Clarification from the agency

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

• Coordinates the management of wildland fires with the response agency and cooperating agencies on single and multi-jurisdictional wildland fires.
• Ensures that the fire management program complies with environmental laws, regulations, and policy.
• Directs and supervises all phases of the budget formulation and execution process and initiates changes as appropriate.
• Ensures the fuels management program is consistent with ecosystem management principles and land use plans.
• Establishes priorities for fire hazard reduction, prescribed burns, and fuels management based on minimizing potential damage and maximizing multiple resource benefits and enhancement.
• Supervises, directs and coordinates subordinate staff.
• Collaborates with park unit leadership while also serving on and representing the units and NPS on various interagency teams, and work groups dealing with specific local, geographic, or national fire management issues.
• Coordinates unit and group programs with various other federal, state, and local agencies.
• Develops, implements, and administers agreements, operating plans, and memorandums of understanding with local government, state, tribal, and federal agencies to develop strong internal and external working relationships.
• Works with a variety of complex technical problems relating to fire weather, smoke management, fire behavior, and computer fire modeling.

The following conditions of employment apply only if the selectee has arduous NWCG qualifications that they would like to maintain with support and concurrence from their supervisor:

• Prior to appointment, you must be determined physically fit by an authorized government physician to perform strenuous and physically demanding duties; and also pass a medical examination (which includes vision, hearing, cardiovascular, and mobility of extremities) given by an authorized government physician. You will also be required to undergo periodic medical examinations throughout employment.
• The Work Capacity Test (WCT-Pack Test) is a method for assessing an employee's fitness levels for fire qualifications in the positions covered by this recruitment notice. You must meet the requirements of a Work Capacity Test that is commensurate with the fitness level of the NWCG qualification you are maintaining.

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.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Appointment subject to a background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirements for males.
• Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
• You will be required to submit to a drug test and receive a negative drug test result prior to the appointment. In addition, this position is subject to random testing for illegal drug use.
• 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 may be required to complete training and operate a four-wheel drive vehicle.
• 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 during fire season.
• If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
• Subject to frequent extended travel up to 14 nights per month, particularly during fire season, and you must obtain a government charge card for travel.
• You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with purchase authority.
• Completion of NWCG course M-581, Fire Program Management within one year of entrance on duty.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement 10/30/2023, 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 for each federal position listed as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of qualifying 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. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying 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.

This position has been identified as one of the key fire management positions under the Interagency Fire Program management (IFPM) Standard. This position has been categorized as a Unit Fire Program Manager, Moderate Complexity, and requires the selectee to meet the minimum qualification standards for IFPM prior to moving into the position. For more information on IFPM, click here.

Selective Factors: The applicant must have possessed all of the following National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) incident management qualifications and training requirements to be considered eligible for this position:
1. Pathway #1: Task Force Leader (TFLD) and Incident Commander Type 3 (ICT3) or Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 2 (RXB2) -OR- Pathway#2: Helibase Manager (HEBM) and Incident Commander Type 3 (ICT3).-
2. 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. A minimum of 90 days of wildland firefighting experience is required to meet qualifications for secondary (administrative) covered positions. The Department of Interior defines wildland firefighting experience as: On-the-line wildland firefighting experience gained through containment, control, suppression, or use of wildland fire. 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, as long as the total amount of this experience equates to at least 90 days. 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. 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.
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3. Basic Education: This occupation has specific educational requirements. It is your responsibility to show how you satisfy the course requirements for the series(s) you are applying for. If you do not provide information that clearly shows how your completed college course work meets all of the requirements, you will be rated ineligible. Your rating will be based solely on the information you submit with your application. No attempts will be made to verify with you, or the school you attended, whether or not your course work meets all of the requirements. YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL YOUR COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS.

To qualify for this position at the GS-0401-12 level, you must possess one of the following:
A. Possess a 4-year degree in the biological sciences, agriculture, natural resources management, chemistry or related disciplines appropriate to the position.
-OR-
B. A combination of education and qualifying experience which included courses equivalent to a major (24 semester hours or equivalent) as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education which totals four years. To satisfy this requirement, the nature and quality of this course work must have been such that it would serve as a prerequisite for more advanced study in the field or subject-matter area. This means the required course work must show progression beyond the associate degree level in directly related coursework, such that it may be considered to be leading towards a bachelor's degree in the biological sciences, agriculture, natural resources management, chemistry or related disciplines
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In addition, to qualify for this position, you must possess the following specialized experience: At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. Specialized experience includes directing and supervising a fire management program that is responsible for wildland fire use, prescribed fire, fire suppression, aviation, fuels and smoke management including planning, program direction, coordination and evaluation; develop, review and analyze fire management plans for ecological soundness and technical adequacy.

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.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.