Biological Science Technician

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-11/22/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience. SELECTIVE FACTORS: At the GS 07 and GS 08 grade levels, these positions are expected to be able to operate small vessels in open water ocean environments, thus documentation of holding a current DOI Motorboat Operator Certification Course certificate or equivalent boating training program certification is required. As well as documentation of substantial experience operating and crewing small vessels in coastal waters. You must provide documentation at the time of application, such as a copy of your certification and description of your experience in your resume, to meet this requirement. Candidates who do not meet, and provide documentation of meeting, this requirement by close of this announcement will receive no further consideration for this position at the GS 07 and GS 08 grade levels. – AND – At the GS 05 and GS 06 grade levels, these positions are expected to be able to be able to SCUBA dive. Applicants must provide documentation of holding an advanced open water SCUBA certification or equivalent from an accredited national institute (e.g., NAUI, PADI SSI) and have at least 20 logged scientific and/or commercial dives. You must provide documentation at the time of application, such as a copy of your certification and dive log, to meet this requirement. Candidates who do not meet, and provide documentation of meeting, this requirement by close of this announcement will receive no further consideration for this position at the GS 05 and GS 06 grade levels. A dive log providing complete documentation of the required 20 scientific and/or commercial dives is required. -AND- At the GS 07 and GS 08 grade levels, these positions are expected to be able to be able to SCUBA dive with more documented diving experience. Applicants must provide documentation of holding an advanced open water SCUBA certification or equivalent from an accredited national institute (e.g., NAUI, PADI SSI) and have at least 50 logged scientific and/or commercial dives. You must provide documentation at the time of application, such as a copy of your certification and dive log, to meet this requirement. Candidates who do not meet, and provide documentation of meeting, this requirement by close of this announcement will receive no further consideration for this position at the GS 07 and GS 08 grade levels. A dive log providing complete documentation of the required 50 scientific and/or commercial dives is required. -AND- To qualify for this position at the GS-05 grade level, you must possess at least of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: conducting biological/ecological/fishery/wildlife inventory and monitoring activities for a variety of biological/ecological/fishery/wildlife species. Research activity or control program work; nursery work that required the growing and maintenance of plants in a controlled environment; work comparable to that with a large dairy farm where production records, animal environment, and sanitary conditions were kept in accordance with modern dairy practice. NOTE: Farming experience that was not performed in a controlled environment, or experience as a laborer who was not responsible for planning and scheduling his/her own work, but only performed assigned tasks, would not qualify as specialized experience. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor’s degree with major study or at least 24 semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture, or mathematics. At least 6 semester hours of courses must have been directly related to the position to be filled. You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of experience and education as described above. To combine education and experience, first take the number of months of qualifying, full-time experience and divide by 12. Multiply the resulting decimal by 100. Then take the number of semester hours completed beyond the first 60, and divide by 60. Multiple the resulting decimal by 100. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts. To qualify for this position at the GS-06 grade level, you must possess at least of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-05 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: conducting biological/ecological/fishery/wildlife inventory and monitoring activities for a variety of biological/ecological/fishery/wildlife species is critical. Research activity or control program work; nursery work that required the growing and maintenance of plants in a controlled environment; work comparable to that with a large dairy farm where production records, animal environment, and sanitary conditions were kept in accordance with modern dairy practice. NOTE: Farming experience that was not performed in a controlled environment, or experience as a laborer who was not responsible for planning and scheduling his/her own work, but only performed assigned tasks, would not qualify as specialized experience. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least a one full year of graduate level education with coursework in a field of study directly related to the position to be filled including biology, ecology, environmental science, marine biology, marine ecology, etc…. You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of experience and education as described above. To combine education and experience, first take the number of months of qualifying, full-time experience and divide by 12. Multiply the resulting decimal by 100. Then take the number of semester hours completed and divide by 18. Multiple the resulting decimal by 100. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts.
These positions are located in Dry Tortugas National Park, in the Resource Management Division. These are term positions (more than 1 year) with an initial appointment to last at least 13 months but may be extended up to a total of 10-years. Term positions do not convey permanent status in the Federal service. Open to the first 100 applicants or until 11/22/2024 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.