Program Specialist (Assistant Director Fire Support)

Summary

This position is located in a Regional Office of the Forest Service within Region 5. The position serves as and Assistant Director to the Director of Fire and Aviation Management (FAM). The incombent has the responsibility for specific programs and tasks in the Corporate Fire Program. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Brian Grabowski at [email protected] or Deirdre Cherry at [email protected].

Duties

• Serve as the Regional Cooperative Fire Program manager leading the development of cooperative partnerships related to the management of a cooperative fire program.
• Provide overall program direction; vision, strategic planning, internal and external networking, monitoring and evaluation of the Region’s partnerships.
• Serve as an expert technical consultant in planning and development of partnerships among all levels.
• Analyze all requirements and assesses appropriate alternatives prior to the acquisition of resources via the grants and agreements process.
• Review and prepare grant applications for award in conformance with the appropriate rules, regulations and agency policies.
• Interpret complex program requirements, identifies problem areas, and provides advice to grantees on program improvements that meet their expressed needs.
• Serve as a Forest Service representative to the Regional Interagency Steering Committee for pre-disaster, disaster, and post disaster planning and exercise coordination.
• Serve as technical expert in the resolution of problems and issues related to substantive mission-oriented programs that influence the development and maintenance of relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Serve as an organizational expert on budgeting and financial management issues and activities, including historical costs.

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. 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. Note on Experience: Your resume must clearly document the following for each block of work experience; the beginning day, month and year the work assignment started and ended; the hours worked per week; position title, and series and grade if applicable; and description of duties performed. This information must be provided for each permanent, temporary or seasonal appointment/work assignment or volunteer work and should be clearly documented as a separate block of time. Incomplete, inaccurate or conflicting work history may not be credited for qualifications purposes. This can result in an applicant not being considered for the position. Specialized Experience Requirement: At least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Graduate level education alone is not qualifying at this grade level. Specialized experience at this level includes one or more of the following: Work as a fire program specialist that requires knowledge and skill in performing program analysis, fire protection planning, and evaluative assignments concerned with the administrative and operational aspects of wildland fire management and/or disaster response organizations, programs, and services. Such work should demonstrate experience in strategic planning, budget proposals and allocation, conducting analysis and evaluation of programs, grant and agreement development, property management, and improvement projects for disaster response and/or wildland fire management. TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement. To receive consideration for this position, you must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered 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.gov 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 Online" 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.