancy
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
11
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
BOR-22-11464158-MP-OPM
Control number
656362200

Videos

Duties

Help

*This announcement will remain open for 14 days OR until the first 30 applications have been received, whichever occurs first*

Salary: The salary range indicated in this announcement will be adjusted to include locality payment for the selected duty location. General Schedule locality pay tables may be found under Salaries & Wages.

This announcement is being posted with a current location of Durango, CO and/or Albuquerque, NM. However, this announcement may be used to fill subsequent vacancies at any of the Reclamation offices or remote, as applicable. For a complete listing of Reclamation office locations, please see USBR . When applying, you will be asked to select each location for which you are interested. Please select all that apply. Not all vacancy locations may be available at this time, but responses may be used in consideration of future vacancies.

DUTIES:

  • Serve as staff archeologist for the Area Office Program Manager for all aspects of the cultural resources program concerning Traditional Cultural Properties, archeology, history, and cultural resources management within the Area Office.
  • Make professional evaluations/judgments on the significance of historic/archeological properties, as well as effects of construction, planning, and Land Resource Management (LRM) and Operation and Maintenance (O&M), activities on such properties.
  • Conduct field investigations, prepare reports, and coordinate results as necessary to carry out program activities involving archeology, Traditional Cultural Properties, history, and cultural resources management.
  • Prepare and evaluate nominations to and determinations of eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places for archeological and historic sites, districts, buildings, and Traditional Cultural Properties.
  • Consult with Native American tribes to coordinate cultural resource investigations, organizational projects/undertakings, Traditional Cultural Property studies, and issuance of archeological permits under the Archeological Resources Protection Act.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship required.
  • May be required to complete background investigation.
  • Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
  • Must provide resume and supporting documents (See required documents).
  • Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
  • If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
  • You will be required to obtain and maintain a valid state driver's license.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 10 nights per month. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
  • The Bureau of Reclamation has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.
  • You may occasionally works outside of a regular tour of duty with supervisor approval, e.g., Credit Hours, Overtime, etc.
  • The work of this position involves occasional travel up to 10% of the time and includes some overnight stays to attend meetings, conferences, training, site visits, etc.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, applicants must demonstrate that they meet the Basic and Minimum Qualification Requirement as noted below. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience, and to demonstrate meeting the education requirement, a copy of your unofficial transcripts must be provided with your application.

Basic Requirement:

A. Have successfully completed a bachelor's or higher 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

B. Have successfully completed a bachelor's or higher 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 ABOVE (including archeological field school).

OR

C. Have a combination of education and experience: College-level education or training that provided knowledge equivalent to that described in A above, plus appropriate technical experience or additional education.

OR

D. Have four years of archeological work experience that demonstrates 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-graded 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.

Minimum Qualification Requirement, GS-11:

Specialized Experience: Have one (1) full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service (obtained either in the private or public sectors) performing the following: (1) Serving as a technical specialist for a division, organization or field area office; utilizing archeological, historical, and cultural resources principles and practices; (2) Adapting practices from engineering, geological and/or resource management fields for the benefit of a natural/cultural resources program; (3) Ensuring regulatory compliance and/or agency plans, and activities are consistent with statutory/regulatory requirements such as the Antiquities Act of 1906 and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966; (4) Preparing Requests for Proposal, Scopes of Work, and/or Government cost estimates; (5) Communicating with internal/external stakeholders to build and maintain effective working relationships; and (6) Writing clear and concise technical reports of work performed, including recommendations.

OR

Education: Have successfully completed 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or LL.M., in a field that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to conduct the work of this position such as Archeology, Anthropology, etc.

OR

Combination of Education/Experience: Have an equivalent combination of specialized experience and graduate level education described above. (To calculate, first take the number of semester hours or equivalent earned towards a graduate degree, in excess of 36 semester hours, and divide by 18 semester hours or equivalent. Then take the number of months of experience and divide by 12 months. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify).

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENTS: Merit promotion applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year at the GS-09 is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-11 level. (Must submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. No award SF-50 will be accepted).

Any individual who is currently holding, or has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet time-in-grade requirements (must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent in the Federal service). Time-in-grade requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

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.

You must include months, years and hours per week worked to receive credit for your work and/or volunteer experience. One year of specialized experience is equivalent to 12 months at 40 hours per week. Part-time hours are prorated. You will not receive any credit for experience that does not indicate exact hours per week or is listed as "varies".

Education

To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts from an accredited institution with your name, school name, credit hours, course level, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Transcripts do not need to be official, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet qualification requirements, you must show that your education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.

GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.

Additional information

Reasonable Accommodation Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 as amended, that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a reasonable accommodation in your online application. Requests for Reasonable Accommodations for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for Reasonable Accommodation must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for Reasonable Accommodations are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a Reasonable Accommodation, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

Physical Demands: The work of this position regularly combines both office and field assignments. You will work in potentially dangerous situations on canals, rivers, or large reservoirs as well as conducting resource inventories of project areas in places which are sometimes remote and have rough terrain and
poor access. Other work is often accomplished by participation at meetings, field reviews, and consultations held in an office setting. Considerable travel may be necessary. Office work requires extensive use of computers and is mostly sedentary.

Working Conditions: The work of this position requires office/field work. Field work may involve exposure to adverse conditions and temperature extremes around canals, streams, and lakes. Office work is performed in a comfortable, ventilated, and well lighted environment.

Incentives may be authorized. This JOA will be used for current and future vacancies, as applicable. Some offices may offer relocation, recruitment, or student loan repayment incentives. Applicants are encouraged to request incentive information, if selected.

Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) or Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP): For information on how to apply as an ICTAP or CTAP eligible see http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/ctap_guideline.pdf. To be well-qualified and exercise selection priority for this vacancy, displaced Federal employees must be rated at 85 or above on the rating criteria for this position.

How you will be evaluated

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

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/11464158, 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):

  • Technical Competence
  • Customer Service
  • Administration and Management
  • Contracting/Procurement
  • Influencing/Negotiating
  • Attention to Detail
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Reading
  • Reasoning
  • Self-Management
  • Teamwork
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 who apply under Competitive Merit Promotion procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are highly qualified based on the content of their resume and their responses to the questionnaire and online assessment. Best qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided.

Candidates who apply under Noncompetitive Merit Promotion procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are minimally qualified based on the content of their resume and their responses to the questionnaire and online assessment. Qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided.

Your session is about to expire!

Your USAJOBS session will expire due to inactivity in 8 minutes. Any unsaved data will be lost if you allow the session to expire. Click the button below to continue your session.