Department of Agriculture

Electronics Technician (Infrared)

Boise, Idaho Full time

Electronics Technician (Infrared)

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Boise, Idaho

Salary Range: $89508 - $116362 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located within the Washington Office Fire and Aviation Management (WO-FAM) unit. This position serves as an Electronics Technician providing technical subject matter expertise to the National Infrared Operations Program (NIROPS). For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Mark Hilton at mark.hilton@usda.gov.

Major Duties:

  • Perform research, development, design, specification, maintenance, installation, project management and act as assistant/advisor on all electrical/electronic and associated infrared equipment used in the NIROPS program.
  • Knowledge, experience and skill in the operation, specifications, theory, interface, applications, and growth aspects of electronic systems as they apply to infrared fire detection systems.
  • Support the NIROPS program and be available and on call when requested.
  • Coordinate and conduct NIROPS mission planning operations.
  • Provide support onboard aircraft to monitor, acquire, pre-process and deliver imagery during NIROPS flight missions.
  • Research technical specifications, equipment configuration, and installation plans to identify equipment and service requirements; and procures equipment and services.
  • Maintain inventory control of equipment, parts and supplies.
  • Provide advice and guidance to NIROPS staff, management officials, and users within the interagency fire program on the status, maintenance and operation of the infrared line-scanning equipment.
  • Informed of existing equipment workload and operational adequacy, applicable developments in the industry, and proposed changes that may affect equipment requirements.
  • Recommend studies of configuration changes when warranted.
  • Review proposals from vendors with other technical and functional specialists and advise on the merits of proposals.

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 Wildland Fire 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: GS-12: You must have one-year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as three or more of the following: Performed researched, developed, and designed electrical/electronic systems; and/or Designed and analyzed board- and integrated circuit-level analog, digital, and converter circuits for complex electronic systems; and/or Programed and interfaced microprocessor-based process control and programmable controller systems using assembly, ladder logic, or other high-level programming languages; and/or Installed, upgraded, maintained, and troubleshooted highly sophisticated systems and related electro-mechanical equipment. 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. To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement. 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.

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 (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., 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: 2026-04-01