Environmental Protection Specialist

What will I do in this position if hired?

In this Environmental Protection Specialist position, you will support the Region Three Mitigation Division.

Typical assignments include:

• Ensuring compliance with environmental laws and regulations or mitigating adverse impacts to environmental and historic resources as a result of agency program implementation.
• Analyzing proposed actions to determine the appropriate level of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation. Completing non-disaster and disaster environmental compliance reviews.
• Providing technical assistance, training, and outreach to internal and external stakeholders.
• Ensuring the execution of policies and procedures to accomplish the mission.
• Providing timely advice and recommendations on overall environmental or historic preservation program management initiatives.
• Collecting data on environmental and historic preservation considerations related to potential impacts. Making effects determinations for historic resources and/or endangered species.

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.

This announcement is for a position as a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee). CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After three years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA.

This position will be hired into a temporary 4 Year CORE, excepted service appointment. Appointments may be renewed based on workload, funding, and supervisory approval.

All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

To qualify for this Environmental Protection Specialist position at the IC-11 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-09 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:

1. Applying laws, regulations, or executive orders regarding environmental planning or historic preservation such as; National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act, or Executive Order 11988/Floodplain Management or Executive Order 11990/Wetlands Protection;
2. Assisting internal and external stakeholders to resolve technical or administrative environmental or historic preservation issues, and;
3. Preparing technical reports and presentations to support research findings related to environmental federal laws, executive orders, or regulations.

OR

Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree

OR

OR

LL.M., if related

OR

Combination of education and experience.

To qualify for this Environmental Protection Specialist position at the IC-12 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-11 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:

1. Evaluating impacts to environmental or historic resources by applying the Endangered Species Act, National Historic Preservation Act, Wild and Scenic River Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, or other environmental laws;
2. Coordinating with internal and external partners to provide technical guidance; and
3. Writing standard operating procedures, guidance documents, or consultation letters related to environmental or historic preservation compliance.

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.
• Please limit your resume to five pages. If more than five pages are submitted, only the first five pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications.
• 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

Education substitution: This position permits applicants to qualify based on education (or a combination of education and experience), as outlined in the "requirements" section. If you are using education to qualify, you must submit a copy of your transcripts (unofficial are acceptable) with your online application. Once selected and prior to appointment, applicants must provide official college transcripts.

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. For example, specific courses accepted for college-level credit by an accredited U.S. college or university, or foreign education evaluated by an organization recognized for accreditation by the Department of Education as education equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. college or university. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. Visit the Department of Education's Recognition of Foreign Qualifications for more information.