Wildland Firefighter (Regional Aviation Officer)

Full Job Description

This position is located at a Forest Service Unit within the Intermountain Region, Region 4.

The Regional Aviation Officer serves as a principal assistant to the Director of Aviation and Fire Management with primary responsibility for directing the Region's aviation activities.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Zephaniah Cunningham at zephaniah.cunningham@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 Wildland Fire Schedule Qualification Standards.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements.

Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GW-13: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level GW-12 in the Federal service.

Examples of Specialized Experience are: Managed a multi-sector workforce based on organizational goals, budget considerations, and staffing needs; provided fire and aviation technical advice and expertise to multi-agency coordination groups; developed work improvement plans; served as subject matter expert in all phases of aviation contracting.

For the GW-14: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade level GW-13 in the Federal service.

Examples of Specialized Experience are: Provided leadership, oversight and technical direction of highly complex aviation management operations (fixed and rotor wing aircraft) both inside and outside the agency; prepared a program budget and recommend funding allocations to the units for forest aviation programs; evaluated the efficiency of aviation operations in fire and other natural resource aviation operations; performed comprehensive field evaluations of aviation operational effectiveness, overall accomplishment, method and procedure analysis, and conceptualized program/system changes; provided expert interpretations of highly complex aviation management and aircraft maintenance data, clarifying requirements and regulations to assure airworthiness.

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.

FIREFIGHTER RETIREMENT COVERAGE: This is a secondary firefighter position under 5 USC 8336 (CSRS) and 8412(d) (FERS). Prior wildland firefighting experience is required.

There is no age limit for entry into secondary positions. Firefighter retirement coverage of the incumbent depends upon his or her individual work history.

To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

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.

PROMOTION POTENTIAL: If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management.

However, promotion is neither implied or guaranteed. Major Duties:

• Duties listed are at full performance grade GW-14 level.
• Participate in conferences, meetings, hearings, and/or presentations involving problems or issues of considerable consequence or importance to the program or program segment(s) managed.
• Prepare a program budget and recommend funding allocations to the units for forest aviation programs.
• Provide expert input on policy implementation, development of aviation plans and management of an Aviation and Fire Management program.
• Perform comprehensive field evaluations of aviation operational effectiveness, overall accomplishment, method and procedure analysis, and conceptualizes program/system changes.
• Evaluate the efficiency of aviation operations in fire and other natural resource aviation operations.