Department of Agriculture

Wildland Fire Fighter (Supervisory Regional Fuels Management Specialist)

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

Wildland Fire Fighter (Supervisory Regional Fuels Management Specialist)

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 on a USDA Forest Service Unit, specifically with the Southwestern Region, Region 3. This position serves as the Regional Fuels Program Manager with responsibility for program management that includes budget, integration with other programs, supporting higher level leadership regarding fuels, fire ecology, smoke management. For additional information about the duties of these positions, please see Additional Information section below.

Major Duties:

  • Duties listed are at full performance grade GW-13.
  • Develops, coordinates and implements strategies to achieve agency mission related to fire and resource management
  • Develops priorities and objectives to assure these programs are integrated into higher level/broader resource plans and respond to National and Regional direction and initiatives.
  • Reviews new or revised policy directives or program material from agency headquarters, and develops and distributes standards and guides for implementation and compliance by lower level Forest units.
  • Advises specialists, line officers, and fire leadership on a variety of problems relating to the use of chemicals, planned and unplanned wildland fire, mechanical, and natural means to treat fuels, restore landscapes, and manage ecosystems.
  • Advises on the development and application of plans for timber and other vegetative management with respect to activity fuels.
  • Consults with specialists in other sections and units to assess the impacts of related activities and ensure that the activities are properly integrated to maximize benefits and efficiencies and reduce adverse results
  • Coordinates with air quality program leaders in developing and review of smoke management and air quality guidelines as they relate to planned and unplanned ignitions.
  • Represents Regional management at inter or intra agency committees, task forces, and work groups that require expert knowledge of agency policies, practices and interests regarding fuels management, prescribed fire, fire ecology, smoke management.
  • Develops, coordinates and implements strategies to achieve agency mission related to fire and resource management.

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. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary. Basic Requirement 0401 Series: Degree: Biological sciences, agriculture, natural resources management, chemistry, or related discipline appropriate to the position being filled. -OR- Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess specialized experience directly related to the position. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GW-13 level: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GW-12 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as: Reviewed and evaluated fire management plans for ecological soundness and technical adequacy; Conducted field inspections before and after prescribed or wildland fires to determine if resource objectives were achieved and/or to evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken; and Developed analyses on the ecological role of fire and its use and/or exclusion, and smoke management. 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. 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