Environmental Protection Specialist

Full Job Description

This career/career-conditional permanent position is located in Shenandoah National Park, in the Natural and Cultural Resource Division.

The primary purpose of the position is to serve as the Park's principal environmental coordinator performing operational and compliance work in support of an Environmental Protection Program.

Requirements Continued Probationary Period: As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated.

This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service.

In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will 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.

Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized.

In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated.

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.

Qualifications: All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-03/25/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience.

For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted.

An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience.

For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience.

Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience.

For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected.

To qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement.

EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors).

This experience includes activities such as: developing or implementing management documents to ensure compliance with federal, state, tribal, and county orders, ordinances, statutes, laws and regulations, directives and policies involving National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and underlying laws including Endangered Species Act (ESA), National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) 106 and 110, Wilderness Act, Clean Air Act (CAA) and Clean Water Act (CWA); applying and managing a variety of Federal regulations, policies, guidelines, and procedures related to environmental compliance; interpret construction design drawings to evaluate potential impacts to resources; understand suitable erosion controls and potential environmental effects for various large-scale construction land disturbances to ensure compliance with policy and regulations; establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with project managers and interdisciplinary team members in minimizing environmental impacts; coordinating or consulting with various Federal resource and regulatory agencies and non-government entities regarding environmental issues.

You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education or Ph.D.

or equivalent doctoral degree in a related field of study. You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above.

To combine education and experience for example, 9 months of specialized experience equivalent to GS-9 (75% of experience requirement) and 2.5 years of graduate education in a related field of study (50% of education requirement).

Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts.

Volunteer Experience: 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. Do not submit photographs with your application package.

Documents with photographs may not be seen by hiring officials - you must remove your image from any badges, licenses, etc. Do not upload Adobe portfolio documents.

Adobe portfolio documents are not viewable by our agency's staffing offices. Major Duties:

This position will perform assignments that involve diverse aspects of assigned functions to support the Environmental Protection Program within Shenandoah National Park.

Duties may include: Lead interdisciplinary teams through the environmental compliance process including review of proposed actions, development of alternatives, identification of potential environmental impacts, and consideration of mitigation strategies.

Establish and maintain effective working relationships that foster open communication upward, downward, and at peer levels with staff, regional office staff, partner agencies, and other groups and organizations to ensure that program objectives are well understood and achieved as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Writes reports, briefing statements, and correspondence on technical aspects of environmental compliance and historic preservation issues that are clear, concise, grammatically correct, and stylistically appropriate for the intended purpose and audience.

Researches, interprets, and properly applies provisions of a broad range of environmental regulations and legislation such as the NPS Organic Act of 1916, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, and relevant Executive Orders.

Uses planning and impact analysis techniques including the ability to gather, analyze and interpret information, analyze impacts to wilderness and natural and cultural resources, analyze cumulative environmental impacts, formulate management alternatives, and develop mitigating measures.

POSITION LOCATION: This position will be with the Division of Natural and Cultural Resources, Shenandoah National Park, Headquarters Complex.

Headquarters is located approximately 4 miles from Luray, Virginia; a small rural community in the Shenandoah Valley all the basic public amenities and a population of about 5,000.

Shenandoah National Park contains approximately 199,000 acres along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia.

The Park's backcountry consists of more than 500 miles of trails, including 95 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and nearly 80,000 acres of federally designed wilderness.

Skyline Drive, the famous scenic tour road through the Park, follows the ridge crest for 105 miles from Front Royal to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesboro.

Approximately 1.5 million people visit the Park each year to enjoy views from the Skyline Drive, hike trails, fish for trout, enjoy nature, camp in campgrounds or in the backcountry, or stay overnight in one of the Park's rustic lodges or backcountry cabins.