In this position, you will serve as a Telecommunications Specialist for Regional Offices, Region One, Response Division. The ideal candidate will have experience maintaining disaster emergency communication systems, fulfilling communications security (COMSEC) duties, developing operational plans, and ensuring compliance with security standards. They will also maintain a TOP SECRET-SCI clearance and be available for travel and irregular work hours during emergencies.
All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. Basic Requirements: Undergraduate and Graduate Education: Major study -- electrical or electronic engineering, mathematics, physics, public utilities, statistics, computer science, telecommunications management, information systems management, business administration, industrial management, or other fields related to the position to be filled. Other Education: Communications/electronics or automatic data processing training in technical institutes or business schools above the high school level or in Armed Forces schools that included advanced instruction in addition to basic courses, may be substituted for general experience on a month-for-month basis OR Specialized Experience (for positions above GS-5): Experience in evaluating, analyzing, developing, managing, or improving communications systems, procedures, and requirements that demonstrated knowledge of current developments and trends in communications concepts and technology. All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. To qualify for this Telecommunications Specialist position at the IC-12 level, you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-11 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the federal government, a state or local government, or private sector, and must demonstrate the following: Providing input for the development and execution of communications strategies related to emergency planning; and Collaborating with outside agencies such as Federal, State, or Local government, the private sector, or non-governmental agencies to achieve goals; and Installing, testing, troubleshooting, maintaining and operating various types of telecommunications equipment. Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application: Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position. Please limit your resume to five pages. If more than five pages are submitted, only the first five pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications. Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience. Are you qualifying based on your work experience? Qualifications are based on your ability to demonstrate in your resume that you possess one year of the specialized experience for this announcement at a comparable scope and responsibility. To ensure all of the essential information is in your resume, we encourage you to use the USAJOBS online Resume Builder. If you choose to use your own resume, it must contain the following information organized by experience/position: (1) job title, (2) name of employer, (3) start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), (4) detailed description of duties performed, accomplishments, and related skills, and (5) hours worked per week (part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience). Federal experience/positions must also include the occupational series, grade level, and dates in which you held each grade level. Are you a current or former FEMA Reservist/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE)? To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of deployments that are relevant to your qualifying experience, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment. Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information. Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified." 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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards
What will I do in this position if hired? In this Telecommunications Specialist position, you will Identify and analyze telecommunications system solutions, provide project management support to solve interoperability issues, develop standards, and meet anticipated mission disaster emergency communications requirements. Typical assignments include: Installing, managing, and maintaining disaster emergency communications systems (radios, satellite systems, etc.). Configuring, troubleshooting, and testing equipment to ensure operational readiness. Planning, coordinating, and performing routine equipment maintenance, tracking and testing schedules for communication systems, including firmware updates, backups, repairs, and replacements. Monitoring and protecting systems against cybersecurity vulnerabilities and attacks. Creating agenda, host and providing support to the Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG). Developing of objectives, standards, guidelines and plans for the use of telecommunications resources capabilities. Advising, training and coordinating with personnel within the Response Division and throughout the FEMA Regions, Headquarters, and affiliated state, local, tribal, other Federal agencies, non-government organizations and the private sector. Performing other duties as assigned by the FEMA Region 1 COMSEC Manager. What else do I need to know? At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions. This announcement is for a position as a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee). CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After three years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA. This position will be hired into a temporary 4-year, excepted service appointment. Appointments may be renewed based on workload, funding, and supervisory approval.