Department of Agriculture

Wildland Firefighter (Fire Prevention and Mitigation Specialist)

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

Wildland Firefighter (Fire Prevention and Mitigation 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: $83639 - $126835 Per Year

Job Summary: This position is located within the Pacific Northwest Region, Region 6. Provides management, technical expertise, oversight and policy development to the wildland fire mitigation, education, community assistance, and legal restitution for fire loss and trespass programs. For additional information about the duties of this position and the location negotiable, please see the ADDITIONAL INFORMATION section below.

Major Duties:

  • Duties listed are at full performance grade GW-12 level.
  • Represents the Forest Service at local, state and inter-agency level on wildland fire mitigation and related activities.
  • Reviews programs and plans to ensure that fire mitigation principles, practices and policies are incorporated into state and local land management programs.
  • Analyzes models and identifies major causes of wildland fire and ensures that these causes are effectively addressed in the appropriate wildland fire mitigation programs and the fire management plan.
  • Assists Forests and Districts with wildland fire education programs.
  • Coordinates the identification and mitigation of wildland urban interface issues and risks to homeowners and communities from wildland fire and hazardous fuels.

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. Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GW-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least to the GW-9 grade level; OR a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.M., if related; OR an appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master's degree, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.). Examples of Specialized Experience are: Comprehended and applied fire management strategies, tactics and fire prevention and mitigation procedures to fire management objectives and to determine the consequences of proposed actions; Assisted with fire mitigation management including program evaluation, fire prevention, fire program management; Assisted with developing and providing expertise and material for fire education programs; and Worked with the public, landowners, stakeholders or other agencies/entities on wildland fire education activities, gathering data and curriculum development. For the GW-12: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GW-11 in the Federal service. Examples of Specialized Experience are: Communicated information to a variety of public, political and legal representatives and wildland fire and land managers; Developed and provided program expertise materials; Applied federal, state local agency roles and responsibilities in wildland/structural fire mitigation and educational programs; and Gathered data and curriculum development. 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