Supervisory Biologist
What you'd do
This position is located in Padre Island National Seashore, in the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery. Open to the first 100 applicants or until 07/20/2026 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.
Major duties
Major Duties: Supervision: Hires, trains, and manages seasonal employees and volunteers working with conservation, research, and public education activities conducted to help restore and recover five species of threatened and endangered sea turtles. Permits and IACUC: Maintains state and federal threatened and endangered species permits and NPS Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) authorization, including lists of individuals authorized to conduct work and specific activities being conducted. Research: Oversees collection of research and monitoring data. Ensures accuracy of data collection and recording, reviews field forms, conducts QA/QC on data entered, analyzes data, and prepares reports and manuscripts for publication in peer reviewed scientific journals. Conservation: Oversees detection, documentation, and protection of nesting sea turtles, sea turtle nests, and stranded sea turtles, and collection of research samples from live and dead sea turtles. Oversees care for incubating sea turtle eggs and release of hatchlings. Public Education: Helps prepare and review educational materials to distribute to the public to educate them how to safely share the beach and waters with sea turtles and procedures needed to report nesting and stranded turtles immediately. Safety: Maintains required training and certifications, prepares safety documents and ensure subordinate completion of safety documents required to conduct sea turtle conservation, research and public education efforts in the field and laboratory. Internal Controls: Oversees distribution of property needed for field work to subordinate employees, ensures security and check-in-out of accountable property, ensures physical security of buildings used by subordinate employees.
What you need to qualify
Requirements Continued... 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); with few exceptions as outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b). Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal civilian employees applying for reinstatement who have had a break in service of less than one year, as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointments. Time-in-grade does not apply to new excepted service appointments and must be met by the closing date of this announcement. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary or trial period during which your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest will be evaluated. This probationary or trial period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary or trial period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary or trial period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest. All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-07/20/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. 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 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized 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. 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, you must possess one of the Basic Requirements for the 0401 series below AND you must possess one of the Minimum Qualifications for the GS-11 grade level below. BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR GENERAL NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND BIOLOGICALSCIENCES SERIES, 0401: Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher-level degree) in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. You must provide transcripts. Combination: College-level education equivalent to one of the majors shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. You must provide transcripts. - AND- MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS FOR GS-11 GRADE LEVEL: To qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement: EXPERIENCE: one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-09 grade level in the federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience MUST include the following: 1) analysis, review and writing related to wildlife including: population demographics, seasonality and distribution, capture-mark-recapture, tissue sampling, and necropsy of threatened and endangered species, including sea turtles; 2) reviewing and preparing parts of USFWS and/or state Endangered Species Research permits and IACUC authorizations; 3) participating in USFWS coordination, updating, and reporting preparation; 4) conducting fieldwork for nesting and stranded sea turtles, and 5) performing administrative and program work relating to endangered species management budgets and agreements. You must include hours per week worked. EDUCATION: Successful completion of at least 3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in a field related to the position. You must include transcripts. -OR- Successful completion of a combination of education and experience, as described above, that when combined equal at least 100% of the minimum qualification requirement for the GS-11 level. You must include transcripts. For more information qualifying education or on combining education and experience see OPM Qualification Standards linked below: Individual Occupational Requirements for General Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences Series, 0401 Group Coverage Qualification Standard for Professional and Scientific Positions 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. CTAP Statement: Current surplus and current or former displaced Federal individuals who have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) must be well qualified for the position to receive consideration for special priority selection. Well qualified means that the applicant meets the following: OPM qualification standards for the position; all selective placement factors, where applicable; special qualifying conditions that OPM has approved for the position, where applicable; is physically qualified with reasonable accommodation, where appropriate to satisfactorily perform the duties of the position upon entry; and is rated by the organization at least at the well qualified level on all competencies. Federal employees seeking CTAP eligibility must submit proof that they meet the requirements of 5 CFR 330.605(2) - CTAP This includes a copy of the agency notice, a copy of most recent Performance Rating, and a copy of most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level & duty location.
Before you apply
Federal applications are different: your resume should be 3–5 pages and mirror the language of this announcement. Read our federal resume guide first — it's the #1 reason qualified people get screened out.
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