Clarification from the agency

Applications will be accepted from any U.S. Citizen. DIRECT HIRING AUTHORITY will be used to fill this position. Veteran's preference and traditional rating and ranking of applications do not apply. All qualified applicants will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration for this position. Indian Preference Applies.

Videos

As a Wildland Firefighter (Associate Chief Tribal Operations) - Direct Hire Authority your duties will include but are not limited to the following:

• Integrates Tribal Nations into wildland fire programs across the Geographic Area, including suppression, fuels/cultural burning, post-fire response, prevention/trespass, planning, aviation, training, and incident business.
• Serves as a Geographic Area technical authority promoting equitable participation, transparent processes, and culturally respectful engagement aligned with USWFS direction and Tribal Trust responsibilities.
• Coordinates with Tribal governments and Federal, State, local, and interagency partners.
• Supports operational integration of Tribal resources, provides tools/training, conducts program reviews, and ensures administrative coordination for reimbursement and partnerships.
• Supervises employees supporting Tribal Operations programs within the Geographic Area.

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.

Position requires a valid state driver's license to operate light vehicles and 4x4 vehicles. May require additional specialized training and certification to operate specialized vehicles and equipment.

Official U.S. Wildland Fire Service uniform is required.

A condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a [1-year probationary period OR 2-year trial period] during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated.

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.

Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service. To verify registration visit SSS.gov.

You may be required to evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime.

You may be required to travel overnight away from home 50% or less. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.

This position is being advertised with selections being made at in the Northwest GA and Southern Area GA. Please review this map of those geographic areas here: Geographic Areas | National Interagency Coordination Center. Selectee must work from designated DOI office facility.

Qualifications

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

To receive credit for experience, 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. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

This is an administrative position in an organization having a firefighting mission and is clearly in an established career path. Prior firefighting experience, as gained by substantial service in a primary firefighter position or equivalent experience outside the Federal government is a MANDATORY PREREQUISITE.

Candidates must possess Primary/Rigorous wildland firefighting experience, gained through fire line work in containment, control, suppression or use of wildland fire. You must clearly demonstrate this experience in your resume, including the months, days, and hours per week at which the work was performed to be considered.

Applicants must have documented prior primary firefighting experience, with substantial service defined as either:

• At least one full fire season working in a primary wildland firefighting role (e.g., Engine Crew, Fire Effects Crew, Prescribed Fire/Fuels Crew, Hand Crew, Helitack Crew, Hotshot Crew, Smokejumper, Wildland Fire Modules or Fire Suppression Crews, etc.) with a federal, state, tribal, local, or private-sector organization;

• At least 14 days of on-the-ground fireline experience (cumulative or consecutive).

Prior primary wildland fire experience must be clearly documented in your resume. Note: an IQCS Master Record or equivalent document will not be used to determine or calculate prior primary wildland fire experience eligibility for this requirement.

For the GW-13 level:

You must have at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GW-12 level, or higher, in the Federal service, or equivalent, which includes all of the following: Examples of specialized experience include:

1. Working directly with Tribal governments to develop or implement wildland fire programs.
2. Coordinating Tribal or interagency resources in wildfire suppression, prescribed fire, fuels management, or incident response.
3. Managing wildland fire program budgets, managing cooperative agreements, cost sharing, reimbursement, or other incident business processes involving Tribal governments.
4. Tribal Trust responsibilities, or Tribal authorities to wildland fire planning, operations, supervising employees, assigning work, evaluating performance, and managing wildland fire program priorities.

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.

*Applicants must meet all minimum qualification requirements for the position of interest by the closing date of the Job Announcement.

Secondary Firefighter Retirement Coverage - Applicants for this secondary administrative fire fighter position under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 8336 (c) (CSRS) and 5 U.S.C. 8412 (d), must possess knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques of wildland firefighting as demonstrated by direct wildland firefighting experience. In order to receive credit, you must provide a written description of your experience in wildland firefighting. Education without hands-on wildland firefighting experience does not meet this requirement. Periods of wildland firefighting experience, gained through militia and rural fire departments, can also be credited. Wildland fire is defined as any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland. Two distinct types of wildland fire have been defined and include wildfire and prescribed fires as follows: Wildfire: Unplanned ignitions or prescribed fires that are declared wildfires. Prescribed Fires: Planned ignitions. This description includes only fire line experience on a Prescribed Fire; it does not include experience in the planning stages. Prescribed fire experience must be supplemented by fire suppression experience in order to be creditable as previous wildland firefighting experience.

Physical Demands: The work is primarily sedentary; however, a level of physical fitness is required to perform work during periods of extended stress and in field environments when wildland fire situations arise.

Working Conditions: The work is normally performed in an office environment; however, travel to field units and various meetings and conferences is required.

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 minimum qualification requirements of this position. Once the job opportunity announcement closes, your resume and all supporting documents will be reviewed by HR to determine if you are minimally qualified for the position. 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. Due to this vacancy being filled through OPM's Direct Hire Authority, Veterans Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants does not apply to positions filled under this announcement. Applications received as a result of job fairs, recruitment events, and emergency hiring mechanisms in support of this hiring initiative will also be accepted during the duration of the announcement. All minimally qualified candidates will be referred for consideration. Please note that the hiring office may conduct interviews at their discretion. Interviews may be conducted on a pass/fail basis.