Operations Specialist (Fire Support)

Summary

This position is assigned to a Forest Service, Region 5 Pacific Southwest office. This positions serves as the Emergency Fire Contract Administrator of an Interagency Emergency Fire Equipment Contract Program, working in a variety of Incident Management assignments. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Brian Grabowski at [email protected] or Deirdre Cherry at [email protected].

Duties

• Duties listed are at the full performance GS-11 grade level.
• Serves as a primary contact for incident management personnel, dispatch, forests, and regional inquiries to resolve issues with contracted resources.
• Reviews statements of work and contract specifications to ensure they are vetted through the appropriate staff.
• Ensures contract compliance and when appropriate, provides findings and recommendations for use and improvement.
• Ensures contract compliance and when appropriate, provides findings and recommendations for use and improvement.
• Coordinates and conducts reviews of contractor personnel training documents identifying and evaluating the quality and adequacy of fire training courses, materials, and instructors.
• Identifies and analyzes emergency fire equipment contractor skills or knowledge deficiencies and developmental needs.
• Develops and conducts equipment inspection training for interagency personnel throughout the region.
• Contracting Officers Representative (COR) for Regional Emergency Incident Blanket Purchase Agreements (IBPA’s)
• Provides training and guidance of Incident Contract Project Inspectors (ICPI) performing under Virtual Incident Procurement (VIPR) agreements and National Contracts (exclusive of aviation contracts).
• Responsible for conducting field evaluations and inspections on firefighting equipment, services, materials, processes and procedures, including the period of ongoing fire suppression activities.
• Communicates contract administration efforts with appropriate signatory Contracting Officer, including agreement solicitation support, verification of vendor provided information and contract actions.

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. GS-09: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as three or more of the following: Assisting with the review of statements of work and contract specifications; and/or Assisting with contract reviews to evaluate contractor performance; and/or Assisting with the inspections of equipment, materials, processes, procedures, etc. to ensure contract compliance; and/or Assisting with purchasing supplies and services following ordering protocols and addressing payment inquiries during and after wildland fire and other emergency assignments. OR A master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related. The education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. OR An appropriate combination of specialized experience and education (only graduate education in excess of 18 semester hours may be used to qualify applicants for this grade level). GS-11: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as three or more of the following: Working with incident management resources to provide contract compliance and assistance; and/or Performing project management support work directly related to emergency incident management projects; and/or Serving as a Contracting Officers Representative (COR) or similar position for emergency incident related contracts including equipment, services, and material; and/or Conducting inspections of equipment, materials, processes, procedures, etc. to ensure contract compliance. OR A Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related. The education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. 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.). 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. 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.

Education

See above for education that may be qualifying for the specific grade level.

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.