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Biologist

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Grand Canyon National Park
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located in Grand Canyon National Park, in the Science and Resource Managment Division.

Career Seasonal appointments are permanent positions and include the same benefits as Career appointments, but do not provide work on a year-round basis. You will work from approximately early February to the end of November, and you will be in non-pay status for the remainder of the year. Non-pay time can vary due to project requirements or weather conditions.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
07/24/2024 to 08/06/2024
Salary
$49,025 to - $77,955 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 7 - 9
Location
Grand Canyon National Park
Grand Canyon, AZ
1 vacancy
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
50% 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. Employer paid and reimbursed relocation expenses are considered taxable income. The National Park Service does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. Employees should consult professional tax, legal, and accounting advisors regarding concerns about the financial implications of a Permanent Change of Station (PCS).
Appointment type
Permanent - Career Seasonal, subject to non-pay periods.
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
9
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
IM-1541-GRCA-24-12479058-DE
Control number
801175600

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Duties

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Duties will be developmental in nature when filled below the full performance level.

Major Duties for GS-07/09:

  • Leading fieldwork in frontcountry and remote backcountry settings and under challenging conditions in a safe and efficient manner.
  • Training crew members in appropriate data collection, entry, and verification methods.
  • Leads and/or collaborates with partners on projects to manage invasive plants and restore native plant communities.
  • Uses chainsaws, water pumps, herbicide application equipment, and a variety of hand tools to manage invasive plant and/or restore native plant communities.
  • Write reports and interpret monitoring results for natural resource managers.
Major Duties for GS-09:
  • Provide verbal briefings to others to convey information related to habitat restoration including invasive plant management.
  • Utilize technical methods and procedures and management of biological resources practices with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Wilderness Act, and the Endangered Species Act, in order to design, coordinate, and execute field work.
  • Use field, geospatial, and other data (e.g., environmental variables) to interpret vegetation data, trends and interrelationships and review scientific literature to put those results into context.
  • Download, enter, and process vegetation data from mobile data collection units into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) such as ArcGIS, ArcPro, ArcGIS online (AGOL), and/or R (or similar systems).

Area Information:
This position is stationed at South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park located in Northern Arizona. The South Rim is approximately 60 miles north of Williams and 82 miles Northwest of Flagstaff, at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Temperatures range from approximately 90 degrees in the summer to 0 degrees in the winter. Annual precipitation averages around 13 inches.

Grand Canyon Village has schools K-12, a daycare center, post office, general store, churches, a recreation center with gym, a public library, a clinic with resident physicians, and several restaurants. The park community consists of some 2,500 people, including employees of the NPS and concessionaires and their family members. There are often employment opportunities for family members in the park and surrounding areas. The park community is small enough that many employees choose to walk or bike from their homes to work. Complete shopping, educational, medical, and professional services are available in Williams and Flagstaff. Flagstaff has a population of about 75,000 and has multiple K-12 public and private schools, Northern Arizona University, and diverse community, medical and other support services. Recreational opportunities include hiking, backpacking, fishing, cross-country and downhill skiing, and golfing in nearby communities.

South Rim Housing: Permanent and Term employees with a Full Performance Level (FPL) of a GS-09 or WG-8 and above will be provided the option of accepting assigned housing, participating in the normal bid system, or accepting shared housing. Permanent and Term employees with an FPL of GS-08 or WG-7 and below may be provided the option of participating in the normal bid system or accepting shared housing. Any employee assigned to shared housing may continue to bid into non-shared housing.

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.
  • Complete the initial online assessment and USAHire Assessment, if required.
  • You must obtain Arizona Department of Agriculture pesticide applicator license within 6 months of employment.
  • You must obain S-212 Wildland Fire Chain Saws certification or equivalent within 12 months of employment.
  • 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 will be required to submit a Motor Vehicle Operator's License and Driving Record. You must also submit (within a State sealed envelope or submitted directly by the State authorities), and at your own expense, all certified driving records from all States that disclose all valid driver's licenses, whether current or past, possessed by you.
  • 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.
  • If you are a new employee in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
  • You will be required to travel overnight away from home up to 14 nights per month. 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.
  • Applicants must be at least (1)18 years old or (2) at least 16 years old and: (a) Have graduated from high school or been awarded a certificate equivalent to graduating from high school; or (b) Have completed a formal vocational training program; or (c) Have received a statement from school authorities agreeing with their preference for employment rather than continuing their education; or (d) Be currently enrolled in a secondary school and either work only during school vacation periods or work part-time during the school year under a formal student employment program.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-08/06/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience.

BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS: This position has basic requirements required by the Office of Personnel Management. Candidates who do not meet this requirement by close of this announcement will receive no further consideration for this position. It is recommended to upload any and all transcripts you have to justify this requirement (under grad, grad, etc). Applicants must meet one of the following before the close of the announcement:

EDUCATION: Successfully completed a bachelor's or higher in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
COMBINATION: A combination of education and experience in courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. You must include hours per week worked. You must include transcripts.

AND

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:
To qualify for this position at the GS-07 grade level, you must possess one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-05 level, or higher, in the Federal service. Specialized experience demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to successfully perform the duties of a Biologist. Examples of specialized experience include: planning and managing biological science technicians, interns, and cooperators in invasive plant removal, ecological restoration as well as planning and implementing vegetation monitoring protocols; collecting field data or natural resources inventory of a park or monitoring program; disseminating information about natural resources to park staff, visitors, and the scientific community; or assisting with developing, testing and implementing scientific monitoring protocols to identify and evaluate long-term monitoring of natural resources. Experience equivalent to the GS-05 may be professional work at the developmental or trainee level. Lower graded technician/assistant work alone at the GS-05 grade level is not qualifying for this series. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successfully completed one year of progressively higher-level graduate education from an accredited educational institution concentrated in a field that is directly related to the work of the position to be filled, such as in ecology, biology, zoology, botany, natural resource management; or other directly related subject matter. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. If that number cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester (27 quarter) hours should be considered an academic year of graduate study. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. You must provide transcripts that demonstrate graduate level coursework. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
COMBINATION: Equivalent combination of direct related graduate level education and specialized experience. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. For example, I have six months of the specialized experience (50% of the experience requirement), and 9 semester hours or 14 quarter hours of appropriate directly related graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement). The total percentage must equal at least 100%.


MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level, you must possess one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least 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. Examples of specialized experience include: recommend and/or participate in the development and implementation of plans to address resource concerns related to vegetation or ecological restoration (i.e. native plant revegetation, invasive plant management, erosion control, soil assessments, scientific monitoring); identify resource management concerns that can be corrected or mitigated by immediate attention related to vegetation communities; observe, measure, and report on the impact and effectiveness of management actions that affect vegetation communities. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successfully completed two years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a masters 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 biological sciences, agriculture, botany, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to this position. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
COMBINATION: Equivalent combination of experience and education as described above. Only education in excess of the first year of graduate-level education (the amount required for the next lower grade level) may be combined with experience to meet the total requirement. For example, applicants with 6 months of appropriate experience equivalent to the GS-7 (50% of the experience requirement), and 27 semester hours (50 percent of the education requirement to qualify for GS-9, in excess of that required for GS-7) would be qualifying for the GS-9 grade level (assuming one year of graduate education is defined by the college or university as 18 semester hours).


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

Salary Range: 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.

Additional Selections: 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 Potential: Promotion to the full performance level is neither guaranteed nor implied and will be based solely on your 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: The work requires some physical exertion such as long periods of standing; walking over rough, uneven or rocky surfaces; recurring bending, crouching, stooping, stretching, reaching or similar activities; and recurring lifting of moderately heavy items.

Working Conditions: Work is performed both indoors and occasionally outdoors with moderate risks.

Telework: The National Park Service has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

Reasonable Accommodation (RA) Requests: If you believe you have a disability (i.e., physical or mental), covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended that would interfere with completing the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, you will be granted the opportunity to request a RA in your online application. Requests for RA for the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments and appropriate supporting documentation for RA must be received prior to starting the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments. Decisions on requests for RA are made on a case-by-case basis. If you meet the minimum qualifications of the position, after notification of the adjudication of your request, you will receive an email invitation to complete the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, based on your adjudication decision. You must complete all assessments within 48 hours of receiving the URL to access the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, if you received the link after the close of the announcement. To determine if you need a RA, please review the Procedures for Requesting a Reasonable Accommodation for Online Assessments here: https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

A review of your resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the Occupational Questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses provided in the Occupational Questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation, you will be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your score may be adjusted accordingly. If a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully; errors or omissions may affect your rating.

You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications listed in this vacancy announcement. Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), your responses on the application questionnaire, and your responses to all assessments required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

  • Attention to Detail
  • Botany
  • Data Management
  • Decision Making
  • Flexibility
  • Integrity/Honesty
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Learning
  • Oral Communication
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Reasoning
  • Self-Management
  • Teamwork
  • Technical Competence


Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration.

Candidates will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. These procedures place candidates with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Veterans with a service connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level or higher. Under Category Rating, candidates will be rated and ranked into one of three categories:
  • Best Qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position
  • Well Qualified - applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in most of the requirements of the job
  • Qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors and are proficient in some, but not all of the requirements of the job.

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