Social/Biological/Physical Science Information Specialist (Fire Support)

Full Job Description

The position is assigned to the Region 6 Fire and Aviation Management unit within the Pacific Northwest.

The incumbent has responsibility for supporting managers and resource specialists in the use of geospatial technology and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for land, natural resources, and ecosystem management.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Jason Heinz at jason.heinz@usda.gov or Colleen Kingsbury at colleen.kingsbury@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. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary.

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.

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in any of the job series listed below. Basic Requirement for the Social Science Series, 0101: A.

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 in behavioral or social science; or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

OR B.

Combination of education and experience -- combination of education and experience that provided the applicant with knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

OR C.

Experience -- Four years of appropriate experience that demonstrated that the applicant has acquired knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

Basic Requirement for the Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences Series, 0401: A.

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 in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

OR B.

Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree in a major field of study that included 24 semester hours in course work in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

Related course work generally refers to courses that may be accepted as part of the program major. OR C.

Combination of education and experience -- combination of education and experience that included 24 semester hours in course work in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position, AND experience sufficient to demonstrate that you possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform work in the occupation that is comparable to that normally acquired through the successful completion of a full 4-year course of study with a major in the appropriate field needed to perform the work of the occupation.

Basic Requirement for the Physical Science Series, 1301: A.

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 in: physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.

OR B.

Combination of education and experience -- education equivalent to one of the majors shown above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

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

Specialized Experience Requirement: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal service.

Specialized experience is defined as three or more of the following: Participating in developing data dictionaries, data models, and metadata for multi-disciplinary information and geospatial applications; and/or Participating in the manipulation and analysis of geospatial data linking a variety of resources such as socio-economics, land, air, water, timber, recreation, wildlife, fisheries, and/or special management areas; and/or Creating increasingly complex thematic map products and presentation materials using established automated map and chart making processes; and/or Applying basic geographic and cartographic principles to the resolution of more complicated issues in geospatial database construction and map compilation.

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., in a geographic information systems or geography course of study.

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).

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:

• Works with managers and resource specialists to determine type, amount, and level of information required to develop and analyze ecosystem management alternatives.
• Assists with developing data dictionaries, data models, and metadata for multi-disciplinary information and geospatial applications.
• Converts geospatial information and remote sensing imagery into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) databases.
• Applies applicable principles to facilitate geospatial model design and analysis procedures related to natural resource and relevant socio-economic data and products.
• Manipulates and analyzes geospatial data to support resource management decisions for multiple resource, jurisdictional, and ownership units or a large geographical region.
• Applies geographic and cartographic principles to the resolution of multi-disciplinary issues in geospatial database construction and map compilation.
• Conducts informal training and provides technical assistance to GIS software users in the development, storage, retrieval, and analysis of data.