Ecologist

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 Schedule Qualification Standards. Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary. Basic Requirement: Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement as defined below. Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor’s or higher degree that included a major field of study in biology, or a related field of science underlying ecological research that included at least 30 semester hours in basic and applied biological sciences. These hours must have included at least 9 semester hours in ecology, and 12 semester hours in physical and mathematical sciences. In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education in the amounts listed below. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-11 Grade Level: Applicants must have 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in fields such as environmental science or ecology, ecosystem science, bio-geo chemistry or soil science, or hydrology. OR one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 level; OR an appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master’s degree, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.). Specialized experience is defined as all of the following: · Leading field crews and conducting field sampling and field experiments involving a wide range of ecosystems across the urban to rural continuum; · Managing large (100s of GB to multi-TB) collections of data, including managing replication and syncing data across machines including remote servers; · Working with ecological data, including the ability to work with large, gridded datasets and formats. 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. 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.
This position is located with Research and Development, Northern Research Station. This position provides support to research scientists involving acquiring and managing ecological data; leading field crews and collecting data; performing statistical analyses; ecological modeling; data analysis; and data dissemination. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact John Kabrick at john.kabrick@usda.gov.