Public Affairs Specialist

Summary

Positions may be filled at one or more of the duty locations included in this announcement. Final determination of the duty location will be made at the time of the job offer. These positions serve as a Public Affairs Specialist. The incumbent performs a variety of activities in planning and implementing a comprehensive public affairs program. For additional information about the duties of these positions, see the Additional Information section for location specific contact information.

Duties

• Duties listed are at the full performance grade level.
• Plans, directs and implements a comprehensive public affairs program for the unit.
• Informs interested public including other agencies, organizations, and individuals of units activities and programs.
• Advises as to how to present the organizations position on controversial issues.
• Develops and maintains an effective working relationship with media representatives in the unit's zone of influence.
• Collaborates with other staff to develop and implement public affairs communication plans, program strategies and techniques for dealing with and addressing critical and complex public issues.
• Provides input into the long-range planning, development, and coordination of the overall public affairs program for the unit.
• Responds to inquires and keeps unit informed of issues, especially important program or policy changes which may generate interest among their constituents.
• Uses a variety of communication methods and techniques (i.e. written, oral, visual and personal) in devising the appropriate communication method for each public affairs campaign.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards. Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-11: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as two or more of the following: Responding to requests for information by determining the nature of the data required and collecting and assembling the material using the appropriate format and style based on needs and organization practices; and/or Assisting in evaluation and analysis of public comments on management issues; and/or Identifying areas to be addressed, characteristics and needs of the target audience, and communication techniques most appropriate. OR 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree (coursework directly related to the position being filled); OR an appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master's degree i.e. more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.). For the GS-12: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as two or more of the following: Preparing written materials to promote an organization's position on a variety of sensitive, controversial and/or complex issues; and/or Establishing and maintaining working relationships at multiple levels both internally and externally in order to develop and disseminate accurate messaging; and/or Designing and tailoring meetings and public involvement strategies to audiences that involved a degree of controversy. 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.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service or exempt. Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check. Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may 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. 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.

How to apply

Please view Tips for Applicants - a guide to the Forest Service application process. Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Mountain Time Zone, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis. Contact the Agency Contact to request this. To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.