INTERDISCIPLINARY – BIOLOGIST/ECOLOGIST

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-10/16/2024-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. 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 Federal General Schedule Qualification Standards. BASIC EDUCATION REQUIREMENT: All applicants must meet the basic education requirement for their discipline: GS-0401, GS-0408 AND the experience listed below. Please note: It is your responsibility to show how you satisfy the course requirements for the series(s) you are applying for. If you do not provide information that clearly shows how your completed college course work meets all of the requirements, you will be rated ineligible. Your rating will be based solely on the information you submit with your application. No attempts will be made to verify with you, or the school you attended, whether or not your course work meets all of the requirements. YOU MUST SUBMIT ALL YOUR COLLEGE TRANSCRIPTS. Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences GS-0401: A. Degree: biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. OR B. Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Ecology GS-0408: Degree: 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. -AND- To qualify for this position at the GS-09 grade level, you must possess at least one 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-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors) performing the following, must include all four elements: (1) managing database systems for the long-term maintenance, analysis and dissemination of natural resource-related data sets produced by inventory and monitoring efforts; (2) performing data quality review and verification to confirm that data are complete and meet standards for distribution and archiving; (3) coordinating data uploads; data manipulations; and assisting staff with special data requests; and (4) implementing standards, guidelines and protocols for the acquisition, dissemination, maintenance, and security of inventory and monitoring datasets collected under the network program. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion two (2) years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master’s degree or master’s or equivalent graduate level degree in a field which demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of a Biologist/Ecologist. Note: You must submit a copy of your transcripts. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 for each federal position listed as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of qualifying experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either “full-time” (or “40 hours a week”) or “part-time” with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected. Volunteer Experience: 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.
As part of the Natural Resource Challenge, a service-wide, network-based inventory and monitoring program has been developed to address the lack of credible scientific information available to parks on natural resources. If you have any questions, please contact Kelly Kozar at kelly_kozar@nps.gov.