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Ecologist (Fire) - Direct Hire Authority

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Wildland Fire and Aviation Management
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located in Ozark National Scenic Riverways in the Fire and Aviation Division. Please visit find a park for additional park information.

For additional park information, please reach out to Bobby_Bloodworth@nps.gov

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
05/15/2023 to 05/31/2023
Salary
$57,118 to - $89,835 per year

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

Pay scale & grade
GS 9 - 11
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Van Buren, MO
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
No
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
11
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
NS-OZAR-1544-23-11954568-DH
Control number
723804700

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

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

Duties

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  • Participate in park and regional planning efforts for fire management, fuels management, and resource management planning efforts.
  • Develop and prepare fire monitoring plans with objectives to adequately monitor fire and fuels management activities.
  • Prepare, implement and supervise remote field projects, including use of helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, and boats.
  • Manage and input field data collected into computer databases, utilize GIS and GPS systems for data collection and management.
  • Analyze data collected using standard statistical analyses and write management and scientific reports and present results to management and outside audiences.

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.
  • 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.
  • You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.
  • You will be required to complete a Confidential Financial Disclosure Report, OGE-450 on an annual basis.
  • You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by 11:59 EST on 05/31/2023 of the job 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.

For more information on the qualifications for this position, go to: OPM Ecologist Qualification Standards

Basic Requirement:
OPM Education Requirements for 0408 Ecology Series: Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the announcement's closing date, as defined below.

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study in biology, or a related field of science underlying ecological research that included at least 30 semester hours in basic and applied biological sciences. These hours must have included at least 9 semester hours in ecology, and 12 semester hours in physical and mathematical sciences.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education in the amounts listed below.

To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:
Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-09: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 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. Qualifying specialized experience include duties such as: conducting ecological or vegetation monitoring studies; managing and entering ecological data into database systems; assisting in analyzing ecological data and preparing reports for management.
OR
Substitution of Education for Experience: 2 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or equivalent graduate degree in an accredited educational institution concentrated in a field that is directly related to the work of this position, such as in restoration ecology, rangeland ecology, wildlife ecology, ecology, or other directly-related subject matter.
OR
Equivalent combination of such education and experience. For example, I have six months of specialized experience (50% of the experience requirement), and 27 semester hours or 41 quarter hours of appropriate directly related graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement).

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

Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 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. Qualifying specialized experience include duties such as: developing and conducting fire ecology, fuels, or vegetation monitoring studies; managing and entering ecological data into database systems; analyzing ecological data and preparing reports for management; assist in writing planning documents for fire or land management.
OR
Substitution of Education for Experience: 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Coursework must be directly related to position being filled which is forest inventory and analysis.
OR
An appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education described above. Only graduate education beyond what is required for a master's degree is creditable for this combination, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.

CTAP Statement: Current surplus and current or former displaced Federal individuals who have special prior­ity selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) must be well qualified for the position to receive consideration for special priority selection. Well qualified means that the applicant meets the following: OPM qualification standards for the position; all selective placement factors, where applicable; special qualifying conditions that OPM has approved for the position, where applicable; is physically qualified with reasonable accommodation, where appropriate to satisfactorily perform the duties of the position upon entry; and is rated by the organization at least at the well qualified level on all competencies.

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

This notice is being issued to recruit personnel to occupations for which a critical hiring need has been identified. To assist in filling these positions, OPM has granted the Department of the Interior "Direct Hire Authority".

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.

Promotion to the full performance level is neither guaranteed nor implied and will be solely on you ability to satisfactorily perform the work of the position, existing work at the higher grade level, and recommendation by the position's supervisor.

Physical Demands: Office work is normally sedentary. However, field work may require strenuous physical activity including periods of standing, walking, climbing, and lifting and carrying heavy objects. Some activities will occur in physically dangerous areas or settings over extended periods of time.

Working Conditions: Office conditions require long periods of sitting, working with computers and general lifting, bending and reaching. Field conditions involve the employee being exposed to noise, dust, heat, weather, aircraft turbulence and the hazards of firefighting such as heat, smoke, and fire behavior. Protective clothing and equipment are required in hazardous environments.

The National Park Service has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework only during an emergency or natural disaster.


Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) OR Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): CTAP/ICTAP provides placement assistance to permanent Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated. Applicants claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility must submit a copy of their most recent performance appraisal, proof of eligibility, and most current SF50 noting position, grade level, duty location with their application. To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, applicants must be qualified (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry. For Information on CTAP and ICTAP visit: Career Transition (opm.gov)

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 well they meet the qualification requirements.

Upon receipt of the completed application package, a review of the application will be made to ensure basic qualification requirements are met.

This vacancy will be filled through DOI's 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 employee will receive no consideration for the position, as per OPM regulations.

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