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. Provides leadership for planning, designing, and executing a comprehensive public affairs program for communicating the organization's programs, policies, and activities to the surrounding publics. For more information, see the Additional Information section for location specific points of contact.

Duties

• Duties listed are at the full performance level.
• Directs public affairs support for natural resource program areas to include community relations; media; liaison between local organizations, government officials, special interests groups, the public; legislative liaison, tribal governments, etc.
• Serves as the principal staff advisor and spokesperson to supervisor and senior staff on all matters involving public issues and the creation of communication policy.
• Responds to media queries, to include issues of a sensitive nature or that may be subject to misunderstanding if not properly explained, or that may draw adverse public attention.
• Develops communication plans during emergency events such as road closures, evacuations, fatalities, etc.
• Maintains effective working relationships with representatives of government members of Congress, civic organizations, government organizations, and with representatives of the media and special interest groups.
• Coordinates with appropriate personnel prior to contacting and releasing information to representatives of news media on conditions that might result in favorable or unfavorable public reaction.
• Prepares and/or coordinates speeches, presentations, and written and electronic information materials for general and targeted audiences.
• Maintains knowledge of the most current effective communication methods and techniques to carry out duties of the position and provide training for others as needed.
• Supervises 20% or less of the time.

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-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: Establishing and maintaining effective working relationships at multiple levels within an organization to develop and disseminate coordinated messages that accurately address organizational programs; and/or Preparing written materials to promote an organization's position on a variety of sensitive, controversial and/or complex issues; and/or Designing and tailoring meetings and public involvement strategies to audiences that involve a degree of controversy. For the GS-13: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as two or more of the following: Evaluating the effectiveness of a public affairs and/or communications program and developing new methods and techniques in communicating with an organization's various publics and groups; and/or Researching complex programs and developing communication materials using various tools and techniques; and/or Researching and analyzing controversial programs and assessing public reaction. 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.