This position is located on the Ecological Sciences Staff in a Mississippi state office for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The incumbent services as a staff specialist in planning and application activities on all archeologist and historical cultural resources, including Native American issues and concerns. Serve as agency liaison to other federal, state, and tribal local agencies involved with cultural resource issues, agreements, memoranda of understanding, and policy.

Duties

Defines areas of major cultural resource and environmental concerns, designs and implements methodologies to address such concerns. Provides authoritative recommendations for the treatment of cultural resources to field, field support, and state office personnel. Serves as agency liaison to other federal, state, and tribal local agencies involved with cultural resource issues, agreements, memoranda of understanding, and policy. Supervises federal employees under the cultural resources and archeology discipline. Develops training plans to ensure personnel are adequately qualified to perform assigned tasks.

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. If selected you will be sent instructions on obtaining fingerprints. Please note we are not able to reimburse any fees incurred for fingerprints.
• Successful completion of one-year probationary period, unless previously served.
• 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/.
• Must possess and maintain a valid state motor vehicle operator's license for the type of vehicle(s) operated to perform the duties of this position.
• Physical Demands: Field assignments may require considerable walking, climbing, and digging or other physical exertion.
• Work Environment: The work environment is variable. In the office, the work is primarily performed in a normal setting. Occasionally, field assignments may involve exposure to extreme weather conditions.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENTS: Merit promotion applicants must meet applicable time-in-grade requirements to be considered eligible. One year at the GS-11 level is required to meet the time-in-grade requirements for the GS-12 level. (Please submit your SF-50 that shows Time-in-Grade eligibility and reflects your title, series, and grade. No Award or General Adjustment SF-50's will be accepted). Time-in-grade requirements also apply to VEOA applicants having held a GS position in the past year. See addition information. Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement. BASIC REQUIREMENTS: A. Education 1. Completed a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included 3 semester hours each in the following course areas; (1) History of archeology; (2) Archeology of a major geographical area such as North America or Africa; (3) Regional archeology, archeological cultures, or sites in a specific part or portion of a major geographical area to acquire or develop a foundation for regional specialization for professional development; (4) Theory and methods of archeology. Methods include, but are not limited to, typology, classification, sampling, cultural evolution, diffusion, dating, and analytical techniques; (5) Archeological field school, to provide a basic understanding of theoretical and practical approaches to research design implementation, field preservation techniques, and report preparation by participation in actual field work; AND 6 semester hours of related course work in; (1) geography, geology, or cultural geography; (2) history, historiography, or historical archeology; (3) environmental studies; (4) scientific writing (nonfiction English composition); and/or (5) surveying; AND Archeological field school. (You must submit transcripts.) OR B. Education - Related Curriculum: degree in anthropology (with emphasis on ethnology, physical anthropology, or scientific linguistics), history, American studies, or a related discipline may be accepted as satisfying in full the educational requirements, provided the curriculum supplied academic course work sufficiently similar to the requirements in A.1 (including archeological field school) (You must submit transcripts.); OR C. Combination of education and experience - college level education or training that provided knowledge equivalent to that described above, plus appropriate technical experience or additional education (You must submit transcripts.); OR D. Experience: Four (4) years of archeological work experience that demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles and theories of professional archeology. The work experience must have included archeology field experience, which may include that gained in an archeological field school. Field experience should have included a combination of professional experience in archeological survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, and preparation of written materials. Applicants with such field experience should, after additional experience under the direction of a higher grade archeologist, be able to demonstrate the ability to be a crew chief, directing the work of others at a single location as a part of a larger archeological project. In addition to meeting one of the Basic Requirements listed above, applicants must meet the following Minimum Qualifications Requirement in order to be considered: MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: To be considered minimally qualified for this position, you must demonstrate that you have the required specialized experience and/or education for the respective grade level(s) in which you are applying: For the GS-12 grade level:Specialized Experience: One or more full-time years (12-months) of specialized work experience, equivalent to at least the 11 grade level in the Federal service, performing the following duties: Evaluating the significance of archeological, historical, and traditional cultural properties according to theories of archeology; Giving recommendations to staff for the treatment of cultural resources; Collaborating with stakeholders to coordinate cultural resource activities such as excavations, mapping, or data collection; Providing training on cultural resource to ensure artifacts or historic sites are handled properly; and Writing content for a variety of documents types such as reports, bulletins, or manuals. There is no education substitute for the specialized experience at the GS-12 grade level. IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE MAY NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). 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. The OPM Qualification Standards for this position can be found at: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=List-by-Occupational-Series This position is being concurrently announced under Delegated Examining Announcement Number 25-DE-12645517-JR. This announcement is open to all qualified candidates. Applying to both announcements may expand the possibilities of consideration since different referral criteria apply to each type of announcement. See the above announcement for more information.

Education

You must submit a copy of your college transcripts or a list of college courses with credit hours, dates completed, and grades received to verify all education requirements (i.e. substitution of education and/or basic education requirement). If a relevant course is not clearly qualifying (e.g. special topic, seminar, research, thesis, obscure or misleading course title, etc.), please submit an official course syllabi and/or detailed course description from the university/college for that particular course to ensure you are properly evaluated. Please note that qualifications determinations are based solely on the information submitted for each particular vacancy announcement. You must document all requirements on every vacancy; we cannot use previous determinations as a basis for rating. All required information must be received by the closing date of this announcement, and non-submission of all required documents/documentation will result in non-consideration. Unofficial transcripts will be accepted. This information must be received by the closing date of this announcement. Non-submission of these documents will result in non-consideration. Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications.

Foreign Education: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: Recognition of Foreign Qualifications | International Affairs Office (ed.gov)

Contacts

• Address Natural Resources Conservation Service 1400 Independence Ave SW Washington, DC 20250 US
• Name: Staff Acquisition
• Phone: 8164265706
• Email: Kansascity@opm.gov