Clarification from the agency

This job is open to: U.S. citizens

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What will I do in this position if hired? 

In this position, the incumbent will:

• Coordinate with agency/ESF representatives from federal, state, local, and tribal departments as well as nongovernmental organizations in the Air Operations Branch to develop a common operating picture.
• Coordinate with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the primary state aviation regulatory agency regarding airport status.
• Assign operational aviation missions, allocate aircraft and other resources, track mission results, provide briefings, collect cost information, and identify and coordinate the resolution of flight safety issues in accordance with UCG priorities.
• Establish a plan for meeting immediate air response needs based on state requests or federal
  operational support.

When deployed, reports to the Operations Section Chief and coordinates federal support for response and recovery to disasters that result in considerable levels of damage or disruption that severely impacts the affected population and infrastructure requiring sustained federal recovery support. Typical responsibilities include:

• Develops and implements operational response strategies during an emergencies or major disasters to stabilize incidents and coordinate emergency response.
• Develops, maintains, and executes operational plans supporting Air operations response efforts.
• Collects, analyzes, and disseminates critical Air Operations information in partnership with Federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners.
• Builds partnerships with governmental and private sector incident or emergency response teams to foster collaboration and unified response.
• Participates in the incident action planning process. Ensures all relevant information is exchanged during briefings and debriefings related to infrastructure systems.

When not deployed, typical responsibilities for the incumbent include:

• Participates in exercises at the national, regional and state level and all required training with states, territories and other federal agencies.
• Provides input for development of and participate in the execution and documentation of functions and plans affecting critical aspects of FEMA's mission, operational responses and programs
• Provides basic instruction on disaster-related topics to regions, states and local authorities
• Participates in the development of regional catastrophic planning for all-hazard responses
• Assists in the development of plans, goals, and objectives for new initiatives and programs
• Evaluates and provides recommendations for improving effectiveness of existing programs and activities

What else do I need to know? 

At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management.  Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

This announcement is for a position as an IMAT CORE (Incident Management Assist Team, Cadre of Response/Recovery Employee).  IMAT CORE employees are full time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. IMATs are the first FEMA personnel deployed to an incident and manage the field-level federal response and early recovery with a primary focus on critical infrastructure stabilization, especially life-saving and life-sustaining efforts.  Appointments to IMAT CORE positions are four years in duration and may be renewed based upon workload needs and funding availability.  Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After 3 years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA.

FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflects the diversity of the nation.  At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people we serve. To learn about FEMA’s ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit www.fema.gov.    

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for this position
• You must successfully pass a background investigation.
• 24 hour on-call work schedule during emergency response periods required.
• You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
• Selective service registration is required for males born after 12/31/59.
• Please review "Other Information" section for additional key requirements.

To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo, successfully pass, and maintain a background investigation for Public Trust as a condition of placement into this position. This may include a credit check after initial job qualifications are determined, a review of financial issues, such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs (please visit: Mythbuster on Federal Hiring Policies for additional information). For more information on background investigations for Federal jobs please visit OPM Investigations.

Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below and that you clearly describe how your experience meets these requirements within your resume.

Qualifications

All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

You qualify for this position at the IT-04 level if you possess the following: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade (IT-03) in the Federal Service.  This experience may have been gained in the federal government, a state or local government, a non-profit organization, the private sector, or as a volunteer; however, your resume must clearly describe at least one year of specialized experience.  Specialized experience for this position includes:

1. Designing and developing incident response plans for a large organization pertaining to Air Operations;
2. Implementing and advising on a wide range of logistical support operations and technical methods and principles for aviation support operations projects; and,
3. Leading a large and geographically diverse team by engaging in activities such as providing guidance, communicating priorities, and/or delegating authority.

Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application:

• Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.

• Please limit your resume to five pages.  If more than five pages are submitted, only the first five pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications. 

• Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience.

Are you qualifying based on your work experience? 

• Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility.  To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder. If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience). Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level.  

• Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/DAE employee?  To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.

• Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information.  Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found “not qualified.” 

• 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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

• For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards. 

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 for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We will review your resume, supporting documentation, and your responses to the occupational questionnaire to ensure you meet the minimum qualification requirements listed in the announcement.  If you are qualified, you may be referred to a hiring manager for consideration.

We recommend that you preview the online questions for this announcement before you start the application process.