Clarification from the agency

This position is announced under FEMA's Excepted Service, Stafford Act Hiring Authority for a full-time Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee (CORE) appointment. After three years of continuous service, CORE employees earn competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA. Veterans Preference does not apply to the CORE selection process.

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What will I do in this position if hired? 

In this position, you will be supporting FEMA's, Office of Response and Recovery, Recovery Directorate, Technology Programs Division, Product Support Branch as an IT Specialist. Typical assignments include:

• Monitor and review software lifecycle and technical debt of an operational information system.
• Develops risk mitigation strategies and reports anomalies.
• Contribute to and review contract Statements of Objectives (SOO), Statements of Work (SOW), and Performance Work Statements (PWS)
• Assist ISSO(s) and System Manager(s) with conducting and documenting system risk assessments, including scheduling and facilitating meetings, documenting meeting outcomes and producing meeting notes, tracking the assignment and completion of risk assessment activities, and compiling information from various sources required to prepare reports and communications on behalf of the System Manager(s).
• Support and facilitate IT system change and configuration management activities, including coordinating and facilitating system change/configuration control reviews, tracking the assignment and completion of work through standard change management processes, and documenting authorized changes to the system configuration baseline.

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 a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee).  CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Appointments to CORE positions are typically between two years and 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 three 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.
• Travel may be 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/Moderate Level 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.

Qualifications

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

You qualify for this position at the IC-09 level (starting salary $61,957) if you possess the following: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade (IC-07) 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 the following specialized experience:

1. Monitoring IT system performance and/or management risks.
2. Compiling information to complete system health reports.

OR

Master's or equivalent graduate degree; or

2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; or

LL.B. or J.D.

OR

Combination of education and experience

You qualify for this position at the IC-11 level (starting salary $74,961) if you possess the following: One full year of specialized experience equivalent to the next lower grade (IC-09) 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 the following specialized experience:

1. Utilizing IT applications, operating systems, protocols, or equipment to provide automation support to customers;
2. Providing customer support to resolve IT related issues; and
3. Evaluating or implementing alternate approaches to IT-based problems.

OR

Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree; or

3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree; or

LL.M.

OR

Combination of education and experience 

Selective Placement Factor:  In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position:

Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate.

1. Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.

2. Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.

3. Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.

4. Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

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.

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.