Department of Agriculture

Assistant Director (Fire and Aviation Management, Operations)

Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, Full time

Assistant Director (Fire and Aviation Management, Operations)

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, Denver, Colorado, Washington, District of Columbia, Miami, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, Boston, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New York, New York, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Portland, Oregon, Austin, Texas

Salary Range: $112824 - $146671 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located within the Pacific Northwest Region, Region 6. This position serves as the Regional Assistant to the Assistant Director of Operations with primary responsibility for day-to-day planning, organizing and directing Region-wide activities in wildland fire protection systems. For additional information about the duties of this position and the location negotiable, please see the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION section below.

Major Duties:

  • Establishes allocation priorities for all firefighting resources. Advises and provides support to the coordination center, allocates and the coordinates the movement of wildland fire resources.
  • Monitors fire situation and informs the FMOs and/or Forest Supervisors of critical fire situations.
  • Coordinates and provides regional guidance, support and outlooks based on wildland fire conditions, decision support tools, activity and weather.
  • Participates in general management reviews of all aspects of wildland fire.
  • Advises on legal and technical compliance with the Stafford Act and Fire Management Assistance Grant (FMAG) Program.
  • Coordinate wildland fire management activities according to cooperative agreements. May assist or lead in the development of cooperative agreements.
  • Establishes operational liaison contact with federal, state, local, and voluntary (non-governmental) agencies and organizations, as well as international firefighting and other disaster-related organizations participating in the operation.
  • Estimates and recommends budget allocations and expenditures of funds within the respective program area and maintains necessary documentation.

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. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GW-13: Applicants must display one year specialized experience equivalent to at least the GW-12 grade level in the Federal Service. Examples of Specialized Experience are: managing, directing and evaluating a fully integrated wildland and/or prescribed fire management program; developing, coordinating and implementing a full fire program budget; effectively managing and utilizing available dollars taking into consideration changing priorities; negotiating, managing and implementing agreements with cooperators; forming and maintaining liaison with entities external to the organization, and speaking for the organization on fire management program issues. 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. FIREFIGHTER RETIREMENT COVERAGE: This is a secondary position covered under the special retirement provisions of 5 USC 8336(c) for the Civil Service Retirement System and of 5 USC 8412(d) for the Federal Employees Retirement System. To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

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" 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.

Application Deadline: 2026-01-22