The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. The mission of the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) is to save species by using cutting edge science, sharing knowledge and providing inspirational experiences for our guests.
Summary
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo. The mission of the National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) is to save species by using cutting edge science, sharing knowledge and providing inspirational experiences for our guests.
Open to current Smithsonian Institution employees with Federal career/career-conditional status or eligibility only.
More than one selection may be made from this announcement.
The Supervisory Biologist (Curator) is responsible for curating animal collections which may include exotic, rare, endangered and native species, maintaining excellence in all aspects of the care and welfare of these animals, supervising animal keeper staff who are responsible for the care, husbandry, and daily management of a wide variety of species.
In this position, you will:
Supervise assistant curators, animal keepers, volunteers, interns, students, and contractors.
Be responsible for all aspects of the daily care and husbandry of the assigned animal collections.
Prepare annual budget for routine and emergency needs.
Develop and implement management, disease surveillance, and breeding programs for endangered or threatened species.
Requires career/career-conditional status or eligibility.
Males born after 12/31/59 must be registered with Selective Service.
Conditions of Employment
Qualification requirements, including one year time-in-grade at the next lower grade level for promotion candidates, must be met within 30 days of the job announcement closing date. See the 'Required Documents' section for additional information.
For information on qualification requirements, see Qualification Standards Handbook for General Schedule Positions viewable on OPM Website.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
Degree: Biological Sciences, Agriculture, Natural Resource Management, Chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position.
or
Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
In addition to the basic qualification requirement above:
Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal Service. For this position, specialized experience is defined as supervising staff and maintaining all aspects of care and welfare of exotic, and rare endangered species; organizing and leading research program and assist reproductive technologies.
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.
Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.
Education
This position has positive education requirements.
Additional information
This position is not included in the bargaining unit.
Current or Former Political Appointees: Beginning January 1, 2010, agencies must seek prior approval from OPM before they can appoint a current or recent political appointee to a competitive or non-political excepted service position at any level under the provisions of title 5, United States Code. If you are currently or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, or Non-career SES employee in the executive branch, you MUST disclose that to the Office of Human Resources. Submit a copy of your applicable SF-50, along with a statement that provides the following information regarding your most recent political appointment:
Position title;
Type of appointment (Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES, or Presidential Appointee);
Agency; and,
Beginning and ending dates of appointment.
Recruitment Incentive: Recruitment incentive(s) may be authorized for this position. However, approval for incentives are contingent upon various availability. If authorized, certain incentives will require the incumbent to sign a service agreement to remain in the Federal government for a certain time period.
Note: This statement does not imply nor guarantee an incentive will be offered and paid.
Selections may be made for vacancies across the Smithsonian Institution (SI). By applying to this position, you agree to allow your application and other personal information to be shared with one or more SI hiring officials for employment consideration for same/similar positions within the location(s) identified in this announcement.
The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Your application will be evaluated first for the basic qualifications described above. The applications that meet the basic qualifications will be evaluated further against the following criteria:
Knowledge and experience in daily care and husbandry of assigned animal collections.
Skill in developing and executing appropriate procedures in housing, feeding, pest control, physical constraint of husbandry.
Ability to develop a budget, test plans, and write protocols in growth and reproductivity while enhancing viability of different species.
Ability to provide the full scope of strategic, technical, and administrative supervision to staff.
Important Note:
Your resume and supporting documentation will be compared to your responses to the occupational questionnaire or other assessment tool for consistency. If a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your resume, you will be assigned a rating commensurate to your described experience. Your resume should provide detailed information regarding how your education and experience relate to this position, including the major duties and qualifications criteria listed.
The Smithsonian offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, vacation and sick leave, holidays, health/life insurance, accident insurance, and excellent retirement program options.
Your application package should include the following documents:
Resume - Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. Ensure your resume contains the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), job-related qualifications, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary for each employment period. It is your responsibility to ensure all information is submitted. Failure to include this information may result in disqualification for the position.
For assistance with creating a resume, please click here.
Current and former employees MUST submit a copy of their Standard Form (SF)-50, “Notice of Personnel Action,” that indicates proof of status and time-in-grade eligibility. The SF-50 must include your position title, series, grade, step, salary, type of service (competitive or excepted in block 34), and tenure (1 or 2 in block 24). Please provide a SF-50 that shows the length of time you have been in your current/highest grade level. Examples of appropriate SF50s include: Appointments, Reassignments, Within-grade/range increases or Promotion actions. NOTE: Pay adjustments and award SF-50s do not include the length of time in your current position, therefore, they are NOT acceptable SF-50’s on their own. You may need to provide more than one SF-50.
Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying).
Unofficial school transcripts, if the position has an education requirement or if you are using education to qualify. If selected for the position, you must provide an official transcript before appointment.
Proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study, if applicable.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:
You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process.
The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.
SMITHSONIAN
Office of Human Resources
POB 37012, 600 Maryland Avenue, MRC 517
Suite 5060
Washington, District of Columbia 20013-7012
United States
Next steps
At the end of the application process you will be able to create and save a PDF file that contains your responses to the assessment questions. You may save this file as initial receipt of your application. After the job announcement closes, you will receive an email from the Smithsonian with confirmation of receipt. The Smithsonian receives many applications for each job. Each application is reviewed carefully which may take a few weeks. We will send you an e-mail to update you as we go through phases of the application review process. You may also check your application status by logging into www.usajobs.gov and selecting the tab "My USAJOBS;" e-mailing vacancy.info@si.edu; or by contacting the Office of Human Resources Representative listed. Additional Information:
Your application package should include the following documents:
Resume - Your resume can be uploaded and attached to your application or created using the USA Jobs on-line resume builder. Ensure your resume contains the job title (including the occupational series and grade if it is Federal), job-related qualifications, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, and salary for each employment period. It is your responsibility to ensure all information is submitted. Failure to include this information may result in disqualification for the position.
For assistance with creating a resume, please click here.
Current and former employees MUST submit a copy of their Standard Form (SF)-50, “Notice of Personnel Action,” that indicates proof of status and time-in-grade eligibility. The SF-50 must include your position title, series, grade, step, salary, type of service (competitive or excepted in block 34), and tenure (1 or 2 in block 24). Please provide a SF-50 that shows the length of time you have been in your current/highest grade level. Examples of appropriate SF50s include: Appointments, Reassignments, Within-grade/range increases or Promotion actions. NOTE: Pay adjustments and award SF-50s do not include the length of time in your current position, therefore, they are NOT acceptable SF-50’s on their own. You may need to provide more than one SF-50.
Time-in-Grade Requirements: Under competitive merit promotion procedures, any individual who is currently holding, or who has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying).
Unofficial school transcripts, if the position has an education requirement or if you are using education to qualify. If selected for the position, you must provide an official transcript before appointment.
Proof of U.S. accreditation for foreign study, if applicable.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
Click on the "Apply Online" button on the upper right side of the page. Please Note:
You must apply for this position online through the 'Apply Online' button and submit required supplemental documents (if they are relevant to you).
You may submit required documents by uploading them online during the application process.
The complete application package, including any required documents, is due in the Smithsonian Office of Human Resources on the closing date of the announcement by 11:59 PM Eastern Time.
If you are unable to apply online, paper applications may be accepted with prior approval of the Contact Person listed below.
SMITHSONIAN
Office of Human Resources
POB 37012, 600 Maryland Avenue, MRC 517
Suite 5060
Washington, District of Columbia 20013-7012
United States
Next steps
At the end of the application process you will be able to create and save a PDF file that contains your responses to the assessment questions. You may save this file as initial receipt of your application. After the job announcement closes, you will receive an email from the Smithsonian with confirmation of receipt. The Smithsonian receives many applications for each job. Each application is reviewed carefully which may take a few weeks. We will send you an e-mail to update you as we go through phases of the application review process. You may also check your application status by logging into www.usajobs.gov and selecting the tab "My USAJOBS;" e-mailing vacancy.info@si.edu; or by contacting the Office of Human Resources Representative listed. Additional Information:
