The incumbent serves as Supervisory Research Ecologist/Rangeland Scientist/Soil Scientist/Hydraulic Engineer/Hydrologist (Research Leader) in the Watershed Management Research Unit in Boise, ID. Research scientists have open-ended promotion potential. Research accomplishments and their impact on the duties and responsibilities of positions are evaluated periodically. *Final grade level may be determined by a peer review panel.*

Duties

Provide leadership to an interdisciplinary team of scientists investigating hydrology, climatology, snow modeling, erosion, water quality, plant/livestock interactions, and agroecosystem productivity on the sagebrush step. Responsible for developing highly recognized research program aligned with ARS National Programs 215 (Grass, Forage, and Rangeland Agroecosystems) and 211 (Water Availability and Watershed Mgmt) to include reporting research and technology transfer. Responsible for coordinating customer and stakeholder engagement, which includes a Great-Basin Long Term Agroecosystem Research network site and oversight of the 239 km2 Reynolds Creek Exp. Watershed. Responsible for making selections for positions, assigning duties, evaluating performance, and to make sure that affirmative implementation of Equal Employment Opportunity and Civil Rights are adhered to throughout the research unit.

Requirements

• You must be a US Citizen or US National
• Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt
• Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check
• Subject to one-year supervisory/managerial probationary period unless prior service is creditable. New USDA supervisors must successfully complete all components of the required training program before the end of their probationary period.
• Direct Deposit: Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
• Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit E-Verify at https://www.e-verify.gov/.
• Successful completion of a three year probationary period.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. All applicants must meet the individual occupational requirements for at least one of the series identified below. Ecology Series, 0408: Degree: biology, or a related field of science underlying ecological research that included at least 30 semester hours in basic and applied biological sciences. These hours must have included at least 9 semester hours in ecology, and 12 semester hours in physical and mathematical sciences. Rangeland Management Series, 0454: 1. Degree: range management; or a related discipline that included at least 42 semester hours in a combination of the plant, animal, and soil sciences, and natural resources management, as follows: - Range Management -- At least 18 semester hours of course work in range management, including courses in such areas as basic principles of range management, range plants, range ecology, range inventories and studies, range improvements, and ranch or rangeland planning. - Directly Related Plant, Animal, and Soil Sciences -- At least 15 semester hours of directly related courses in the plant, animal, and soil sciences, including at least one course in each of these three scientific areas, i.e., plant, animal, and soil sciences. Courses in such areas as plant taxonomy, plant physiology, plant ecology, animal nutrition, livestock production, and soil morphology or soil classification are acceptable. - Related Resource Management Studies --At least 9 semester hours of course work in related resource management subjects, including courses in such areas as wildlife management, watershed management, natural resource or agricultural economics, forestry, agronomy, forages, and outdoor recreation management. OR 2. Combination of education and experience: at least 42 semester hours of course work in the combination of plant, animal, and soil sciences and natural resources management shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Soil Science Series, 0470: 1. Degree: soil science or a closely related discipline that included 30 semester hours or equivalent in biological, physical, or earth science, with a minimum of 15 semester hours in such subjects as soil genesis, pedology, soil chemistry, soil physics, and soil fertility. OR 2. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in soil science or a related discipline that included at least 30 semester hours in the biological, physical, or earth sciences. At least 15 of these semester hours must have been in the areas specified in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. *Please see Education section of the announcement for the Basic Requirements for the Civil Engineering, 0810 series and Hydrology, 1315 series.* Additional Requirements In addition to meeting the basic requirement(s) above, all applicants must also meet additional minimum qualification requirements as stated below. Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. GS-14: Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 grade level in the Federal service or its non-federal equivalent communicating with stakeholders and translating their needs into researchable objectives; Experience managing research projects, including personnel, equipment and fiscal resources; AND Conducting and publishing peer-reviewed research in at least one of the following areas: 1) improving basic understanding and prediction of point-plot-watershed scale hydrologic and ecosystem processes; 2) assessing impacts of climate, fire, invasive species, and management action on rangeland health and productivity, threatened/endangered species conservation, ecohydrology, water quality, and/or sediment yield; 3) evaluating effects of rangeland vegetation change on soil water dynamics, soil health, soil carbon, streamflow generation, and/or groundwater recharge; 4) investigating climate, plant materials, and management factors affecting successful prediction of ecological restoration success, and developing climate smart adaptive rangeland strategies; or 5) developing remote sensing or other geospatial approaches for assessing impacts of disturbance and management on critical natural and cultural resources. GS-15: Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service or its non-federal equivalent in leading multidisciplinary teams, acting as a liaison and communicating with stakeholders and translating their needs into researchable objectives; Experience enhancing scientific productivity, mentoring and supervising scientists and managing Unit research projects, including personnel, equipment and fiscal resources; AND Conducting and publishing peer-reviewed research in at least one of the following areas: 1) improving basic understanding and prediction of point-plot-watershed scale hydrologic and ecosystem processes; 2) assessing impacts of climate, fire, invasive species, and management action on rangeland health and productivity, threatened/endangered species conservation, ecohydrology, water quality, and/or sediment yield; 3) evaluating effects of rangeland vegetation change on soil water dynamics, soil health, soil carbon, streamflow generation, and/or groundwater recharge; 4) investigating climate, plant materials, and management factors affecting successful prediction of ecological restoration success, and developing climate smart adaptive rangeland strategies; or 5) developing remote sensing or other geospatial approaches for assessing impacts of disturbance and management on critical natural and cultural resources. 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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Supervisory/Managerial Competencies - the following KSAs will also be used to evaluate candidates in the interview and selection process: 1. Ability to lead and accomplish work through others (i.e. team building, conflict management, cultural awareness, strategic thinking, technology management, and political savvy.) 2. Ability to communicate with individuals or groups from diverse backgrounds in a variety of situations. To further support your qualifications, it is strongly recommended that you submit a one-page abstract of your MS thesis and/or Ph.D. dissertation. Failure to do so could result in loss of your consideration/referral. Also, please submit a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of persons familiar with your stature, contributions, recognition; any honors or awards received; memberships in professional or honor societies; invitations to make presentations at scientific/technical meetings; scientific society office and committee assignments; presentations (other than invitation); and publications. Applicants must be available to report for duty at the time a selection is made. Selections are typically made within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.

Education

Civil Engineering Series, 0810:

A. Degree: Engineering. To be acceptable, the program must: (1) lead to a bachelor's degree in a school of engineering with at least one program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics: (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics, such as optics, heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics.
OR
B. Combination of education and experience: college-level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following:

1. Professional registration or licensure: Current registration as an Engineer Intern (EI), Engineer in Training (EIT), or licensure as a Professional Engineer (PE) by any State, the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico. Absent other means of qualifying under this standard, those applicants who achieved such registration by means other than written test (e.g., State grandfather or eminence provisions) are eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the specialty field of their registration. For example, an applicant who attains registration through a State Board's eminence provision as a manufacturing engineer typically would be rated eligible only for manufacturing engineering positions.
2. Written Test: Evidence of having successfully passed the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination or any other written test required for professional registration by an engineering licensure board in the various States, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.
3. Specified academic courses: Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and that include the courses specified in the basic requirements under paragraph A. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of an engineering program as described in paragraph A.
4. Related curriculum: Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in an appropriate scientific field, e.g., engineering technology, physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a bachelor's degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. Ordinarily there should be either an established plan of intensive training to develop professional engineering competence, or several years of prior professional engineering-type experience, e.g., in interdisciplinary positions. (The above examples of related curricula are not all-inclusive.)

Hydrology Series, 1315:

Degree: Physical or natural science, or engineering that included at least 30 semester hours in any combination of courses in hydrology, the physical sciences, geophysics, chemistry, engineering science, soils, mathematics, aquatic biology, atmospheric science, meteorology, geology, oceanography, or the management or conservation of water resources. The course work must have included at least 6 semester hours in calculus (including both differential and integral calculus), and at least 6 semester hours in physics. Calculus and physics, as described above, are requirements for all grade levels.
OR
Combination of education and experience: course work as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Experience: Acceptable experience must have included performance of scientific functions related to the study of water resources, based on and requiring a professional knowledge of related sciences and the consistent application of basic scientific principles to the solution of theoretical and practical hydrologic problems. The following is illustrative of acceptable experience: field or laboratory work that would require application of hydrologic theory and related sciences such as geology, geo-chemistry, geophysics, or civil engineering to making observations, taking samples, operating instruments, assembling data from source materials, analyzing and interpreting data, and reporting findings orally and in writing. In some cases, professional scientific experience that is not clearly water resource experience may be acceptable if such experience was preceded by appropriate education in hydrology or by professional hydrology experience.

Applicants with related experience in hydrology gained through earlier Federal Government employment might have gained that experience in one or more occupational series. Such series include Soil Conservation, GS-457; Forestry, GS-460; Soil Science, GS-470; Civil Engineering, GS-810; Chemistry, GS-1320; Meteorology, GS-1340; and Geology, GS-1350. Comparable non-Federal experience may be given similar credit.

Contacts

• Address Agricultural Research Service 800 Buchanan Street Albany, CA 94710 US
• Name: Mary Mikkola
• Phone: 301-504-1573
• Email: [email protected]