Summary
This position is located This position is with the USDA, Forest Service, Human Resources Management (HRM). The incumbent is considered an agency expert in the field of Human Resources Specialist work. The work performed has service-wide implications.
For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact sm.fs.nationalhire@usda.gov.
This job is open to
Internal to an agency
Current federal employees of the hiring agency that posted the job announcement.
Career transition (CTAP, ICTAP, RPL)
Federal employees whose job, agency or department was eliminated and are eligible for priority over other applicants.
Land and base management
Current or former employees of a base management agency.
Clarification from the agency
Applications will be accepted only from current permanent Forest Service (FS) employees with competitive status; Land Management eligible candidates whose last appointment was with the FS; and CTAP/RPL eligible candidates.
Duties
- Direct human resources strategic planning initiatives and activities, identify long and short-term objectives, and develop policies for Agency-wide implementation.
- Create and implement program and process remedies involving novel and highly complex issues that result in major precedent-setting decisions.
- Analyze and implement an Agency’s corporate decisions relative to changes in policies as well as new legal guidance, laws, and regulations.
- Maintain continuing surveillance of trends with respect to service operations, customer service, and partnerships with other human resources programs.
- Provide program leadership and direction, policy development, program and management guidance, oversight, strategic planning, priority development, and advisory and consultation services.
Requirements
Conditions of employment
- Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
- Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
- Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
- Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
- Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov
- Subject to one year supervisory/managerial probationary period unless prior service is creditable. New Forest Service supervisors must successfully complete all components of the required training program before the end of their probationary period.
Qualifications
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.
Specialized Experience Requirement:
For the GS-15: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as 3 or more of the following: Managing and directing human resources functions and activities, including providing program leadership and direction, policy development, program and management guidance, oversight, strategic planning, and advisory and consultation services; and/or Monitoring and evaluating the performance of human resources services and recommending improvements with the objective of increased effectiveness, efficiency, and savings; and/or Providing advice and guidance in a wide range human resources functions to include but not limited to workforce planning, operational oversite, recruitment and placement, classification, data analysis, and data management; and/or Maintaining continuing surveillance of trends with respect to service operations, customer service, and partnerships with other human resources programs; and/or Consulting with key management officials to resolve issues that involved major precedent-setting cases or human resources program changes.
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.
Education
There is no substitution of education for specialized experience.
Additional information
Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Reemployment Priority List (RPL): To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.
Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) provides current or former temporary and term employees the opportunity to compete for permanent competitive service positions. Individuals must have more than 24 months of service without a break between appointments of two or more years and the last temporary or term appointment must have been with the Forest Service. Service must be in the competitive service and have been at a successful level of performance or better. Part-time and intermittent service will be credited only for time actually worked. Non-pay status such as leave without pay is credited for up to six months in a calendar year; anything beyond six months is not credited. Applicants are responsible for providing sufficient information/documentation to determine if the 24 month criteria is met.
Position(s) will be located at a Forest Service office, except Atlanta, Georgia; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Portland, Oregon. Final determination of the duty station will be made by the selecting official at the time of the job offer.
This position is not eligible for telework.
A recruitment or relocation incentive, or reimbursement of relocation expenses may be authorized at the discretion of management in accordance with agency policy.
This is a non-bargaining unit position.
Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.
A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How you will be evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
You will be evaluated based on your qualifications for this position as evidenced by the experience, education, and training you described in your application package, as well as the responses to the Assessment Questionnaire.
Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position.
If you meet the qualification requirements and are determined to be among the best qualified, you will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration. Noncompetitive candidates and applicants under some special hiring authorities must meet minimum qualifications to be referred.
Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered to more accurately reflect the submitted documentation. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action.
To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12979049
Required Documents
The following documents are required for your applicant package to be complete. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration.
Resume that includes: Personal Information: name, address, contact information; Work Experience related to this position as described in the major duties including work schedule, hours worked per week, dates of employment; title, series, grade (if applicable); other qualifications. Resume cannot exceed 2 pages.
Current Forest Service employees:
- Most recent non-award Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50) showing you are/were in the competitive service, highest grade held (or promotion potential) on a permanent basis, position title, series and grade AND
- Most recent performance appraisal (dated within 18 months) showing the official rating of record, signed by a supervisor, or statement why the performance appraisal is unavailable. A performance plan is not an acceptable substitute.
Surplus or displaced employees eligible for CTAP, RPL, priority must provide: proof of eligibility (RIF separation notice, notice of proposed removal for declining a transfer of function or directed reassignment to another commuting area, notice of disability annuity termination), SF-50 documenting separation (as applicable), current performance appraisal with rating of at least "Fully Successful" or equivalent, and your most recent SF-50 noting position, grade level, and duty location with your application per 5 CFR 330.
Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act: Copies of Notification of Personnel Action(s) (SF-50) showing the employee served in eligible appointment(s) for a period(s) of more than 24 mos w/o a break between appointments of two+ years. Include initial hire actions, extensions, conversions and separation Sf-50s for each period. Submit performance rating(s) showing acceptable performance for each period counted towards eligibility signed by supervisor(s). If documentation does not exist for one or more periods, submit a statement from supervisor(s) indicating acceptable performance. Applicants who do not have performance documentation for any period shall provide a reason why the documentation is not available and statement that performance for all periods was at an acceptable level.
How to Apply
Please view Tips for Applicants - a guide to the Forest Service application process.
Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement.
Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Mountain Time Zone, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages.
This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this.
To begin, click "Apply Online" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents.
Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.
Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.
Next steps
Your application will be reviewed to verify that you meet the eligibility and qualification requirements for the position prior to issuing referral lists to the selecting official. If further evaluation or interviews are required, you will be contacted. Log in to your USAJOBS account to check your application status.
We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.
You may receive an email asking if you are still interested in the position and requesting information by a given deadline. Failure to timely respond to this email may result in non-selection.
You must choose to turn on email notifications in your USAJOBS profile if you want to receive important email notifications that may impact your applicant experience (e.g. If you start an application and do not submit it prior to the closing date, USAJOBS will send an email reminder that the closing date is approaching and your application is in an incomplete status).
Under the Fair Chance Act, agencies are not allowed to request information about an applicant's criminal history until a conditional offer of employment has been made, except as allowed for access to classified information; assignment to national security duties or positions; acceptance or retention in the armed forces; or recruitment of a Federal law enforcement officer. An applicant may submit a complaint, or any other information related to an organization's alleged noncompliance with the Fair Chance Act. The complaint must be submitted within 30 calendar days of the date of the alleged noncompliance. To make a Fair Chance Act inquiry or complaint, send an email with the appropriate information to sm.fs.hrm_elr@usda.gov, subject line: Fair Chance Act.