These positions are located in Shenandoah National Park, in the Natural and Cultural Resources Division. The positions will perform common biological science field tasks related to natural resource management. See Duties Section for various position duties that may include plants, vegetation monitoring, and compliance.
All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-04/10/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience. To qualify for this position at the GS-05 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-04 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: utilizing various techniques to gather biological samples; identifying, measuring, and counting organisms of the environment and recording the data; follow standardized procedures to collect data on the condition of native and non-native plant/vegetation/endangered species; operate and maintain resource management equipment and tools; prepare resource management reports and technical publications; or performing a variety of behavioral or measured data collection activities in support of field resource management projects. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least a full four (4) year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with major study or at least twenty-four (24) semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture, or mathematics. At least six (6) semester hours are directly related to the position such as botany, forest ecology, silviculture, plant ecology, etc. IMPORTANT - PLEASE NOTE: If you are using education to qualify you must document your course work and/or degree completed in your resume or other application materials you submit. You must submit a copy of your transcripts that identifies for each course the college or university, semester or quarter hours earned, grade received, and date completed. If you are qualifying based on education and you do not submit specific course work information as described previously, your application will be rated not qualified for consideration. You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. Only education beyond the sixty (60) semester hours above high school is considered qualifying when combined with specialized experience. Thirty (30) semester hours beyond the first sixty (60) is equivalent to six (6) months of specialized experience. For example, six (6) months of specialized experience (50% of the specialized experience requirement) and 90 semester hours with at least twelve (12) semester hours related to the position and three (3) hours directly related to the position (50% of the education requirement) would be considered qualifying. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts. To qualify for this position at the GS-06 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-05 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience MUST HAVE BEEN in the Biological Technician field and include activities such as: working with field crews in invasive plant control; implementing revegetation projects; maintaining a native plant nursery (e.g. weeding, watering, installing plants); and collecting vegetation data and photographic documentation in support of invasive plant management and restoration projects. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least one full year of graduate education in an accredited educational institution (18 semester hours) directly related to the work of the position (such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture). You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. For example, I have 6 months of specialized experience (50% of the experience requirements for this position and grade level) combined with 6 months/9 semester hours of graduate education, (50% of the education required to qualify) directly related to this position. Examples of education directly related to the position include biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, botany, physics, agriculture. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts. To qualify for this position at the GS-07 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-06 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience MUST HAVE BEEN in the Biological Technician field and include activities such as: Surveying, mapping and documenting botany species; researching and compiling botany inventory data; leading or conducting field inventories or studies of botany species and invasive plants; leading crews managing invasive plants and restoring native vegetation; perform site visits for resource compliance/mitigation under NEPA, NHPA, etc.; researching and identifying botany data and compiling data for review in established or new databases. You must include hours per week worked. -OR- EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least one full year of graduate education in an accredited educational institution (18 semester hours) directly related to the work of the position (such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture). You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. For example, I have 6 months of specialized experience (50% of the experience requirements for this position and grade level) combined with 6 months/9 semester hours of graduate education, (50% of the education required to qualify) directly related to this position. Examples of education directly related to the position include biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture. Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include transcripts. Volunteer Experience: 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.
Initial Cut-off Date: This is an open continuous announcement, in which applications are collected over several months, and have multiple cut-off dates. Applications will be considered throughout the open period of the announcement. ** The first cut-off date for early referral is Sunday, December 21, 2025. ** Referral certificates will be issued when a hiring official exhausts current certificate and/or additional vacancies need to be filled. Duties for the (Plants) positions: These positions will assist the Biologist overseeing the Park invasive plant management and restoration program by performing biological science technical support functions including invasive plant management (including herbicide use), forest pest management (including pesticide use), monitoring of treatment sites, invasive plant inventory work, nursery maintenance, vegetation restoration, data entry and equipment maintenance. GS-6 positions will perform the same work and will regularly provide field oversight to lower graded employees, interns and volunteers. GS-7 positions will perform the same work as GS-6 positions, with increased responsibility for determining crew daily work assignments. Duties for the (Vegetation) positions: These positions will assist the park Botanist by performing biological science technical support functions including plant identification, detailed plant monitoring, data entry, equipment management, and specimen processing. Projects include long-term forest monitoring, rare plant monitoring, meadow monitoring, and plant protection activities. Technicians collect and organize natural resources data, and enter data into computer spreadsheets and databases daily or weekly. Data summary and basic report writing is required. GS-7 Vegetation position serves as a plant identification and vegetation sampling field methods expert to other employees engaged in field monitoring tasks and provides daily work planning and supervision to the work crew to ensure completion of technically complex and physically demanding field and office tasks by established deadlines. Required to use chemical tick bite prevention measures (Permanone) on exterior of clothing and equipment. Duties for the (Compliance) position: This GS-7 position performs site visits to document project work compliance with natural and cultural resource impact mitigations, collecting photos, notes, spatial data and resolve resource protection/compliance issues related to NEPA, NHPA, and the ESA. It is anticipated that: - eleven positions will be filled at the GS-5 level; nine positions with plants duties; two with vegetation monitoring duties. - one-two positions will be filled at the GS-6 level involving plants duties. - one-four positions will be filled at the GS-7 level; one-two with plants duties; one with vegetation monitoring duties; one with compliance duties. Work Setting: Shenandoah National Park contains 197,000 forested acres along the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia. The Park's backcountry consists of more than 500 miles of trails, including 95 miles of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and nearly 80,000 acres of federally designated wilderness. Skyline Drive, the famous scenic tour road through the Park, follows the ridge crest for 105 miles from Front Royal to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesboro. Over a million people visit the Park each year to enjoy views from the Skyline Drive, hike trails, enjoy nature study, camp in campgrounds or in the backcountry, or stay overnight in one of the Park's rustic lodges or backcountry cabins. The Park supports approximately 1400 vascular plant species, numerous state-rare plant species, and a variety of forest community types. The mountain streams are inhabited by a variety of species of fishes and provide some of the best protected strongholds for native eastern brook trout. POSITION LOCATION: Shenandoah National Park preserves and protects more than 300 square miles of nationally significant natural and cultural resources, scenic beauty, and congressionally designated wilderness within Virginia's northern Blue Ridge Mountains; and provides a broad range of opportunities for public enjoyment, recreation, inspiration, and stewardship. Within just 90 miles of Washington D.C. the Park provides visitors the ability to explore mountain peaks, hidden hollows, cascading streams, accessible wilderness, and stunning natural beauty. Approximately 40% of the Park is designated wilderness with over 500 miles of hiking trails and the iconic Skyline Drive, SHEN was established as an eastern Park that provided a "western Park experience". Due to the Park's easy accessibility to D.C and other highly populated areas along the east coast, visitation exceeds 1.4 million visitors annually which results in significant resource protection and visitor management issues and incidents.