Supervisory Emergency Management Specialist (Branch Chief)

Full Job Description

The Ready Response Corps (RRC) is an APHIS-wide cadre dedicated to rapidly deploying in support of animal and plant health-related emergencies and all hazards' events to safeguard American agriculture.

Lead a team of responders with a variety of skill sets to support a wide range of emergency response activities in support of animal and plant pest and disease eradication, as well as all hazard events.

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below.

TIME-IN-GRADE: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled.

FOR THE GS-14 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-13 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates: Provides leadership in building relationships with partners to execute program delivery.

Identifies problems impacting the success of critical program delivery or emergency response and works to resolve challenges and remove barriers.

Develops strategies to support critical program delivery and carries out implementation.

Oversees a team, ensuring they have resources to support emergency response activities or critical program delivery.

Communicates effectively both verbally and in writing to keep those involved with emergency response or critical program delivery apprised of activities, accomplishments, or opportunities.

Note: There is no education substitution for this grade level.

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. Major Duties:

• The duties may include, but are not limited to:
• Leads the Ready Response Corps aligning activities with APHIS emergency response objectives and policy.
• Serves as a consultant and authoritative expert to the Emergency Management, Safety, and Security Director, Deputy Director and other management officials regarding agency-wide emergency preparedness and response programs and plans.
• Develops the Ready Response Corps infrastructure to provide rapid support to Agency emergency programs activities.
• Establishes and maintains a comprehensive Ready Response Corps training plan that includes incident command system training as well as APHIS-specific emergency response training.
• Develops Ready Response Corps position specific job hazard analyses (JHA) to identify potential hazards and determine preventative measures to control them.
• Ensures Ready Response Corps members adhere to all medical surveillance and monitoring requirements to maintain deployment readiness and complete annual fit testing.
• Leverages the APHIS Response Information System (ARIS) to track Corps’ members response capabilities, including training credentials, to deploy them based on where they can be of most benefit.
• Works closely with APHIS program leadership to understand their emergency response and deployment needs to ensure Ready Response Corps members are prepared to support a wide range of response needs.
• Develops well written materials to brief senior leadership and emergency managers about Ready Response Corps activities and speaks on behalf of the Agency about the Corps and its objective.