Forestry Technician (Fire Dispatch) - Direct Hire Authority

Summary This is a Direct-Hire advertisement. Veterans preference is not applicable to this advertisement. Learn more about this authority at: Direct Hire Authority In order to be considered for any duty location, ensure desired locations are selected. Applicants will not be considered for locations not selected. Additional Vacancies: Multiple positions may be filled from applications received under this announcement in the advertised office or other USWFS offices in the local commuting area. Duties As a Forestry Technician (Fire Dispatch) - Direct Hire Authority your duties will include but are not limited to the following: Receive fire reports, determines location, land status, and current fire information to dispatch personnel, equipment, aircraft, and/or supplies. Maintain resource status and tracking systems. Input data into a number of fire-related computer applications. Monitor all fire radio communications and maintain telephone and radio conversation logs. Gathers data to perform briefings and provide information to supervisors and fire management personnel. Duties listed are at the GW-05 full performance level. Requirements Conditions of employment Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. Suitability for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation. Direct Deposit Required. You will be required to submit to a drug test and receive a negative drug test result prior to appointment. In addition, this position is subject to random testing for illegal drug use. You may be required to pass a pre-employment physical, depending on the location. This position MAY require the incumbent to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of their official duties. Selectee must hold and maintain a valid state driver's license throughout their employment in this position. A condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. Individuals assigned male at birth after 12-31-59 must be registered for the Selective Service. To verify registration visit SSS.gov. You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work. You may be required to travel overnight away from home. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes. You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority. Qualifications In order to qualify for this position you must possess the Minimum Qualification requirements listed below. Only experience and education obtained by 03/05/2026 will be considered. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. Please be sure to include this information in your resume. No assumptions will be made about your experience. Minimum Qualification For the GW-04 level: 6 months of general work experience, which can be any work experience AND 6 months of specialized experience equivalent to GS/GW-03 is required. SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Examples of specialized work experience may include but are not limited to: performing dispatch work or equivalent experience that provided familiarity with dispatch operations and procedures, such as performing wildland fire suppression duties or working with fire/dispatch computer programs. GENERAL EXPERIENCE: Any type of work that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work of the position, or experience that provided a familiarity with the subject matter or processes of the broad subject area of the occupation. Specialized experience may be substituted for general experience. SEASONAL EXPERIENCE: A season of experience is considered to be a period of no less than 3 months of continuous employment on a seasonal basis. Shorter periods may be combined to make a season, provided a total of at least 3 months' experience is shown. For any period where the work exceeded 3 months, the excess work is credited towards an additional season of experience. -OR- Successful completion of 2 years of study that included at least 12 semester hours in any combination of courses such as forestry, agriculture, crop or plant science, range management or conservation, wildlife management, watershed management, soil science, natural resources (except marine fisheries and oceanography), outdoor recreation management, civil or forest engineering, or wildland fire science. No more than 3 semester hours in mathematics is creditable. -OR- A combination of education and experience as described above. Transcripts must be attached to application package. For the GW-05 level: One year of specialized experience equivalent to GW/GS-04 is required. Examples of specialized work experience may include but are not limited to: Performing dispatch or dispatch office functions related to wildland fire suppression activities such as determining priorities and selecting alternative resources while independently performing dispatch operations duties. -OR- Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree (a) with major study in forestry, range management, agriculture, or a subject-matter field directly related to the position, or (b) that included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of courses such as those shown above for GW-4. No more than 6 semester hours in mathematics is creditable. -OR- A combination of education and experience as described above. 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. *Applicants must meet all minimum qualification requirements for the position of interest by the closing date of the Job Announcement. Secondary Firefighter Retirement Coverage - Applicants for this secondary administrative fire fighter position under the provisions of 5 U.S.C. 8336 (c) (CSRS) and 5 U.S.C. 8412 (d), must possess knowledge of the principles, methods, and techniques of wildland firefighting as demonstrated by direct wildland firefighting experience. In order to receive credit, you must provide a written description of your experience in wildland firefighting. Education without hands-on wildland firefighting experience does not meet this requirement. Periods of wildland firefighting experience, gained through militia and rural fire departments, can also be credited. Wildland fire is defined as any non-structure fire that occurs in the wildland. Two distinct types of wildland fire have been defined and include wildfire and prescribed fires as follows: Wildfire: Unplanned ignitions or prescribed fires that are declared wildfires. Prescribed Fires: Planned ignitions. This description includes only fire line experience on a Prescribed Fire; it does not include experience in the planning stages. Prescribed fire experience must be supplemented by fire suppression experience in order to be creditable as previous wildland firefighting experience. Physical Demands: The work involves long hours of sitting, intense concentration, and working at peak proficiency/intensity levels with irregular breaks and mealtimes. The duties of this position create a highly stressful environment during peak activity, requiring the ability to keep calm in emergency situations. Must be able to cope with the pressure of meeting timeframes and changing priorities. Mental concentration and accuracy are required. Working Conditions: Work is performed primarily in an office setting. During peak activity, increased radio traffic, numerous ringing phones, and conversations result in high noise levels, which require a high level of concentration to perform duties. This creates a high stress work environment. Education PROOF OF EDUCATION: All applicants who are using education or a combination of education and experience to qualify must submit copies of official or unofficial transcripts which include grades, credit hours earned, major(s), grade point average or class ranking, institution name, and student name. If any required coursework is not easily recognizable on transcripts, or if you believe a portion of a particular course can be credited toward meeting an educational requirement, you must also provide a memorandum on letterhead from the institution's registrar, dean, or other appropriate official stating the percentage of the course that should be considered to meet the requirement and the equivalent number of units. Unofficial transcripts are acceptable; however, if you are selected for the position, you will be required to produce the original official transcripts. PASS/FAIL COURSES: If more than 10 percent of your undergraduate course work (credit hours) were taken on a pass/fail basis, your claim of superior academic achievement must be based upon class standing or membership in an honor society. GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study. FOREIGN EDUCATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office (ed.gov). Additional information Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP): CTAP provides eligible surplus and displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. Information about CTAP/ICTAP eligibility is available from OPM's Career Transition Resources website at CTAP or ICTAP. If your agency has notified you in writing that you are a surplus or displaced employee eligible for CTAP consideration or that you are a displaced employee eligible for ICTAP consideration, you may receive selection priority if: 1) This vacancy is within your CTAP/ICTAP eligibility; 2) You apply under the instructions in this announcement; and 3) You are found well-qualified for this vacancy. You must provide proof of eligibility with your application to receive selection priority. Such proof may include a copy of your written notification of CTAP/ICTAP eligibility, or a copy of your separation personnel action form. CTAP and ICTAP eligibles will be considered well qualified if they meet minimum qualifications for this position. This position is considered a career ladder opportunity, with a full performance level of GW-05. If selected at a lower grade level, you may be non-competitively promoted to the next grade level at the discretion of your supervisor and is contingent upon meeting regulatory and legal requirements for promotion, satisfactory performance, and the availability of higher-level work. Promotion is not guaranteed, and no promise of promotion is implied. Reemployment Priority List (RPL): The RPL is the mechanism agencies use to give reemployment consideration to their former competitive service employees separated by a RIF or who have fully recovered from a compensable injury after more than one year. If you are currently on an RPL, you may be given priority consideration. PCS INFORMATION: Travel and relocation expenses MAY be offered by the Department of the Interior. IF PCS is authorized for a location: Entitlements for payment of basic moving expenses, as required and to the extent allowed by the Federal Travel Regulation (FTR) 302-3.101, are authorized for eligible applicants changing duty station when the change meets the distance tests as provided in FTR 302-1.1 and 302-2.6. All moving expenses are taxable. If eligible and qualified, you may be offered a recruitment or relocation incentive. The decision to offer an incentive will be made on a case-by-case basis and is neither promised nor guaranteed. Reasonable Accommodation: The USWFS provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. Please visit USAJOBS Center | Reasonable accommodation policy if you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process. Probation/Trial Period Con't: Probationary period: As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1 year probationary period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. Under completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution. Benefits A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits. Review our benefits Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.