Archeologist

Full Job Description

This position is located on the State Resource Conservation office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The mission of NRCS is to provide leadership in a partnership effort to help people conserve, maintain and improve their natural resources and environment.

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. If education is required or being used to qualify, you must submit a copy of your transcripts.

Basic Requirement: Education 1.

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study that included 3 semester hours each in the following course areas:-History of archeology.-Archeology of a major geographical area such as North America or Africa.-Regional archeology, archeological cultures, or sites in a specific part or portion of a major geographical area to acquire or develop a foundation for regional specialization for professional development.-Theory and methods of archeology.

Methods include, but are not limited to, typology, classification, sampling, cultural evolution, diffusion, dating, and analytical techniques.-Archeological field school, to provide a basic understanding of theoretical and practical approaches to research design implementation, field preservation techniques, and report preparation by participation in actual field work.

AND Six semester hours of related course work in: geography, geology, or cultural geography;-history:- historiography, or historical archeology;-environmental studies;-scientific writing (nonfiction English composition); and/or-surveying; AND Archeological field school.

2.

Related Curriculum -- Degree in anthropology (with emphasis on ethnology, physical anthropology, or scientific linguistics), history, American studies, or a related discipline may be accepted as satisfying in full the educational requirements, provided the curriculum supplied academic course work sufficiently similar to the requirements in A.1 (including archeological field school).

OR B.

Combination of Education and Experience: College-level education or training that provided knowledge equivalent to that described above, plus appropriate technical experience or additional education.

OR C. Experience: Four years of archeological work experience that demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles and theories of professional archeology.

The work experience must have included archeology field experience, which may include that gained in an archeological field school.

Field experience should have included a combination of professional experience in archeological survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, and preparation of written materials.

Applicants with such field experience should, after additional experience under the direction of a higher-grade archeologist, be able to demonstrate the ability to be a crew chief, directing the work of others at a single location as a part of a larger archeological project.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education listed below.

Specialized Experience Requirement For the GS-12 grade level: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in federal service or comparable experience not gained through federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as: preparing and providing technical cultural resource content for contracts, environmental documents, agreement documents, and state or tribal cultural resource agreements; delivering guidance, training, and technical assistance on cultural resource issues to field staff and field support personnel; supporting all aspects of cultural resource programs including documentation, coordination, and preparation of required reports.

Defining and evaluating major cultural resource and environmental concerns to support compliance with federal, state, tribal and agency requirements; Preparing and providing technical cultural resource content for contracts, environmental documents, agreement documents, and state or tribal cultural resource agreements; Delivering guidance, training, and technical assistance on cultural resource issues to field staff and field support personnel; Supporting all aspects of cultural resource programs including documentation, coordination, and preparation of required reports.

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 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.

You must meet this requirement by the closing date of this announcement. Major Duties:

• Defines areas of major cultural resource and environmental concerns, designs and implements methodologies to address such concerns.
• Serve as a staff specialist in planning and application activities on all archeological and historical cultural resources, including Native American issues and concerns.
• Provides technical cultural resource sections of contracts, environmental documents, agreement documents, state and tribal cultural resource agreements.
• Serves as agency liaison to other federal, state, and tribal local agencies involved with cultural resource issues, agreements and policy.
• Develops training plans to ensure personnel are adequately qualified to perform assigned tasks and ensure personal are provided the opportune to develop their skills to optimum level.
• Collaboratively develops and implements ways to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of the products and services provided to internal and external customers.