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Fire Management Specialist (Prescribed Fire and Fuels) GS-401 9/11

Announcement number FAMP-23-11729822-LE


Open & closing dates 11/17/2022 to 12/13/2022

Apply thru USAJobs @ https://www.usajobs.gov/job/689871400


Salary $54,727 - $86,074 per year


Apply thru USAJobs @ https://www.usajobs.gov/job/689871400

A supplemental pay increase of $20,000 or 50% of base pay per year, is authorized under Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through 9/30/2023.


Pay scale & grade GS 9 - 11


Locations Grants Pass, OR & Medford, OR


Relocation expenses reimbursed Yes


Duties

  • Provide professional guidance in the development and implementation of multiple resource objectives.
  • Develops fuels treatment alternatives to support management decisions while adhering to applicable laws, regulations, policies, and guidelines.
  • Evaluates individual fuels treatments as well as the effectiveness of the overall program and makes recommendations for improvement.
  • Coordinates with the next higher organizational level, other agencies, cooperators, and stakeholders to develop interagency fuels strategies.
  • Provide input and recommend strategies for fuels and fire management.
  • Prepare wildland fire risk assessments incorporating wildland/urban interface considerations into all agreements, operating plans, and land and fire management plans.
  • Participate in the development, review, and modification of the fire management plan.
  • Serves as a Contracting Officer's Representative on fuels management contracts and is responsible for the preparation of contract specifications and performance measures.
  • Implement and administer prescribed fire activities, wildland fire use, and fuels management activities and surveys.
  • Monitors fire behavior, evaluate fire effects, identify potential problems and take appropriate action.
  • Prioritize prescribed fire and fuels management projects.T
  • his position will support the timber program with active fuels treatments and identifying, evaluating fuels reeducation needs, and laying out non-commercial hazardous fuels reduction units within planning areas.
  • May exercises delegated supervisory authorities and responsibilities 20% of duty time.

Requirements


Conditions of Employment


  • U.S. Citizenship is required.
  • Be sure to read the HOW TO APPLY and REQUIRED DOCUMENTS Sections.
  • You cannot hold an active real estate license; nor can you have an interest or hold stocks in firms with interest in Federal Land.
  • Direct Deposit Required.
  • Background Investigation Required.
  • Appointment will be subject to a favorably adjudicated background/suitability investigation/determination. Failure to possess or obtain a favorable determination will result in the cancellation of the offer or will be grounds for termination.
  • You must meet specified levels on annual physical fitness tests, and pass periodic medical exams for wildland fire personnel, commensurate with current incident management qualification.
  • You must pass a pre-employment physical.
  • You must be 18 years of age or older to be assigned to a hazardous position.
  • Applicant(s) tentatively selected for this position will be required to submit a urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use and to pass the test prior to appointment.
  • In addition, this position is subject to random testing for illegal drug use.
  • This position requires procurement duties. If selected for this position, you will be required to complete a Procurement Integrity Certification, OF-333, prior to appointment.
  • This position requires regular and recurring overtime and shift work during peak fire season.
  • May require completion of a one year probationary period.
  • Applicants appointed to this position must possess and maintain a valid state driver's license.
  • May require certification to use/operate specialized fire equipment.


Qualifications


** This vacancy announcement has been EXTENDED; previous applicants need not REapply. ** Applicants who previously applied do not need to apply again to be considered but may take this opportunity to update information/resume/responses or submit required documentation outlined in the vacancy announcement.

Basic Education Required:
-Must have a Degree in 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 in biological sciences, agriculture or natural resources management, or at least 24 semester hours in biological sciences, natural resources, wildland fire management, forestry, or agriculture equivalent to a major field of study, plus appropriate experience or additional education that is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in the biological sciences, agriculture, or natural resources.

Additional Experience Required: In addition to meeting the basic education requirements, you must meet specialized experience requirements.

Specialized Experience Requirements: In order to be rated as qualified for this position, we must be able to determine that you meet the specialized experience requirement(s); please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience. To be creditable, this experience must have been equivalent in difficulty and complexity to the next lower grade of the position to be filled.

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.

To qualify for the GS-09 grade level, 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-07 is required. Experience must demonstrate an understanding of fire behavior relative to fuels, weather, and topography and how fire affects natural and cultural resources. Examples of experience may include1) participating in wildland fire activities (such as planning and/or implementing prescribed fire or managing wildfires) ensuring resource objectives are being met from a fire management standpoint; 2) developing and/or implementing initial attack incident management strategies and tactics to meet the stated resource objectives; and/or 3) implementing mitigation measures during wildland fire activities to protect sensitive habitats, endangered species, sensitive plants, or cultural values.

To qualify for the GS-11 grade level, 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-09 is required. Experience must have included ALL of the fire program management elements described as: 1) developing, reviewing and evaluating fire management plans for ecological soundness or consistency with land management goals and/or potentially adverse impacts to cultural and natural resources; 2) conducting field inspections before and after prescribed or wildland fires to determine if resource objectives were achieved and/or evaluating the effectiveness of actions taken; and 3) analyzing the ecological role of fire and its use and/or exclusion, and smoke management.

IN ADDITION to fire program management elements listed above, appropriate experience must have included EITHER prescribed fire/fuels management - OR - fire management operations.

1) Prescribed fire/fuels management: examples include: performing professional forest or range inventory methods and procedures, (e.g. Brown's planar intercept for dead and down fuels; live fuel loading assessments); analyzing fuel loadings and determining appropriate fuel treatment methods and programming; performing land use planning and environmental coordination; and/or evaluating prescribed burn plans or fire management plans to ensure fire containment is possible and identifying appropriate suppression contingencies if fire containment is not obtained; -OR-

2) Fire Management Operations: experience in analyzing and/or applying fire management strategies in at least five of the following activities: a) Mobilization and dispatch coordination; b) Fire prevention and education; c) Training; d) Logistics; e) Equipment development and deployment; f) Fire communication systems; g) Suppression and preparedness; h) Aviation.

Substitution of Education for Experience:
To qualify for the GS-9: Master's (or equivalent graduate degree) -OR- 2 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree, in a field of study that is directly related to this position.

To qualify for the GS-11: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree -OR-3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree in a field of study that is directly related to this position.

Time in Grade Requirement: Federal employees in the competitive service are also subject to the Time-In-Grade requirement in accordance with 5 CFR 300.604. If you are a current Federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled.

You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.

Selective Placement Factor(s): This position requires a special qualification that has been determined to be essential to perform the duties and will be used as a screen out element. Those who do not provide evidence they possess the following selective factor(s) will be rated not qualified.

1.) Prior on-the-line firefighting: The Department of the Interior defines wildland firefighting experience as any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland. Wildland firefighting experience is gained through work on the fire line in containment, control, suppression or use of wildland fire. This experience can be met by serving in a temporary, seasonal, or equivalent private sector fire position for no less than 90 days. Wildland fires are categorized into two distinct types: (1) Wildfires - Unplanned ignitions or prescribed fires that are declared wildfires; and (2) Prescribed Fires - Planned ignitions. This description includes only fireline 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. This experience must be documented in the online application or resume with specific to and from dates, description of work performed, and hours worked per week.

2.) This position has been identified as one of the key fire management positions under the Interagency Fire Program Management (IFPM) Standard. This position has been categorized as a Prescribed Fire and Fuels Specialist- Moderate Complexity, and requires selectee to meet the minimum qualification standards for IFPM prior to being placed into the position.

To meet IFPM requirements you must have possessed all of the following National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) incident management qualifications and training requirements to be considered eligible for this position (currency not required at time of referral, but may be required to obtain and maintain currency if selected):

A.) Prescribed Fire Burn Boss Type 2 (RXB2) AND
B.) Engine Boss (ENGB), or Crew Boss (CRWB), or Helicopter Manager (HMGB)

You must meet all selective placement factor requirements by the closing date of the announcement unless stated otherwise.


Additional information

DOI uses E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility of all newly hired employees. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit www.dhs.gov/e-verify.

Tax Law Impact for PCS: On 22-Dec-2017, Public Law 115-97 - the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 suspended qualified moving expense deductions along with the exclusion for employer reimbursements and payments of moving expenses effective 01-Jan-2018 for tax years 2018 through 2025. The law made taxable certain reimbursements and other payments, including driving mileage, airfare and lodging expenses, en-route travel to the new duty station, and temporary storage of those items. The Federal Travel Regulation Bulletin (FTR) 18-05 issued by General Services Administration (GSA) has authorized agencies to use the Withholding Tax Allowance (WTA) and Relocation Income Tax Allowance (RITA) to pay for "substantially all" of the increased tax liability resulting from the "2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" for certain eligible individuals. For additional information on WTA/RITA allowances and eligibilities, please visit: Federal Travel Regulation - GSA Bulletin FTR 18-05

Tax Law Impact for PCS: Moving expenses reimbursement is a taxable benefit. However, the Federal Travel Regulation 18-05 issued by the General Services Administration has authorized agencies to use the Withholding Tax Allowance and Relocation Income Tax Allowance to pay for "substantially all" of the increased tax liability resulting from the "2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act" for certain eligible individual

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP): CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. Information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility is available from OPM's Career Transition Resources website at CTAP or ICTAP. If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration or that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) This vacancy is within your CTAP/ICTAP eligibility; 2) You apply under the instructions in this announcement; and 3) You are found well-qualified for this vacancy. You must provide proof of eligibility with your application to receive selection priority. Such proof may include a copy of your written notification of CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, or a copy of your separation personnel action form.

CTAP and ICTAP eligibles will be considered well qualified if they receive a minimum score of 90 based on the rating criteria used for this position.

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 a RPL, you may be given priority consideration.

BLM may use certain incentives, currently offered by the Federal government, to attract high quality applicants. The incentives that may be offered include Student Loan Repayments, Relocation Incentives and/or Recruitment Incentives.

This is a Bargaining Unit position.

The BLM has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.
  • Benefits

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 your application materials reflect the qualification requirements of this position.

Once the application process is complete, we will review your application to ensure you meet eligibility and minimum qualifications. To determine if you are minimally qualified for this job, HR will complete a review of your resume, supporting documentation and responses to the online questionnaire (self-rated). Your responses to the online questionnaire will be used to measure the degree to which your background matches the requirements for this position. However, your resume must support your responses to the scored, or your score may be lowered.

Your responses to the online questionnaire will be used to evaluate your competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and/or job elements) in the following area(s):
  • Administration and Management
  • Fire Management
  • Technical Competence
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 the following additional assessment: Subject Matter Expert Resume Panel Review. These assessments measure the critical competencies and/or job elements listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.

In the evaluation process, due weight will be given to job related experience, education, training, incentive awards and performance appraisals. Applicants must have a performance rating of at least the equivalent of fully successful to be eligible for promotion or placement. Applicants may provide a copy of a performance appraisal of record dated within the last 18 months. If the applicant is unable to provide a performance appraisal of record dated within the last 18 months, the applicant may provide a written explanation as to why.

This is a secondary firefighter position under the special retirement provisions of 5 U.S.C. 8336(c) (CSRS) and 5 U.S.C. 8412(d) (FERS). While secondary positions are not subject to the maximum entry age policy, the selectee must have prior service in a primary position and meet the transfer requirement for movement from a primary to secondary position to be eligible for special retirement coverage. It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure this office has enough information to determine your retirement status to ensure you do not lose benefits (normally through submission of your SF-50). YOU MUST LET US KNOW IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN A PRIMARY POSITION.

FACT SHEET for Fire Positions: Information on Special Retirement.


Required Documents

Resumes must show relevant experience and other information. Your resume MUST list your education and work experience including (1) the dates (mm/yy) of each employment, along with (2) the number of hours worked per week, and (3) salary information. In addition, Civil Service employees must provide their current OPM title, series, and grade. Your resume will be used to validate your responses to the assessment tool(s). Failure to provide required information will result in loss of eligibility. You are welcome to submit a cover letter.

In describing your experience, please be clear and specific. Visit the USAJOBS Help Center for more information on What should I include in my federal resume and/or OPM Resume Writing Tips.

In addition to the online application (resume and responses to the questionnaire), you are required to submit the following supplemental documentation as applicable:

-Current and former federal career and career-conditional employees: submit a copy of your recent (non award) SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, or equivalent document that verifies tenure (block 24, code 1 or 2) and Competitive Status (block 34, code 1).

-You must provide copies of all your transcripts for verification that include hours and grades from an accredited U.S. college/university by the closing date. If your degree is from a Foreign Institution, See Foreign Education. All selections and tentative offers of selection are contingent upon submission and verification of 'official' transcripts.

-You must provide a copy of your Incident Qualification and Certification System (IQCS) Master Record or other equivalent documentation which verifies you meet the required NWCG minimum qualifications for this IFPM position. Failure to provide this documentation will result in you being rated as not qualified.

Special Hiring Authority for Veterans - You must submit proof that supports your claim. This may include:
  • A legible copy of your DD-214, Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, member 4 copy or any official documentation or statement from the Armed Forces that confirms your dates of service and that your separation, discharge, or release from active duty was under honorable conditions.
  • If you are currently on active military duty, you must provide written documentation from the armed forces that certifies you are expected to be discharged or released from active duty service in the armed forces under honorable conditions not later than 120 days after the date the certification.
  • If you have a service-connected disability, a copy of your Veterans Affairs (VA) letter indicating the combined percentage rating of your disability.
  • NOTE: If you are claiming 10-point veterans' preference, in addition to the documents specified above, you must submit documentation that supports your claim as shown on the back of the Required Documents as indicated on page 2 of the SF-15 to support your claim. For more information, please click here: OPM

Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) eligibles: documentation verifying your CTAP/ICTAP eligibility - this includes a copy of the agency notice and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level and duty location.

If you are applying for this position based on eligibility under other noncompetitive special appointing authorities, you MUST submit proof of this eligibility.

Former Public Land Corps Member: Submit your Certificate of Eligibility for Non-Competitive Hiring Based for Public Land Corps Service along with a copy of your "PLC Participant Verification Work Hours Sheet."

Applicants applying under PL-114-47, Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act must submit documentation verifying eligibility. Required documentation includes: First and last SF-50 (Notification of Personnel Action) for each appointment verifying the Position Occupied code (block 34, code 1-Competitive Service), AND Documentation of satisfactory performance for each appointment, such as, performance evaluations, memorandum of record, whereas the supervisor(s) documented an acceptable performance level for a specified rating/employment period. Failure to submit required documentation may result in loss of consideration.
GSA Form 3607, Motor Vehicle Operator's License and Driving Record (optional during the application process; however, selectees will be required to submit as part of the pre-appointment process.)

Submitting Required Documents: Please note that documents selected for transfer from your USAJOBS profile are NOT automatically added do your application. You need to transfer your document(s) in the "Documents" step during the application process.

Hard copy paper supplemental documents, submitted without prior Human Resources approval, will be considered as an incomplete application.

Required documentation must be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, on the closing date of this announcement.