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Social Science Technician

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Regional Office Serving Interior Regions 6, 7, & 8
This job announcement has closed

Summary

Click here for the OPM Salaries and Wages to calculate locality pay.

Open to the first 50 applicants or until 09/14/2022 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
09/07/2022 to 09/12/2022
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$54,727 to - $71,146 per year

Salary does not include locality pay. For specific wage information, reference the OPM Salaries and Wages link in the Summary section

Pay scale & grade
GS 9
Locations
1 vacancy in the following locations:
Lakewood, CO
Santa Fe, NM
Moab, UT
Salt Lake City, UT
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
Term
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
None
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
IM-1539-IMDO-22-11636984-DE
Control number
675825500

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Duties

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Collection of social science and other data related to visitor use, visitor experience, and visitor related impacts, including creation of sampling schedules, deployment of equipment such as trail and traffic counters, maintenance of equipment, administering intercept surveys of park visitors and/or training surveyors, systematically observing visitor behavior, and using GIS/GPS equipment and applications. Organize and assist the regional Visitor Use Management Program Coordinator in creating and implementing training programs that develop professional visitor use and social science skills for employees at park units across the intermountain region. Communicates visitor use management research via written reports and presentations that clearly describe the need, utility, research questions, methodologies, analyses, and any recommendations. Development and recommendation of data collection approaches, monitoring protocols, and sampling plans to appropriately address the visitor use management planning needs (i.e., desired conditions, indicators, thresholds, and visitor capacity) of park units. Organize, manage, and consolidate data and data sets into appropriate formats, and ensure data is properly stored for security, easy access, and usability. Document methodologies for data collection and analysis, and ensure data is properly backed up. Analyzes visitor use data, specifically social science data, related to park planning needs (i.e., desired conditions, indicators, thresholds, and visitor capacity), including the manipulation and analysis of data to produce descriptive and inferential statistics and statistical models that answer planning-related research questions (i.e., desired conditions, indicators, thresholds, and visitor capacity).

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship required.
  • Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
  • Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
  • Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
  • 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 complete a one-year trial period.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 4 nights per month. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
  • You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-09/14/2022-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

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), 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 of qualified specialized experience.

To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level, you must possess all 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-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: Collection of social science and other data related to visitor use, visitor experience, and visitor-related resource impacts; organization skills and understanding of visitor use management to inform training programs; technical writing and presentation abilities for interpreting social science and visitor use data in to management implications for broad audiences; ability to develop and recommend approaches for data collection, monitoring, and other needs related to visitor use management planning; organization, management, and consolidation of social science and visitor use data; statistical data analysis related to social science and visitor use. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least a Master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree, related directly to the work of the position. Examples of related education include but are not limited to Public Administration and Policy, Business Administration, Parks and Recreation, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, History or Cultural Studies. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. For example, 6 months of specialized experience and 27 semester hours of qualifying graduate level education equals 100% of the qualification requirement. Please Note: If you are using education to qualify you MUST submit a complete copy (unofficial is okay) of your transcripts. We cannot determine eligibility without this information. We will not solicit you for this information and you will not receive consideration if it is not submitted.

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.

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.

Additional information

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.

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

Physical Demands: The work is approximately 70% office and 30% field-based. Office work consists of long period of sitting and intense concentration, potentially in an open-office environment. The field work consists of carrying research instruments, hiking, walking, bending, and standing. The incumbent may be required to lift and carry a backpack up to 40 pounds and able to hike in steep and/or uneven terrain. The incumbent will be required to drive a government vehicle to field locations independently, therefor a driver's license is required.

Working Conditions: The work is approximately 70% office and 30% field-based. The office setting has adequate heat, light, and ventilation. The outdoor field work will be in varied weather conditions, including varying weather conditions (i.e. greater than 100 degrees Fahrenheit and below freezing), inclement weather (i.e. rain, snow, thunderstorms, etc.), and/or elevations of greater than 8,000 feet.

The National Park Service has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document that you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application. Click the following link for more information, https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Alternate_Application_Information.

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

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.
You will be evaluated on the following competencies:
  • Data Management
  • Public Planning
  • Research
  • Teaches Others
  • Technical Competence
  • Written Communication


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 successful completion of additional assessments, including a panel resume review. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.

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