Summary
In this position, you will be responsible for developing communications plans at the incident level and for developing reports on real-time situational awareness. You will also identify and report public safety communications and telecommunications industry planning factors to incident leadership.
NEW! USERRA now protects the full-time employment of FEMA reservists when they are deployed to disasters, emergencies, and critical trainings on behalf of FEMA. Review the FEMA Crew Act FAQs.
This job is open to
Clarification from the agency
The Reservist Program is an appointment type granted under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, Section 306 (b), which authorizes FEMA to appoint such temporary employees as necessary to accomplish work authorized under the Act.
Duties
What will I do in this position if hired?
In this Telecommunications Specialist (Communications Planning Manager) - Reservist position, you will be a member of the Disaster Emergency Communications (DEC) Cadre. Typical assignments include:
- Compiling and maintaining the communications COP using spreadsheets, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), or other tools as required.
- Identifying and recording Federal assets, their status, and vulnerabilities including asset owners, radio frequency (RF) transmitter locations, coverage, frequencies, RF cross-banding devices, and bandwidth utilization to include satellite, terrestrial, and wireless.
- Developing required reports including spot reports (SPOTREP), situation reports (SITREP), lifeline reports and Incident Action Plan input.
- Assisting in the development of communications plans by identifying communications related requirements and assets in support of the Operations Section of an Interim Operating Facility or Joint Field Office.
- Briefing personnel on information relevant to their assignments
- Delegating specific authority based on the assigned tasks to assigned Specialists and making appropriate decisions and/or adjustments based on analyzed and validated information.
What else do I need to know?
At FEMA, our mission to help people before, during and after disasters; so, 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.
As a Reservist Employee, your role is to support response or recovery efforts. Reservists are intermittent, on-call employees. Please note that this is not a full-time position, and you only are paid when deployed. Deployment frequency and length varies based on disaster response need. Due to the irregular nature of disasters, Reservist employees are not guaranteed regular recurring hours, deployments, or renewal of employment.
The Civilian Reservist Emergency Workforce (CREW) Act protects the job rights of FEMA Reservists while they are deployed to disasters, emergencies, and critical trainings by including FEMA Reservists under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployments Rights Act (USERRA). This means that if you hold another job, you are able to deploy as a FEMA reservist and your job will be protected. It also protects you against penalization, discrimination, or loss of employee benefits as a result of your deployments to disasters, emergencies, and critical trainings. For more information, please visit FEMA.gov/careers or review the USERRA Resources from the Department of Labor.
FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflect the diversity of the nation. At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people it serves. To learn about the ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit 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/High Risk 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.
Conditions of Employment:
- You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this position.
- You must successfully pass a background investigation.
- Selective Service registration required.
- You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
- Travel will be required.
- Please review the Additional Information section for additional key requirements.
This position is
temporary and intermittent, and you may be deployed to work during disaster declarations.
- You will be paid only during times of deployment or when attending critical trainings.
- You will be paid sick leave and earn one hour of sick leave for every 20 hours in a pay status, up to four hours each pay period.
- You will be eligible to enroll in Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) within 60 days of check-in to support a disaster. Enrollment in FEHB is terminated after 365 cumulative days in non-pay status.
- You will be eligible for the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), when you are deployed to support a disaster and expected to work 130 hours or more per month for at least 90 consecutive days.
Qualifications
To qualify for the Telecommunications Specialist (Communications Planning Manager) - Reservist, you must possess experience in each of the following areas:
- Managing or coordinating telecommunications projects (e.g. the development of communications plans, identification of communications related requirements, and/or evaluating technical adequacy of communications services); AND
- Performing data analysis to craft reports that include informed decisions; AND
- Communicating program needs and/or plans to stakeholders such as internal staff, community partners, state and local governments, etc.
OR
Master's or equivalent graduate degree; or
2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; or
LL.B or J.D, if related.
AND
Individual Occupational Requirements: In addition to the minimum qualifications described above, you must meet the following requirement(s) to be considered qualified for the position:
Graduate Education: Major study -- electrical or electronic engineering, mathematics, physics, public utilities, statistics, computer science, telecommunications management, information systems management, business administration, industrial management, or other fields related to the position to be filled.
Other Education: Communications/electronics or automatic data processing training in technical institutes or business schools above the high school level or in Armed Forces schools that included advanced instruction in addition to basic courses, may be substituted for general experience on a month-for-month basis.
OR
Specialized Experience: Experience in evaluating, analyzing, developing, managing, or improving communications systems, procedures, and requirements that demonstrated knowledge of current developments and trends in communications concepts and technology.
In addition:
- Minimum age of eighteen years of age is required.
- All candidates must be a high school graduate or possess a GED.
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 full resume will be made available to the hiring manager if you are referred.
- 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.
Documenting your experience:
- Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, you must provide your job title (including series and grade if a federal position), start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), and the number of hours worked per week if part time.
- Current or former FEMA Reservists/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 each deployment, 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". Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration.
- 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
Education substitution: This position permits applicants to qualify based on education, as outlined in the "requirements" section. If you are using education to qualify, 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 You Will Be Evaluated
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
We will review your resume, supporting documentation, and your responses to the occupational questionnaire to ensure you meet the minimum qualification requirements listed in the announcement. If you are qualified, you may be referred to a hiring manager for consideration.
We recommend that you preview the online questions for this announcement before you start the application process. To preview, please review: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12591616.
Required Documents
Do not include photos, personally identifying information (PII) (including birthday and social security numbers), or personal information such as age, gender, medical history, etc. Resumes that include any of this information will be ineligible for further review.
- Your resume. For resume writing guidance, please review the qualifications section of this announcement or visit the USAJobs Resource Center.
- Your responses to the job questionnaire - You will be directed to the online job questionnaire once you begin the application process for this position.
- Are you a current or former federal employee? Submit a copy of your most recent SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action that demonstrates your eligibility for consideration, e.g., length of time you have been in your current grade; your highest grade held; your current promotion potential and proof of permanent appointment if applying based on an interchange agreement. Examples of appropriate SF-50s include promotions, within-grade increases and accessions.
- Are you qualifying based on education? Submit a copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) from an accredited institution. Once selected and prior to appointment, applicants must provide an official college transcript.
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. All application materials, including transcripts, must be in English.
If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from
schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
How to Apply
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 11/28/2024.
- 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.
- Upon completion of your application, you will receive an acknowledgement email.
If you are unable to apply online (e.g., experiencing documented system issues, you do not have access to the internet, etc.), you may be able to submit a paper application package. To do so, please contact the Human Resources Specialist listed in the Agency Contact Information prior to the close of this announcement.
Incentives may be offered depending on funding availability, the difficulty of positions to fill, and qualifications of applicants
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
If you are found qualified, you may be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration. The hiring manager will review the list of qualified candidates and will conduct interviews. Failure to complete the interview may result in removal from 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 guidance and U.S. Office of Management and Budget plans and policies concerning hiring. These authorities are subject to change.