Clarification from the agency

Status candidates may also apply under FEMA-JD-13013665-MP. This Job is open to: U.S. citizens

What will I do in this position if hired?

In this position, you will serve as a Firefighter (Paramedic/Hazardous Materials Technician), responsible for following firefighting standards and techniques, performing procedures and firefighting operations. Typical assignments include:

• Using, operating and maintaining firefighting trucks and equipment (lines, hand tools, pumps, nozzles, foam generators.
• Operating specialized equipment to control and extinguish hazardous fire situations in a variety of structures.
• Performing advanced assessment and treatment of patients.
• Providing fire and safety training to supervisors and employees using a wide variety of materials, publications, exhibits, protective devices and visual aids.
• Extinguishing fires in situations involving hazards that are difficult to recognize and providing methods to reduce or eliminate.

Firefighter Requirements at all grade levels:

• Maintain current EMS certification held upon hiring (EMT-P).
• Work Rotating shifts, including weekends, holidays and overtime when directed.
• Participate in tests and exercises during non-duty work hours, nights, weekends, holidays, when recalled.
• Report for duty during inclement weather, natural disasters, and other emergency situations directed by the Fire Chief (subject to recall to duty).
• Wear a uniform and safety apparel in accordance with established policies/procedures.
• Wear various Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to include respirators, masks, self-contained breathing apparatus, and armored vests, and equipment.
• Subject to periodic (e.g., annual) medical examinations following appointment to determine fitness for continued performance of the duties of the position.
• Successfully complete an annual Job Performance Test.
• Participate in a cardiovascular physical fitness program.
• Perform temporary duty travel for the purpose of obtaining specialized training and other fire and emergency service duties.
• Must pass a annual physical.
• Meet and maintain physical agility and stamina standards established for this position.

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.

Promotion Potential: Future promotions will be dependent on your ability to perform the duties at a higher level, the continuing need for an employee assigned to the higher level, and administrative approval.

Conditions of employment

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 a Top Secret clearance 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.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below.

Key Requirements:

1. You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
2. You must successfully pass a background investigation.
3. Selective Service registration required.
4. Current federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements.
5. You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
6. You must be able to deploy with little or no advance notice to anywhere in the United States and its territories for an extended period of time.
7. Please review the Additional Information section for additional key requirements.

For the GS-0081-05 you are required to obtain the following certifications within 12 months:

• Firefighter II
• Hazardous Materials Operations
• Driver/Operator Pumper

For the GS-0081-07 you are required to obtain the following certifications within 12 months:

• Driver/Operator Aerial
• Hazardous Materials Technician

For the GS-0081-09 you are required to obtain the following certifications within 24 months:

• Confined Space Rescue Technician
• Fire Inspector I

Qualifications

The qualification requirements listed below must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

To qualify for this position at the GS-05 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-04 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following:

1. Utilizing and maintaining firefighting and emergency equipment AND,
2. Performing advanced life support functions (i.e., resuscitation, intubation, decompression) AND,
3. Participating in worksite inspections to evaluate potential hazards.

AND

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must possess the following minimum certifications to be considered qualified for the position. These are required to be uploaded at time of application, or the applicant will be found not qualified.

• Firefighter I
• Hazardous Materials Awareness
• Current State or National Registry Paramedic

To qualify for this position at the GS-07 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-06 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following:

1. Utilizing and maintaining firefighting and emergency equipment AND,
2. Performing advanced life support functions (i.e., resuscitation, intubation, decompression) AND,
3. Applying hazard and risk assessment techniques during hazardous materials incidents, OR
4. Using chemical, biological, radiation (CBR) equipment.

AND

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must possess the following minimum certifications to be considered qualified for the position. These are required to be uploaded at time of application, or the applicant will be found not qualified.

• Firefighter I
• Firefighter II
• Hazardous Materials Awareness
• Hazardous Materials Operations
• Driver/Operator Pumper
• Current State or National Registry Paramedic

To qualify for this position at the GS-09 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-08 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following:

1. Utilizing and maintaining firefighting and emergency equipment AND,
2. Performing advanced life support functions (i.e., resuscitation, intubation, decompression) AND,
3. Performing hazard and risk assessment techniques during hazardous materials incidents AND,
4. Using, operating and maintaining chemical, biological, radiation (CBR) equipment.

AND

In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must possess the following minimum certifications to be considered qualified for the position. These are required to be uploaded at time of application, or the applicant will be found not qualified.

• Firefighter I
• Firefighter II
• Hazardous Materials Awareness
• Hazardous Materials Operations
• Hazardous Materials Technician
• Driver/Operator Pumper
• Driver/Operator Aerial
• State or National Registry Paramedic

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.
• 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 grade level, occupational series and dates in which you held each grade level.
• Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE)? 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 and supporting documentation to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you meet the basic qualifications, your experience, education and training will be rated using USA Hire Assessment that is based on the following competencies needed to perform this job:

• Communication
• Customer Service
• Representing the Agency
• Teamwork & Collaboration
• Technical Proficiency

• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Influencing/Negotiating
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reading Comprehension
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

Based on the review of your resume for the specialized experience required for this position and the results of the USA Hire Assessment, you may be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.

We recommend that you review USA Hire Applicant Resource Center before you start the application process.

CTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet eligibility criteria for CTAP; 2) be rated well-qualified for the position; and, 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP eligibility (see "Required Documents" section of this announcement). Well-Qualified is defined as those applicants who are rated with a minimum score of 80.00 for this position.

This announcement uses the set number of names method under 5 CFR § 332.402. All qualified applicants who either exceeded the cut number/percentage or tie with other qualified applicants at the cut number/percentage will be referred to the selecting official for consideration.

We will provide the selecting official with a sufficient number of names, when available, to consider at least three candidates per vacancy. If fewer than three eligible and available candidates per vacancy result, we will expand the group in accordance with our pre-announced supplement strategy and OPM policy.

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

https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13013664

Veterans: Qualified veterans who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10% will float to the top of the list of names, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level, or higher. This position is not considered scientific/professional. Other 10-point preference eligibles and veterans with 5-point preference who meet the eligibility and qualification requirements are placed above non-preference eligibles within the category in which they qualify. View information on veterans' preference.

Interagency/Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP/CTAP) Eligibles: If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not ICTAP/CTAP eligible. View information about ICTAP/CTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: 1) meet eligibility criteria for CTAP or ICTAP; 2) be rated well-qualified for the position; and, 3) submit the appropriate documentation to support your CTAP or ICTAP eligibility (see "Required Documents" section of this announcement). Well-Qualified is defined as those applicants who are rated with a minimum score of 80.00 for this position.