Program Specialist (Fire Support)

Full Job Description

This position is assigned to a Forest Service, Region 5 Pacific Southwest office. This position provides oversight and administration of interagency emergency fire equipment and service contracts.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Brian Grabowski at brian.grabowski@usda.gov or Deirdre Cherry at deirdre.cherry@usda.gov.

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.

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: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as three or more of the following: Providing administration and oversight of the emergency contracts and incident blanket purchase agreement (IBPA) program; and/or Serving as a contact for incident management personnel in resolving issues and concerns with contracted resources; and/or Reviewing statements of work and contract specifications to ensure they are vetted through appropriate operational and contracting personnel; and/or Performing contract administration for heavy equipment, heavy equipment with water, water handling, or related equipment/activities.

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.

Major Duties:

• Serves as the primary Fire and Aviation Management contact for program contract administration regarding heavy equipment, heavy equipment with water, water handling, and other miscellaneous support services.
• Participates in incident management assignments and conducts field inspections of contracted resources.
• Serves as the Fire and Aviation Management contracting officer’s representative for regional emergency incident blanket purchase agreements, contracts (exclusive of aviation), incident blanket purchases, and Memorandums of Understanding.
• Serves as a primary contact for incident management personnel in resolving issues and concerns with contracted resources.
• Adapts, modifies, or creates agency guidelines and utilizes own interpretations to provide oversight to the contract resource program area.
• Coordinates with national and regional Fire and Aviation Management personnel to develop and implement contract resource inspection procedures and process.
• Develops, implements, and oversees records management and qualification validation processes for contracted resources.
• Fosters an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization.