Emergency Management Specialist (Recovery)

Emergency Management Specialist (Recovery)

Department: Department of Homeland Security

Location(s): Oakland, California

Salary Range: $110788 - $144031 Per Year

Job Summary: The Emergency Management Specialist, located in Region 9's Recovery Division/Individual Assistance Branch, reports to the Supervisory Emergency Management Specialist. During Presidentially Declared Major Disasters, the position will be responsible for implementing the Individuals and Household Program (IHP) in accordance with the laws, regulations, and policies relevant to FEMA's Individual Assistance programs.

Major Duties:

• What will I do in this position if hired? In this Emergency Management Specialist (Recovery) position, you will support emergency recovery activities focused on Individual Assistance programs, specifically the Individuals and Households Program (IHP), to ensure the timely provision of life-sustaining services and resources to evacuees and disaster survivors. Typical assignments include: Implementing, managing, and providing subject matter expert- level technical assistance on IHP, inclusive of all forms of Housing Assistance (Financial and Direct) and Other Needs Assistance. Supporting public events, as requested and appropriate, such as public community meetings. Reviewing public-facing external affairs products for programmatic accuracy. Managing assistance to survivors, which may be in the form of lodging expense reimbursement, rental assistance, repair assistance, and replacement assistance to individuals and families affected by disasters. Reviewing the Individual Assistance Program and Policy Guide and identify disaster-specific issues that may need to be addressed. Addressing congressionally escalated cases, including assigning to staff for action, monitoring for accuracy and follow-up, and providing responses timely. Supervising and manage deployed IHP staff, a team of variable size dependent on the event, including training and oversight of operations. Ensuring that leadership is made aware of emerging issues that may escalate and require their intervention, including both operational and staffing issues. Coordinating and communicating with State, Local, Tribal, or Territorial partners and counterparts for the implementation and maintenance of IHP. In Steady State, conducting training for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial partners to ensure preparedness for future disaster recovery operations. Coordinating and collaborating with other Individual Assistance Group Supervisors to ensure streamlined and maximized operations and support for survivor recovery efforts. Other duties as assigned to support Individual Assistance at disaster events or the regional office. 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. This announcement is for a position as a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee). CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After three years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA.

Qualifications: All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. To qualify for this Emergency Management Specialist (Recovery) position at the IC-12 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-11 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 and coordinating the collection, analysis, and presentation of complex data/reports and providing recommendations to senior management and/or other stakeholders; and, Analyzing and interpreting emergency management-related directives, regulations, policies, laws, standards, and guidance; and Collaborating or fostering relationships between Federal, State, local, or tribal entities regarding emergency management issues. 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. 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. For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards

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 01/22/2026. Please note that this announcement may close sooner than the published close date if the application limit is reached. 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. Incentives may be offered depending on funding availability, the difficulty of positions to fill, and qualifications of applicants. Only resumes up to a total of two pages will be accepted. Applicants with resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration. 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 and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application

Application Deadline: 2026-01-22