Biological Science Technician (Fire Effects Monitor) – ON-SITE

Job Overview

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Duties

Serves as lead for the fire monitoring program underneath the direction of the park’s Fire Ecologist. Examines existing fire monitoring programs, data, and documentation at the park(s), identifies and prioritizes needs within the context of broader goals and objectives.Manage fire effects monitoring program including annual and daily work scheduling, equipment preparation, maintaining inventory and data collection management.Support natural resource and fire management through comprehensive understanding of and communicating fire ecology and fire effects information to manage and protect fire adapted ecosystems.Support fire management programs with operational and administrative support; conduct fire behavior monitoring and reporting for prescribed fires.

Salary in this announcement represents the 2025 Rest of US Pay scale. Salary may differ based on location selected. Visit HERE for more information on the 2025 GS pay scales.

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Requirements

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 may be required to complete training and operate a four-wheel drive vehicle.Work may require travel by fixed-wing or rotorwing aircraft.You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.Government housing may be available on a bid system basis.You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.Subject to frequent extended travel up to 14 or more nights per month particularly during fire season, and you must obtain a government charge card for travel.You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement 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 qualified specialized experience.

Applicants must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-6 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). For this position, specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position and must have included work in, or directly related to, technical fire management support. Examples of this type of technical fire management support work include: leading other employees in the collection, inventory, processing, and reporting of data for one or several parks’ vegetation and fire monitoring programs; Trains and leads technicians and volunteers to establish and monitor monitoring plots in a variety of fuel/vegetation types; participates in the monitoring, collation, and reporting of live and dead fuel loadings, fuel moistures, and fire behavior and weather data relating to spread rate, flame length, and other prescription elements. In order to be creditable, work experience must be in fire effects & monitoring. You must include hours per week worked.

OR-

EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least one year of graduate level education in a field directly related to this position (must be in the biological sciences), qualifying fields include but are not limited to: biology, fire science, dendrology or botany. You must include transcripts.

OR-

Successful completion of a COMBINATION of education and experience as described above.

You must include months, years and hours per week worked to receive credit for your work and/or volunteer experience. One year of specialized experience is equivalent to 12 months at 40 hours per week. Part-time hours are prorated. You will not receive any credit for experience that does not indicate exact hours per week or is listed as “varies”.

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.

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

This notice is being issued to recruit personnel to occupations for which a critical hiring need has been identified. To assist in filling these positions, OPM has granted the Department of the Interior “Direct Hire Authority”.

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.

A Recruitment Incentive May Be Authorized for a newly selected employee when appointed to a permanent, temporary, or term position. A Federal employee who is transferring to the National Park Service from another component, bureau or Federal agency and who does not meet the conditions under 5 CFR

575.102 is not eligible for a recruitment incentive.

A Relocation Incentive May Be Authorized for a Federal employee when the employee must move, as directed by the National Park Service (NPS) either through a management directed reassignment or selection for employment, to a different location at least 50 miles away from the one where his/her position of record held at time of selection is currently located, due to a need of the NPS. A relocation incentive is not the same as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move and, as such, may be granted in conjunction with one another.

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: In addition to working in an office/laboratory setting, the work involves walking, running, climbing, and backpacking with a load over rough terrain, sometimes for extended periods; lifting moderately heavy items; bending and stooping for long periods; and working under occasionally inclement (i.e., cold, hot, snow, wind) weather conditions. Office work can involve long periods of sitting and doing data entry into a computer.

Work Environment: Work is performed in an office, laboratory, and in the field. Field work includes exposure to extreme weather conditions and terrain, biting insects, wild animals, high pollen levels, dermatitis causing plants, poisonous snakes and period of camping for multiple nights in the field. Incumbent may be required to fly in helicopters and fixed wing aircraft and may be required to work in actual fire situations, which can be hazardous.

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.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) OR Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): CTAP/ICTAP provides placement assistance to permanent Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated. Applicants claiming CTAP/ICTAP eligibility must submit a copy of their most recent performance appraisal, proof of eligibility, and most current SF50 noting position, grade level, duty location with their application. To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, applicants must be qualified (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry. For Information on CTAP and ICTAP visit: Career Transition (opm.gov)

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

Applicants will be evaluated based on how well they meet the qualification requirements.

Upon receipt of the completed application package, a review of the application will be made to ensure basic qualification requirements are met.

This vacancy will be filled through DOI’s Direct Hire Authority. Veterans Preference and traditional rating and ranking of applicants do not apply to positions filled under this Authority. All qualified applicants, as determined by the SHRO, will be referred for consideration. While managers and supervisors are not required to conduct interviews, it is highly recommended that they do so in order to assess the competencies of each applicant.

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.

If a determination is made that an applicant has inflated qualifications or experience on the resume, the employee will receive no consideration for the position, as per OPM regulations.