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Aviation Manager (Branch Chief-Aviation Safety and Quality Assurance)

Department of the Interior
Office of the Secretary of the Interior
U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS)

Summary

This position is an Aviation Manager (Branch Chief-Aviation Safety and Quality Assurance), GS-2101-14 working in Boise, Idaho or Anchorage, Alaska for the US Wildland Fire Service, Aviation Safety and Training Branch.

In order to be considered for any duty location, ensure desired locations are selected. Applicants will not be considered for locations not selected.

Overview

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Location
1 vacancy in the following locations:
Work site options
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Remote job
No
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Salary
$125,776 - $184,886 per year

Final salary will be based upon final duty location. +1.49% COLA for Anchorage, Alaska

Pay scale & grade
GS 14
Promotion potential
None
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full-time
Travel Required
25% or less - 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
Yes
Security clearance
Not Required
Position sensitivity and risk
High Risk (HR)
Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.
Background check type
Financial disclosure required
Yes
Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.
Announcement number
WFSMP-26-13061965-AMR-H
Control number
885735700

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Duties

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As a Aviation Manager (Branch Chief-Aviation Safety and Quality Assurance), your duties will include but are not limited to the following:

  • Assist the Branch Chief, Aviation Safety and Training with the progressive development and administration of the Departmental Aviation Safety Program concurrently with the continual Improvement and compliance component of Program Evaluations and Safety Management Systems (SMS).
  • Supervises a team of at least four employees, volunteers, and/or noncontractor personnel tasked with performing aviation safety and quality assurance related duties.
  • Develops and maintains aviation safety policy, oversees risk management systems, and ensures integration of safety culture across all bureaus and aviation functions.
  • Analyzes mishap trends, tracks safety performance, and implements proactive measures to reduce risk and improve performance.
  • Coordinates interagency efforts with the USDA Forest Service, FAA, and other partners.
  • Develops and updates interagency and departmental manuals, operational procedures, and technical guidance.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
  • Suitability for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.
  • Direct Deposit Required.
  • You will be required to submit to a drug test and receive a negative drug test result prior to appointment. In addition, this position is subject to random testing for illegal drug use.
  • This position requires the incumbent to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of their official duties. Selectee must hold and maintain a valid state driver's license throughout their employment in this position.
  • A condition of employment for accepting this position, you MAY be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. See Qualifications section for more information.
  • Supervisory Probationary Period: Selectees who have not previously completed a supervisory probationary period, will be required to serve a one-year supervisory/managerial probationary period for this position.
  • Notice of Financial Disclosure Report Requirement: This position is subject to a financial disclosure requirement, and you will be required to complete either OGE Form 450 as applicable within 30 days of your appointment.
  • Individuals assigned male at birth after 12-31-59 must be registered for the Selective Service. To verify registration, visit www.SSS.gov.
  • You must be 18 years of age or older to be assigned to a hazardous position.
  • Selectees will be expected to travel in (not pilot) a small single-engine aircraft.
  • You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to several 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.
  • Meeting DOI and FAA safety, training, and medical requirements MAY be necessary, as applicable.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet both eligibility and qualification requirements for the position of interest by the closing date of the Job Announcement. Specifically, I. Area of Consideration. Time-in-grade (TIG) requirements as specified in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F. iii. Time after competitive appointment as specified in 5 CFR 330.502.iv. Qualification requirements outlined in OPM's Qualifications Standards for General Schedule Positions.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 for each federal position listed as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of qualifying experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience.

In order to qualify for this position, you must possess the Minimum Qualification requirements listed below.

EXPERIENCE:

To qualify for the GS-14, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal service, or comparable experience not gained through Federal service. Specialized experience 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 work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience includes:

1) Leading mishap investigation teams and developing mishap investigation reports;
2) Serving as a consultant and or subject matter expert for the use of aviation in the natural resource environment;
3) Providing technical guidance or advice to management in the development of implementation of a wide range of aviation management issues related to safety, operational practices policy and procedures, development, and contracting processes;
4) Serving as an approved Safety Management Systems (SMS) evaluator; AND
5) Preparing, reviewing, and interpreting technical safety related stipulations for contracts to ensure compliance with a variety of aviation service contracts.

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.

Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary but includes field inspections and accident site visits, which may require extended standing, travel in small aircraft, or hiking in rough terrain. Occasional lifting of field gear or safety equipment may be required.

Working Conditions: Work is typically performed in an office setting, with periodic field travel to active aviation operations, training exercises, or investigation sites. May involve exposure to operational hazards, extreme weather, or post-incident environments. Adherence to DOI aviation safety protocols is required.

Probationary Period: The probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider:
- your performance and conduct;
- the needs and interests of the agency;
- whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
- whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Education

There is no qualifying education for this grade and series combination.


Additional information

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Department of Interior (DOI) Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) procedures apply in filling this vacancy. These programs apply to employees who have been involuntarily separated from a federal service position within the competitive service or Federal service employees whose positions have been deemed surplus or no longer needed. To receive selection priority for this position, you must: (1) meet CTAP or ICTAP eligibility criteria; (2) be rated well-qualified (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements) for the position with a score of 85 or above on the assessment questionnaire, and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry. Applicants claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility must submit a copy of their most recent performance appraisal, proof of eligibility, and most current SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with their application. For more information visit: http://www.opm.gov/rif/employee_guides/career_transition.asp.

Reemployment Priority List (RPL): The RPL is the mechanism agencies use to give reemployment consideration to their former competitive service employees separated by a RIF or who have fully recovered from a compensable injury after more than one year. If you are currently on an RPL, you may be given priority consideration.

PCS Information: No PCS entitlements authorized.

Incentives: If eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The decision to offer an incentive will be made on a case-by-case basis and is neither promised nor guaranteed.

Telework: This position is suitable for telework and may be allowed to telework with supervisory approval.

Additional Vacancies: One or more positions may be filled from applications received under this announcement in the advertised office or other U.S. Wildland Fire Service offices in the local commuting area.

Reasonable Accommodation: The USWFS provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Please visit USAJOBS Help Center | Reasonable accommodation policy if you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.

Cost of Living Allowance: In addition to the yearly salary, the duty location of Anchorage, Alaska, is entitled to cost-of-living allowance (COLA) as determined by https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-systems/nonforeign-areas/#url=COLA-Rates .This allowance is subject to annual review, adjustment, and rate decrease.

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

Resumes must not exceed two single-sided pages and resumes longer than two pages will not be accepted. The minimum font size is 10-point for all body text. Headers may be slightly larger but must remain legible. All resumes must maintain a minimum 0.5-inch margins on all sides to ensure readability and prevent excessive content compression. Including supplemental pages or attachments disguised as resume extensions are prohibited and will not be reviewed to determine your eligibility/qualifications.

You will be evaluated based on how your application materials reflect the qualification requirements of this position. Once the application process is complete, HR will review your application to ensure you meet eligibility and minimum qualifications. To determine if you are minimally qualified for this position, HR will complete a review of your resume, supporting documentation and responses to the online questionnaire. If an applicant's resume is incomplete or does not support the requirements for minimum qualifications or specialized experience a rating of "ineligible" or "not qualified" will be applied and no consideration for employment will be granted.

In addition to meeting the minimum qualifications requirements, this position requires successful completion of the following additional assessment: Subject Matter Expert Resume Review. This assessment will measure the critical competencies listed below that are required to successfully perform in the position.

  • Accident Investigation - Knowledge of guidelines, regulations, and procedures associated with an accident investigation including preservation of accident scene, root cause analysis, and evidence detection and handling.
  • Managing Human Resources - Plans, distributes, coordinates, and monitors work assignments of others; evaluates work performance and provides feedback to others on their performance; ensures that staff are appropriately selected, utilized, and developed, and that they are treated in a fair and equitable manner.
  • Flight Systems - Knowledge of the concepts, principles, and theories related to the development, design, test, and evaluation of aerospace flight vehicles and their component subsystems, or their related external systems.
  • Quality Assurance - Knowledge of principles, methods, and tools of quality assurance and quality control used to ensure a product fulfills functional requirements and standards.
  • Reasoning - Identifies rules, principles, or relationships that explain facts, data, or other information; analyzes information and makes correct inferences or draws accurate conclusions.
  • Project Management - Knowledge of the principles, methods, or tools for developing, scheduling, coordinating, and managing projects and resources, including monitoring and inspecting costs, work, and contractor performance.
**How You Will Be Evaluated continued in Required Documents...

Office of the Secretary of the Interior

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), an organization within the Department of the Interior (DOI), responds to wildfires and promotes fire-resilient landscapes across more than 500 million acres of public and tribal lands nationwide. The USWFS has full program authority and coordinates the DOI wildland fire management program in its entirety. It ensures coordination within DOI, the Bureaus it serves, other federal agencies -- particularly the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service -- as well as non-federal agencies, state foresters, tribes, and a variety of stakeholder groups representing volunteer firefighters.

Agency contact information

Athena Robison

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Learn more about what it's like to work at Office of the Secretary of the Interior, what the agency does, and about the types of careers this agency offers.

https://www.doi.gov/wildlandfireservice

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