Supervisory Public Affairs Specialist
Foreign Agricultural Service
Posted: January 14, 2026 (1 day ago)
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Federal Emergency Management Agency
Department of Homeland Security
Location
Washington, District of Columbia
Salary
$169,279 - $197,200
per year
Type
Closes
Base salary range: $123,041 - $159,950
Typical requirements: 1 year specialized experience at GS-14. Senior leader or top expert.
Note: Actual salary includes locality pay (15-40%+ depending on location).
This job involves leading a team in the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Urban Search and Rescue operations, focusing on planning, advising on complex disaster responses, and ensuring teams are ready to act during emergencies.
It requires overseeing staff during incidents, fixing operational issues, and briefing high-level leaders to support quick decisions.
A good fit would be someone with extensive leadership experience in emergency management, particularly in search and rescue, who thrives in high-stakes, fast-paced environments.
This position is located in the Response and Recovery, Response Directorate, Operations Division, USAR Branch The ideal candidate for this position will have served in a leadership role and has knowledge of Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Response operations and possesses administration and safe delivery of the capability.
The qualification requirements listed below must be met by the closing date of this announcement.
To qualify for this position at the GS-15 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 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: Serving in a leadership role and advising on a wide range of complex issues in the Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response ; AND, Developing program plans, policies, and operational procedures related to disaster operations; AND, Identifying problematic operational and administrative shortfalls and the need for intervention to ensure mission goals are met AND, Directing the actions of individual staff in response to emerging incidents AND providing situational update briefings to senior leaders for the use in decision making 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.
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 responsible for providing assistance to state and local governments for the safe location, medical stabilization and extrication of survivors of structural collapses.
Typical assignments include: Evaluating and managing plans, policies, on safety and operational procedures related to Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Response , including the Readiness Assessment Program.
Participating in Administrative Readiness Evaluations and/ or Operational Readiness Exercise Evaluations to review and evaluate the administrative, safety considerations, and/or operational readiness of resources.
Identifying safety and operational shortfalls, problems, and the need for intervention at the national level to ensure the accomplishment of goals and objectives to ensure readiness.
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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