Department of Agriculture

Supervisory Wildland Firefighter (Smokejumper Base Manager)

Redmond, Oregon Full time

Supervisory Wildland Firefighter (Smokejumper Base Manager)

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Redmond, Oregon

Salary Range: $83639 - $126835 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located in the Pacific Northwest Region, Region 6. The position assists in managing and directing programs supporting the coordination, logistical support, and dispatch of fire and emergency resources across the nation, which includes all lands administered by various federal and state agencies. See ADDITIONAL INFORMATION for Regional Contact.

Major Duties:

  • Duties listed are at full performance grade GW-12 level.
  • Provides expert guidance and advice concerning smokejumper and aviation activities, policies, and procedures. Provides leadership, supervision, and coordination for a designated Forest Service (FS) smokejumper program and base.
  • Plans, executes, and reports on a variety of smokejumper and aviation activities. Performs evaluations of all activities to determine overall effectiveness, efficiency, safety, and productivity.
  • Develops, organizes, and implements short- and long-range smokejumper operational plans. Recommends goals and objectives and formulates operational plans and programs to achieve them.
  • Prepares annual budget submission considering goals and objectives, fluctuating workforce and workload. Manages financial resources within the allotted budget and in accordance with annual program of work.
  • Serves as Contracting Officer Representative for smokejumper aircraft contracts (pilots, planes).
  • Provides administrative supervision to a highly skilled fire staff consisting of several program experts. Plans work to be accomplished, sets and adjusts short-term priorities and prepares schedules for completion of work.

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-11: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GW-10 in the Federal service. Examples of Specialized Experience Include: Coordinated with aviation program managers to establish short term objectives with making recommendations including inspection procedures, planning and implementing testing of equipment to monitor results, and recommending changes in policies or procedures based on results to higher level manager; Assisted in conducting evaluations of project or program operations; and Recommended a proposal for a partial fire program budget. For the GW-12: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GW-11 in the Federal service. Examples of Specialized Experience Include: Assessed smokejumper operations, make recommendations for implementation and execution for all phases of the operation to including inspection and evaluation procedures, planning and implementing the testing of equipment; Developed a proposal for a fire program budget; and Coordinated with aviation program managers to establish long term objectives such as evaluating types of aircraft for future smokejumper fleet. 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 firefighter position under 5 USC 8336 (CSRS) and 8412(d) (FERS). Prior wildland firefighting experience is required. There is no age limit for entry into secondary positions. Firefighter retirement coverage of the incumbent depends upon his or her individual work history. WORK CAPACITY TEST (WCT) for Wildland Firefighters: This position participates in wildland firefighting activities. Based on the type of work performed, TAKING and PASSING the WCT at the ARDUOUS level is a condition of employment. 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