Skip to main content
U.S. flag

Ecologist

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

Summary

This position is located in Yosemite National Park, in the Resource Management and Science 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 mid-January to mid-December, 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

Help
Job canceled
Open date: 10/23/2024
Closed date: 10/27/2024
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Work site options
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Remote job
No
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).
Salary
$60,135 - $78,175 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 9
Promotion potential
None
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full-time - Career Seasonal, subject to periods of non-pay.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Appointment type
Permanent
Occupations and job series
Supervisory status
Yes
Federal service type
This job is in the Competitive Service
Represented by a union
No
Drug test
No
Security clearance
Not Required
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.
Background check type
Financial disclosure required
No
Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.
Announcement number
PW-1549-YOSE-25-12580509-DE
Control number
815093300

Videos

Duties

Help

This position supports the plant ecology program manager in developing, implementing, and evaluating a wide variety of vegetation monitoring and management programs, primarily stock use management and meadow monitoring. Assists with setting program/project goals and objectives, writing grant applications, managing grants and agreements including budget tracking, implementing projects, and reporting on results.

Supervise a staff of temporary employees implementing plant conservation and monitoring projects in the field, including multi-day wilderness backpacking trips carrying all necessary gear. Plan, prioritize, and review work, including hiring, training, assigning work, evaluating performance, implementing a safety and wilderness communications program, and other supervisory activities.

Provide subject matter expertise in local flora, local plant communities, ecosystem function and impacts, climate change effects on flora, and other scientific input to inform management decisions, including reviewing park projects for NEPA compliance and necessary mitigations to protect vegetation, wetlands, and special status plant species.

Test and implement scientific monitoring protocols to identify, evaluate, and conduct long-term monitoring of plant populations, communities, ecosystems, and ecological processes, in cooperation with appropriate staff, researchers, and partners.

Analyze and summarize vegetation data. Prepare management and scientific reports regarding the results of protection, mitigation, restoration, reintroduction, inventory, monitoring, and research activities, and make management recommendations to supervisor.

Requirements

Help

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.
  • 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.
  • Ability to conduct overnight backpacking trips in the wilderness.
  • If you are a new employee and/or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 4 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-11/05/2024-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 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.

DEGREE: Possess a degree in biology, or a related field of science underlying ecological research that included at least 30 semester hours in basic and applied biological sciences. These hours must have included at least 9 semester hours in ecology, and 12 semester hours in physical and mathematical sciences. You must provide transcripts that verify you meet this requirement.

AND

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: In addition to meeting the Basic Education Requirement, 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: Possess at least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. To be creditable, specialized experience must have been equivalent to at least the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. This experience includes activities such as: (1) Coordinate the implementation of scientifically credible vegetation conservation or management projects; and (2) Collect, maintain, summarize, and report on natural resource data in order to ensure highly credible data acquisition and reporting. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Possess two years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree from an accredited educational institution concentrated in a field that is directly related to the work of this position, such as ecology, restoration ecology, rangeland/forest ecology, wildlife ecology, aquatic/water science, physical sciences, 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 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.
-OR-
COMBINATION: Possess a combination of education and experience as descripted above to meet total experience requirements. Only graduate level education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level may be combined with experience. For example, an applicant with 6 months of appropriate experience equivalent to GS-7 (50 percent of the experience requirement for GS-9) and 27 semester hours of appropriate graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement for GS-9, in excess of that required for GS-7) would be qualified for a GS-9 position (assuming that there is no evidence that the attended college or university requires more than 18 semester hours as equivalent to a year of graduate study). You must include hours per week worked and provide transcripts.

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. You must include hours per week worked.

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.

Physical Demands: The position may require strenuous physical activity including periods of standing, walking, climbing, and lifting and carrying heavy objects. Some activities will occur in physically dangerous areas or settings. Documentary research and report writing work is sedentary, entails the ability to concentrate and write for long periods of time.

Working Conditions: Work is preformed both indoors and outdoors in all types of weather. Assignments may be performed in potentially hazardous areas including steep slopes, rocky terrain, volcanoes, caves, firelines, arctic environments, swamps, deserts, and forests. Flying in fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters is possible.

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.

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

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.
You will be evaluated on the following competencies:
  • Botany
  • Leadership
  • Project Management
  • Technology Application


In order to be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires successful completion of additional assessments, including a panel resume review. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.

National Park Service

The Department of the Interior (DOI) places a high value on diversity of experience and cultural perspectives and encourages applications from all interested eligible candidates. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are fundamental principles that guide the Department and allow us to successfully achieve our mission.

Please visit find a park for additional park information.

Yosemite National Park attracts approximately 4.7 million visitors annually. The park is large, and operations are extremely complex, with 6 operational areas spread over 1,169 square miles. Park staff, approximately 800 NPS employees and 1,300 concession employees, live and work in remote and challenging conditions.

Agency contact information

Lindsay Heinrich
Email
lindsay_heinrich@nps.gov
Address
Yosemite National Park
5037 Stroming Road
Mariposa, CA 95338
US

Visit our careers page

Learn more about what it's like to work at National Park Service, what the agency does, and about the types of careers this agency offers.

https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/index.htm

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.