Ecologist

Clarification from the agency

This is a Merit Promotion announcement for current and former career and career conditional Federal employees of the National Park Service, Career Transition eligibles (CTAP & ICTAP) and those who are eligible under the hiring paths listed above. Refer to Required Documents section for more information.

This position is located within the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Natl Pk Svc, Southeast, ofc of Natural Science Studies-South Florida Natural Resource Center (SFNRC), HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

Develops and prepares major sections of the park resources management plan that requires the application of ecological principles. Prepares specific resources action plans and strategies needed to successfully manage and protect natural ecosystems and environmental conditions. Represents Park on NPS regional task groups or similar organizations. Makes presentations in the parks, in public gatherings, and at professional meetings.

Assists natural resources management staff in parks, centers and support offices by providing direct professional and programmatic advice and support. Carries out program management duties by developing work plans and schedules, scopes of work, cost estimates, and proposals and/or grants to justify funding requests and accomplish goals. May administer and track project funds and prepare accomplishment reports, as needed. Maintains awareness of applicable funding sources within NPS and outside.

Develops and implements long range plans for the inventory, evaluation, documentation, preservation, research, and interpretation of ecology within the appropriate mission, objectives and resources contexts. Develops guidelines to deal with the more complex or unusual problems, or with novel, undeveloped or controversial aspects of ecology and other natural resources and their management. Coordinates the park's ecological strategies and programs with those on adjacent lands for the purposes of achieving broad ecosystem protection strategies and preventing human impacts. Negotiates cooperative and interagency agreements and other cooperative instruments needed to effectively carry out resource's stewardship goals. Identifies research needs, prepares requests for research proposals or statements of work, and provides oversight for research projects. Serves as the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative for projects conducted through contracts and serves as the Agreement Technical Representative for Interagency Agreements, and Cooperative Agreements. In cooperation with appropriate staff, researchers, and partners, the incumbent designs, develops, tests, and implements scientific monitoring protocols to identify, evaluate, and conduct long-term monitoring of ecosystem components, such as flora and fauna, and ecological processes. This includes conducting inventories to determine statistically valid plot distributions and design.

Writes new monitoring documents that define monitoring techniques and develops methods for future refinements of protocols. Based on results of inventories, in-depth studies, and monitoring, the incumbent develops and conducts scientifically credible protection, mitigation, and restoration projects needed to prevent resource damage, restore and/or maintain critical habitats, plant and animal communities, and managed landscapes, minimize human impacts. Develops and carries out statistically valid data collection protocols. Performs data collection using advanced technology such as electronic data collectors when appropriate.

Performs data entry and carries out quality control checks on data collection and entry performed by others. Conducts analysis of complex data, determining and documenting the significance of findings. Prepares scientific reports regarding the results of management, protection, restoration, inventory, monitoring, and research. Summarizes new information for use by the scientific community, park staff, cooperators and partners. Incorporates appropriate Geographic Information System (GIS) technology into job to provide comprehensive and scientifically sound answers to inquiries from managers and others. Uses automatic methods for data collection, analysis or illustration. Inputs data into digital form and uses computer applications for data analysis, manipulation, and presentation. Prepares environmental assessments (EAs) related to park projects in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Evaluates EAs and environmental impact statements prepared by other federal agencies for projects that may affect park resources. Works closely with the park education staff to incorporate new information into park and partner education programs. Acquires and maintains equipment and supplies necessary for conducting field activities. Prepares and maintains botanical specimens in the park herbarium. Maintains records on the collection. The incumbent must be able to perform high level statistical analyses (e.g., nonparametric, time-lagged, autocorrelation, spatial statistics, etc.) and must come with knowledge of how to perform statistical analyses in R and Python.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
• Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
• Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
• Direct Deposit participation required.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/.
• Must possess and maintain a valid driver's license throughout employment.
• You are required to complete training, obtain and maintain a government credit card with travel and purchase authority.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period to evaluate your fitness and whether your continuation of employment advances the public interest.

This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 09/14/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.

For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized 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 periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. 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.

Minimum Qualification Requirements: To qualify for this position, you must meet the following minimum qualifications: Basic Educational Requirement AND Specialized Experience for the series to which you are applying.

Basic Educational Requirements: In addition to the specialized experience requirements for this position, you must meet at least one of the following:

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. (You must include a copy of your transcripts). You must submit official transcript if selected by entrance-on-duty (EOD).

AND:

In addition to meeting all of the Basic Qualifications Requirements above, select a response that best describes how your background meets the specialized experience or education requirement for an Ecologist GS-0408-12 position.

To qualify for this position at the GS-12 grade level:

Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 level or higher in Federal Service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. Examples of qualifying specialized experience includes duties involved in the Incumbent having the ability to: develop ecological models, evaluate restoration modeling output, develop Conceptual Ecological Models linking operations to ecosystem outcomes; identify ecosystem resource needs and develop associated projects to address those needs; conduct research to understand factors affecting ecosystems and publish findings in peer-reviewed journals and/or technical reports; design and implement scientific monitoring programs; establish water quality and flow-based thresholds and numeric nutrient standards; perform spatial statistical analyses; evaluate agricultural Best Management Practices; provide expert witness testimonies surrounding the Everglades litigation; and advance existing water quality models and stormwater treatment models. (You must include the number of hours worked per week within your resume.)

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.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g. resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the additional assessment(s) required for this position. To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process.

Your resume must not exceed 2 pages. Only the document submitted as the "Resume" under the Documents section will be used to determine your qualifications/eligibility and for rating purposes. In the event you submit more than one resume, only the latest submission will be reviewed.

You will be assessed in the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

• Attention to Detail
• Customer Service
• Decision Making
• Flexibility
• Integrity/Honesty
• Interpersonal Skills
• Learning
• Reasoning
• Self-Management
• Stress Tolerance
• Teamwork

In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires successful completion of the USA Hire Assessment, if required.

The assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in these critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment.

All qualified non-competitive applicants and the best-qualified Merit Promotion applicants will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration.

DUE WEIGHT: Please submit 1) a copy of your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation and 2) a list of any awards (e.g. superior performance awards, special act or achievement awards, quality step increase, etc.) you received in the last 5 years. Any performance appraisal/evaluation and award documentation you provide will be forwarded to the selecting official. The selecting official will review this documentation and give it due weight consideration during the overall selection process. If you do not have your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation, you must submit a statement as to why it is not available. Please indicate if any prior performance appraisals/evaluations were at an acceptable level.

Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration or your score may be lowered. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.

Current or former displaced Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, you must be well-qualified, score at least 85 (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry.

The following documents are required and must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) -09/14/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement:

1. Resume which includes a list of all significant jobs held and duties performed, with dates in month-year format (include month/day/year format if needed for 52 weeks of experience), and indicate hours worked per week (or full-time). Your resume must clearly show how long you have held each grade/rank. Resumes must not exceed 2 single-sided pages and resumes longer than 2 pages will not be accepted. The minimum font size is 10-point for all body text. All resumes must maintain a minimum 0.5-inch margins on all sides to ensure readability and prevent excessive content compression. Including supplemental pages or attachments disguised as resume extensions are prohibited and will not be reviewed. Your 2-page resume must contain information sufficient to make a valid determination that you fully meet the specialized experience requirements. Resume Builder: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/what-to-include
2. Complete All Required Assessments.
3. Performance Appraisals and Awards: All applicants must submit their most recent performance appraisal showing the official rating of record and signed by a supervisor. If the performance appraisal is not dated within the last 18 months OR no performance appraisal is available, you must submit a statement as to why it is not available (including if any prior performance appraisals/evaluations were at an acceptable level).
4. All College Transcript(s), if qualifying based on education.
5. Eligibility Documentation:
   • Current and former Federal employees must submit latest SF-50 (i.e. Promotion, Separation, Within Grade Increase (WGI)) showing tenure 1 or 2 in block 24, grade, and if applicable, an additional SF-50 showing the highest grade or promotion potential held. Time in grade will be determined by reviewing your resume and required SF-50s. If your SF-50 showing highest permanent grade held has an effective date within the past year, your resume must clearly show that you held that grade for one year. Do not submit award SF-50s.
   • Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA): If you are applying under LMWFA, you must submit ALL Appointment AND Termination SF-50s for EACH appointment verifying the Position Occupied code 1-Competitive Service (block 34); AND Documentation of satisfactory performance for each period of temporary employment claimed, such as, performance evaluations, memorandum of record, whereas the supervisor(s) documented an acceptable performance level for a specified rating/employment period.
   • CTAP/ICTAP eligiblesMUST submit proof of eligibility including a copy of the agency notice, most recent performance rating, and most recent SF-50 showing your position, grade level, and duty location. For more information visit: Career Transition Programs (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL).

Failure to submit any of the above-mentioned required documents will result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted.

Do not submit photographs with your application package. Do not upload Adobe portfolio documents.

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