Biological Science Technician (Field Support Technician)
What you'd do
The AHPIS Ready Response Corps (ARRC) is an Agency-wide cadre dedicated to rapidly deploying in support of animal and plant health-related emergencies and all hazards' events to safeguard American agriculture. The Biological Science Technician performs emergency management response work, including deploying and performing response activities to stop the spread of pant or animal diseases. Recruitment incentive may be authorized, but not guaranteed.
Major duties
The duties described are for the full-performance level. At developmental grade levels, assignments will be of more limited scope, performed with less independence and limited complexity. The duties may include, but are not limited to: Deploys to agricultural, plant, animal, and wildlife emergencies to assist with response, containment, and mitigation activities. Supports veterinary, plant health, wildlife damage management, and animal care operations. Coordinates and performs field response tasks such as surveillance, sampling, biosecurity, movement control, quarantine implementation, wildlife monitoring, and pest mitigation. Assists with depopulation, disposal, wildlife handling, pest eradication, or plant health interventions as appropriate to the incident and in accordance with agency procedures. Serves as a member of an Incident Management Team, supporting logistical, operational, planning, or field level technical work depending on deployment needs. Maintains continuity of operations during shift changes by documenting work performed, communicating field conditions, and ensuring seamless handoff between responders. Supervises, participates in, or verifies cleaning and disinfection or sanitation of equipment, vehicles, facilities, and premises in accordance with disease or pest response protocols. Conducts field interviews with producers, growers, landowners, or facility operators. Performs inspections of farms, production facilities, nurseries, markets, wildlife sites, and similar operations to support regulatory compliance and emergency response actions.
What you need to qualify
Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Individual Occupational Requirements for the 0404-job series Examples of qualifying specialized experience include work: Research activity or control program work. Nursery work that required the growing and maintenance of plants in a controlled environment. Work comparable to that with a large dairy farm where production records, animal environment, and sanitary conditions were kept in accordance with modern dairy practice. Farming experience that was not performed in a controlled environment, or experience as a laborer who was not responsible for planning and scheduling his/her own work, but only performed assigned tasks, would not qualify as specialized experience. FOR THE GS-7 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-6 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates: Applying principles of plant science including plant morphology and identification using a dichotomous key to analyze and take action to prevent the establishment and/or artificial spread of plant pests. Identifying plant pests in all their life stages and properly handling and applying restricted use chemicals within production systems, including farms, forests, and nurseries for inspections, surveillance, sample collection, and trapping. Collecting, recording, interpreting, and managing biological data; mapping survey/control areas. Communicating technical information (plant health and pests) to internal employees and external stakeholders. Participating in biological field surveys or pest control programs which require walking fields or forests in various weather environments. OR 1 year of graduate level education (18 semester hours) in biology, plant pathology, entomology, botany, forestry or related disciplines appropriate to the position. Equivalent combinations of education and experience are qualifying for this grade level.TRANSCRIPTS are required if: You are qualifying for the position based on education. You are qualifying for this position based on a combination of experience and education. This education must have been successfully completed and obtained from an accredited school, college, or university COMBINATION OF EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE AT THE GS-7 GRADE LEVEL: Applicants may have combinations of successfully completed education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. 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. Emergency Response Assignment - Every APHIS employee has regular and recurring emergency response responsibilities. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency response 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 response may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to travel to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.
Before you apply
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