Recent Listing

Posted: December 31, 2025 (14 days ago)

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IT Specialist (SysAdm)

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Department of Homeland Security

Recent

Location

Salary

$101,401 - $131,826

per year

Closes

January 15, 2026More FEMA jobs →

GS-12 Pay Grade

Base salary range: $74,441 - $96,770

Typical requirements: 1 year specialized experience at GS-11. Advanced degree + significant experience.

Note: Actual salary includes locality pay (15-40%+ depending on location).

Job Description

Summary

This job involves managing and maintaining computer systems and software for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's continuity programs, ensuring they run smoothly on various hardware setups.

You'll handle planning, troubleshooting, and support for these systems to keep emergency communications reliable.

A good fit would be someone with strong IT experience in system administration, who is detail-oriented and enjoys solving technical problems while supporting users.

Key Requirements

  • One full year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-11 level, including planning, delivery, and maintenance of software on multiple hardware platforms
  • Experience designing, testing, documenting, implementing, and maintaining application software
  • Skills in managing system resources such as performance, capacity, availability, serviceability, and recoverability
  • IT-related experience demonstrating competencies in attention to detail, customer service, oral communication, and problem solving
  • For current federal employees: 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent within 30 days of closing date
  • Ability to highlight relevant experience in a resume limited to two pages, using clear and specific descriptions

Full Job Description

This position is located in Office of National Continuity Programs; Continuity Communications Division.

The ideal candidate for this position will posses skills in systems administration, troubleshooting, and customer support related to hardware and software systems.

Current Federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent grade band in the Federal service.

The time-in-grade and qualification requirements must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.

To qualify for this position at the GS-12 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following: Planning, delivery, and maintenance of software applications executing on the multiple hardware platforms; AND Designing, testing, documenting, implementing, and maintaining new or modified application software; AND Managing systems resources including performance, capacity, availability, serviceability, and recoverability.

AND In addition to the minimum qualifications described above (specialized experience statement), you must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the four competencies listed below: 1.

Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail. 2.

Customer Service - Works with clients and customers to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.

3.

Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information; makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.

4. Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application: Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.

Please limit your resume to two pages. The USAJOBS database will not allow an applicant to submit an application that includes a resume over two pages.

Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity.

Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience. Are you qualifying based on your work experience?

Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility.

To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder.

If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience).

Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level.

Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE)?

To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.

Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information.

Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified." 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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards. Major Duties:

What will I do in this position if hired?

In this position, you will be involved in planning and coordinating the installation, testing, operation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of hardware and software systems.

Typical assignments include: Planning and scheduling the installation of new or modified hardware and software operating systems and applications.

Managing systems accounts, network rights, and access to systems and equipment.

Developing, documenting, and implementing systems administration standard operating procedures, security procedures and tools.

Resolving of hardware/software interface and interoperability problems and maintenance of system configuration.

Developing test data and appropriate testing procedures; provide analysis and evaluation report.

Promotion Potential: Future promotions will be dependent on your ability to perform the duties at a higher level, the continuing need for an employee assigned to the higher level, and administrative approval.

What else do I need to know? At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management.

Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites.

All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description.

Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

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Posted on USAJOBS: 12/31/2025 | Added to FreshGovJobs: 1/1/2026

Source: USAJOBS | ID: FEMA-KR-12840561-IMP