Summary This career/career-conditional permanent full-time position is located in Shenandoah National Park, in the Interpretation and Education Division. Responsibilities This position serves as a key member of the park management team, and is the principal advisor on all matters related to interpretation, education, volunteers, and youth programs. Duties may include: Establish and maintain effective working relationships that foster open communication upward, downward, and at peer levels with staff, regional office staff, partner agencies, and other groups and organizations to ensure that program objectives are well understood and achieved as efficiently and effectively as possible. Direct and manage customer and interpretive services by identifying needs, aligning with strategic priorities and goals, and formulating and implementing plans for personal customer and interpretive services, such as informal resource roving, talks, walks, hikes, and demonstrations, and public and community outreach services and programs. Implement and evaluate a large (2.2 million dollars or more), multi-year budget and operating program based on personnel, materials and equipment needs, projects, and annual work schedules to meet organization priorities and goals. Oversee the organization's personal interpretive and educational services offerings, conducting research to develop tools, methods, and techniques that engage a wide range of visitors and their experience preferences. Physical Demands: Most of the duties are indoors and do not involve unusual physical requirements but walking on trails or on mountain slopes on rough primitive trails is required. May occasionally engage in stressful situations during emergency situations or when dealing with visitor complaints. Working Conditions: Most work is indoors in an office setting, but frequent trips into the park and occasional hikes on mountain slopes in varying weather conditions are required. Assisting during emergency operations may subject employee to hazardous conditions. Wears the NPS uniform in accordance with approved uniform standards. 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. Additional Information: For additional information regarding this announcement or how to apply, please contact the HR Office at the number or email provided under the "agency contact information" section. For specific questions pertaining to the position being advertised, please contact [email protected] by email; please include the job announcement number NE-1612-SHEN-24-12248360-ST in the subject line. Requirements Conditions of Employment U.S. Citizenship required. Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication. Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males Direct Deposit: Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program. Time-In-Grade: Any individual who is currently holding, or has held within the previous 52 weeks, a General Schedule position under non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet time-in-grade requirements (must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade or equivalent in the Federal service). Time-in-grade requirements must be met by the closing date of this announcement. Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal civilian employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Driver's License: You may be required to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of your official duties. You will be required to sign an affidavit certifying to your possession of a valid State issued driver's license that is current and has not been revoked, suspended, canceled, or otherwise disqualified in any way to prohibit your operation of a motor vehicle. You will also submit a photocopy of your valid State issued driver's license prior to your first official motor vehicle operation, and again every year, or more frequently if management determines such need exists. You may also be required to submit (within a State sealed envelope or submitted directly by the State authorities), and at your own expense, all certified driving records from all States that discloses all valid driver's licenses, whether current or past, possessed by you. Please indicate in your application whether you possess a valid State driver's license. Government housing is not available. Uniform: You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided. If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period. You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority. Qualifications All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-02/02/2024. Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 for each federal position listed as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of qualifying experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience. Failure to adequately provide information needed to determine number of hours worked in each position may result in that time not being credited when evaluating qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the full and/or part-time hours requirement as the service dates will be reflected. To qualify for this position at the GS-13 grade level, you must possess 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-12 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as: Manage, plan, develop, and direct a large park's personal interpretive and education services such as visitor center operations at multiple locations, informal interpretive services aka roving or field contact interpretation provided in a large geographic area with widely dispersed locations, formal interpretive offerings such as walks, talks, hikes, programs, tours, demonstrations, and special events; community outreach activities/programs, and collaborative, interdisciplinary/operational functions and activities such as those involved with visitor use management (traffic management, natural and cultural resource protection through education). Perform the full range of supervisory duties for a large and diverse staff including position management, hiring, performance management, employee development, and recruitment/retention planning and implementation, and handling employee relations issues at all levels of seriousness and disciplinary actions. Coordinates with a wide variety of park, regional, and national partners. Collaborates with Senior Management and subject matter experts in the development of budgets, tracking, monitoring, and accountability for expenditures, determining and reporting on efficient use of funds and developing funding requests based on operational data and in conformity with park priorities and goals. You must include hours per week worked. 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. Education There is no substitution of education for experience at the grade level of this announcement. Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) or Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP): For information on how to apply as an ICTAP or CTAP eligible see http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/ctap_guideline.pdf. To be well-qualified and exercise selection priority for this vacancy, displaced Federal employees must be rated at 85 or above on the rating criteria for this position. Additional Information A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected. The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay. A Recruitment Incentive May Be Authorized for a newly selected employee when appointed to a permanent, temporary, or term position. A Federal employee who is transferring to the National Park Service from another component, bureau or Federal agency and who does not meet the conditions under 5 CFR §575.102 is not eligible for a recruitment incentive. A Relocation Incentive May Be Authorized for a Federal employee when the employee must move, as directed by the National Park Service (NPS) either through a management directed reassignment or selection for employment, to a different location at least 50 miles away from the one where his/her position of record held at time of selection is currently located, due to a need of the NPS. A relocation incentive is not the same as a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) move and, as such, may be granted in conjunction with one another. This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate. The employees of the National Park Service care for special places that are the heritage of all Americans. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has been dedicated to the preservation and management of this country's outstanding natural, historical, and recreational resources. Park ranger - interpreters connect people to parks. They play a key role in ensuring that visitors have a meaningful, satisfying, and safe park experience, help visitors decide how to spend their time in the park, and inform them about the wonders that await their discovery. Park ranger - interpreters are specially trained to engage the public so that each park visitor can find a personal connection with the meanings and values found in the places and stories of that park. They help visitors explore the many dimensions of parks by introducing them to a variety of perspectives. By providing the opportunity for visitors to care about the places they visit, they promote stewardship and the opportunity for those visitors to care for park resources. National parks are among the most remarkable places in America for recreation, learning, and inspiration. The work done by park ranger-interpreters through effective interpretive and educational programs encourages the development of a personal stewardship ethic and broadens public support for preserving and protecting park resources, so that they may be enjoyed by present and future generations.