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

Historian / Archaeologist

Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position serves as Assistant National Heritage Program Manager reporting to the Forest Service National Headquarters within the National Forest System. Responsible for planning, developing, implementing, administering, directing, and managing heritage and cultural resource program activities for the agency.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Douglas Stephens at Douglas.Stephens@usda.gov

THIS VACANCY HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO CLOSE ON 9/29/23.

Overview

Help
Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
09/19/2023 to 09/29/2023
Salary
$98,496 to - $128,043 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 13
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Location Negotiable After Selection,
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position for meetings or training.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—Mandatory Allowances and some Discretionary Allowances included.
Appointment type
Temporary promotion - 1 Year, may be extended up to 5 years. May be made permanent without further competition
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
13
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
23-WO-NFS-12110725-FS-LRP
Control number
746438500

This job is open to

Help

Clarification from the agency

Applications will be accepted only from current permanent agency employees with competitive status; and CTAP/RPL eligible candidates.

Videos

Duties

Help
  • Provides heritage support to agency-wide priority efforts including implementing the Great American Outdoors Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and Post-Fire Restoration Activities.
  • Mentors and advises forest and regional staff whose work centers on the efforts listed above.
  • Develops national policies, procedures, goals, objectives, targets and priorities for the heritage program.
  • Designs national heritage program elements to ensure the national direction, goals, and objectives for heritage stewardship and public service in the human dimensions of ecosystems management are met.
  • Represents the National Headquarters Office on the national heritage team; helps the national team establish direction for the agencies heritage program.
  • Serves as primary advisor for heritage program activities and responsibilities and cultural resource management.
  • Participates in interdisciplinary groups to address frequently complex and/or controversial regional issues. Coordinates with the regional office staffs and national forests and with the Washington Office.
  • Provides regional program leadership in managing highly complex and diverse historic properties of national, state, regional and local significance.
  • Oversees the regional History Program for agency administrative history and archives; oversees coordination with Chief Historian and History Program at the Washington office.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
  • Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
  • Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
  • Successful completion of one year probationary period, unless previously served.
  • Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
  • Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov
  • New USDA supervisors must successfully complete all components of the required new supervisory training program before the end of their probationary period.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary.

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in any of the job series listed below.

Basic Requirement:

GS-0170 Series:
Degree: History; or related field that included at least 18 semester hours in history;-
OR-

Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in history, or a major in a related field that included at least 18 semester hours in history, as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Graduate Education:
Graduate study in the social sciences or humanities may also be credited when such study included training in historical research methodology; or the thesis approached the subject from an historical viewpoint and used professional historical research methodology and techniques in its preparation.

GS-0193 Series:
A. Education
1. 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 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
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-
B. 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-
C. 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.

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

Specialized Experience Requirement:

For the GS-13: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as the majority of the following: Provide policy direction, professional leadership, guidance, and expertise in historic preservation and cultural resource management; experience developing/enhancing archeological program components, such as scientific reporting, records and database management, and cultural resource condition monitoring; and/or evaluated problems associated with archeological site protection and implemented corrective measures within the framework of archeological program and legal requirements; coordinates, consults, and negotiates with tribes, on issues of cultural values, traditional uses, and confidential data that are sensitive and controversial, regarding the effects of agency actions on historic properties under the National Historic Preservation Act, law enforcement and permitting activities under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and repatriation under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.
.
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.

Work Experience: Your resume must clearly document the following for each block of work experience; the beginning day, month and year the work assignment started and ended; the hours worked per week; position title, and series and grade if applicable; and description of duties performed. This information must be provided for each permanent, temporary, or seasonal appointment/work assignment or volunteer work and should be clearly documented as a separate block of time. Incomplete, inaccurate, or conflicting work history may not be credited for qualifications purposes. This can result in an applicant not being considered for the position.

TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

See above for education requirements for specific series.

Additional information

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Reemployment Priority List (RPL): To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) provides current or former temporary and term employees the opportunity to compete for permanent competitive service positions. Individuals must have more than 24 months of service without a break between appointments of two or more years and the last temporary or term appointment must have been with the Forest Service. Service must be in the competitive service and have been at a successful level of performance or better. Part-time and intermittent service will be credited only for time actually worked. Non-pay status such as leave without pay is credited for up to six months in a calendar year; anything beyond six months is not credited. Applicants are responsible for providing sufficient information/documentation to determine if the 24 month criteria is met.

This temporary promotion may be made permanent without further competition. If the temporary promotion is not made permanent, you will be returned to your permanent position of record or to a different position of equivalent grade and pay in the Forest Service, in the same geographic location, if possible. Your salary will be adjusted to the grade level and step that you would normally have been in had you remained in your position.

This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.

Final determination of the duty station(s) will be made by the selecting official at the time of the job offer. Pay rates vary depending on location. The salary shown is for the Rest of the U.S. See OPM.gov for additional information on pay rates.

The Forest Service may use certain incentives and hiring flexibilities, currently offered by the Federal government, to attract highly qualified candidates. Additional information is available at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-and-leave-flexibilities-for-recruitment-and-retention/

Positions filled from this announcement may be a bargaining or a non-bargaining unit position represented by either NFFE, AFGE or NAGE.

Selectee will be responsible for tax obligations related to payments for moving expenses - 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, Public Law 115-97. Questions should be directed to the Travel Help Desk, 877-372-7248, Option 1, or email SM.FS.asc_tos@usda.gov

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 your qualifications for this position as evidenced by the experience, education, and training you described in your application package, as well as the responses to the Assessment Questionnaire to determine the degree to which you possess the competencies listed below:

  • History and Archaeology
  • Oral Communication
  • Supervision
  • Technical Competence
  • Workforce Environment


Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position.

If you meet the qualification requirements and are determined to be among the best qualified, you will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration. Noncompetitive candidates and applicants under some special hiring authorities must meet minimum qualifications to be referred.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered to more accurately reflect the submitted documentation. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action.

To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12110725

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.