Duties
What will I do in this position if hired?
In this position, you will serve as the Branch Chief reporting to the Learning, Engagement and Diversity Division Director.
Typical assignments include:
- Providing oversight to a team of Instructional System Specialists who design and develop agency-wide training and a team of Training Specialists that design and implement training evaluations.
- Developing and implementing new/existing curriculum for learning and development programs.
- Evaluating and managing training programs effectiveness and efficiency, using the Kirkpatrick model as a standard.
What else do I need to know?
At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.
FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflects the diversity of the nation. At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people we serve. To learn about FEMA's ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit www.fema.gov.
Requirements
Conditions of Employment
To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo, successfully pass, and maintain a background investigation for Public Trust as a condition of placement into this position. This may include a credit check after initial job qualifications are determined, a review of financial issues, such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs (please visit: Mythbuster on Federal Hiring Policies for additional information). For more information on background investigations for Federal jobs please visit OPM Investigations.
Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below.
Key Requirements:
- You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
- You must successfully pass a background investigation.
- Selective Service registration required.
- Current federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements.
- You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
- You must be able to deploy with little or no advance notice to anywhere in the United States and its territories for an extended period of time.
- Please review the Additional Information section for additional key requirements.
Qualifications
Current Federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent grade band in the Federal service. The time-in-grade and qualification requirements must be met within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.
To qualify for this position at the GS-14 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following:
- Managing, leading, or directing work of personnel involved in instructional system designers for talent and development resources activities; and
- Collecting and reporting of training data for effectiveness and efficiencies that impact strategic goals; and
- Designing learning courses for an organization; and
- Managing course evaluations for an organization.
And
In addition to the minimum qualifications described above you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position: (transcript required)
Basic Requirements:
Degree: that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours appropriate to the work of the position to be filled. The course work must have included study in at least four of the following five areas:
- Learning theory, psychology of learning, educational psychology: Study of learning theories as they relate to the systematic design, development, and validation of instructional material.
- Instructional design practices: Study of the principles and techniques used in designing training programs, developing design strategy and models, and applying design methods to the improvement of instructional effectiveness.
- Educational evaluation: Study of the techniques for evaluating the effectiveness of instructional/educational programs, including developing written and performance tests and survey instruments, and determining reliability and validity of evaluation instruments.
- Instructional product development: Study of the techniques appropriate for developing training materials, including identifying learner characteristics, specifying objectives, applying training strategy, validating training materials, and evaluating training.
- Computers in education and training: Study of the application of computers in education and training, including selecting appropriate computer software.
Some positions in this series may specialize in one or two functional areas, where more specific academic preparation may be necessary. For such positions, agencies may require course work in the applicable functional area(s) as part of the above-required 24 semester hours.
Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application:
- Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.
- Please limit your resume to five pages. If more than five pages are submitted, only the first five pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications.
- Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience.
Are you qualifying based on your work experience?
- Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility. To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder. If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience). Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level.
- Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE)? To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.
- Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information. Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified."
- 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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Education
Positive Education Requirement: This position has a positive education requirement, as outlined in the "requirements" section. You must submit a copy of your transcripts (unofficial are acceptable) with your online application. Once selected and prior to appointment, applicants must provide official college transcripts.
Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. For example, specific courses accepted for college-level credit by an accredited U.S. college or university, or foreign education evaluated by an organization recognized for accreditation by the Department of Education as education equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. college or university. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. Visit the Department of Education's Recognition of Foreign Qualifications for more information.
Benefits
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.
Review our 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 to Apply
Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA): To be eligible for a VEOA appointment, the veteran must 1) be a preference eligible; or 2) be a veteran separated after 3 or more years of continuous active service performed under honorable conditions. In addition, you must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement. (Note: Veteran's preference does not apply under Merit Promotion procedures. View VEOA information on Feds Hire Vets.)
Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP/CTAP) Eligibles: If you have never worked for the federal government, you are not ICTAP/CTAP eligible. View information about ICTAP/CTAP eligibility on OPM's Career Transition Resources website. In addition, you must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement. Well-Qualified is defined as those applicants who are rated with a minimum score of 85.00 for this position.
Due weight will be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards in merit promotion selection decisions in accordance with 5 CFR 335.103(b)(3).
To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above by 11:59pm (EST) on the closing date of the announcement.
- To begin, click the "Apply Online" button on the job announcement posting.
- Follow the directions to register or login if you have an existing account.
- Submit all required documents and complete the assessment questionnaire.
- Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date.
- Upon completion of your application, you will receive an acknowledgement email.
Applications and supporting documentation will not be accepted by mail or email. All application materials, including transcripts, must be in English. It is your responsibility to verify that any information entered or uploaded is received and is accurate. Determining your eligibility and qualifications is dependent on the supporting documentation and information provided, which may impact your referral for further consideration. If a document is not legible, Human Resources will not be able to view it in your application.
If you have questions about this announcement or the application process, please contact the Human Resources Specialist listed in the Agency Contact Information prior to the close of the announcement.
An employee, job applicant, or an individual acting on behalf of the employee, may request a Reasonable Accommodation by emailing fema-ocr-ra@fema.dhs.gov with "time sensitive" in the subject line.
To review the common definitions of terms found in this announcement, please visit the DHS Common Definitions page.
To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.
To view the announcement status or your application status: Review your job status on your Application Dashboard. Your application dashboard is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application.
Next steps
Once you submit your application, we will assess your experience and training, identify the best-qualified applicants, and refer those applications to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interviews. We will notify you by email after each of these steps has been completed.
Interviews may be required for this position. Failure to complete the interview may result in removal from further consideration
If you are selected, you will be notified by phone or email with a tentative job offer. If you fail to respond, fail to meet the conditions of employment, or fail any other pre-employment requirements (such as the background investigation), we may rescind a tentative job offer.
For information on the Federal employment application process, please visit the USA Jobs Help Center. Any offers of employment made pursuant to this announcement will be consistent with all applicable authorities, including Presidential Memoranda, Executive Orders, interpretive U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) guidance and U.S. Office of Management and Budget plans and policies concerning hiring. These authorities are subject to change.
The OPM must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.