IT Specialist - Seattle, United States - U.S. Department of the Interior

Description

Job Description (Please follow all instructions carefully)

Summary

What General Information Do I Need To Know About This Position?

Salary Information:
GS-11 - $81,242 (Step 01) to $105,612 (Step 10);
GS-12 - $97,376 (Step 01) to $126,585 (Step 10);
NOTE: First time hires to the Federal Government are typically hired at the Step 01 .

This job is open to

Duties

The position is located in Seattle, Washington within the Pacific Region, Earthquake Science Center (ESC). The ESC conducts research in geology, geophysics, seismology, engineering seismology, and geomechanics in order to assess seismic hazards and risk and ground-failure hazards on regional, national, and international scales.

The incumbent will support the earthquake mitigation mission of the USGS by operating and maintaining the ShakeAlert system; a 24/7 Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system that distributes rapid warnings of expected strong shaking when an earthquake occurs. This is part of a multi-organizational cooperative project to build and operate a public EEW system for the West Coast of the United States.

The incumbent should have a range of IT skills and experience, specifically in server hardware and administration, DevOps experience, networking, cloud computing, and programming.

As an IT Specialist (SysAdmin) within the Earthquake Science Center, some of your specific duties will include:

Plans and carries out difficult and complex assignments in a variety of systems administration areas.

Develops standard operating procedures for a variety of IT hardware tasks or activities.

Modifies, adapts, and/or refines broader guidelines to resolve specific complex and/or intricate issues and problems; and identifies and researches trends and patterns in order to develop new methods and criteria and/or propose new policies or practices for systems administration activities.

Researches options for problem resolution and recommendations.

Optimizes the functionality and performance of systems. Maintains systems integrity and availability anticipating likely capacity or configuration problems and initiating corrective or preventative actions.

Note: The duties listed above are at the GS-12 level. At the higher grade level, less assistance, instruction, guidance, oversight, review, and supervision will be provided.

This position will participate in a rotating on-duty status to respond to server outages and issues that occur.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Key Requirements:

Applicants must be U.S. Citizens.

Suitable for Federal employment, as determined by background investigation.

Selectee may be subject to serving a one-year probationary period.

More requirements are listed under Qualifications and Other Information.

Are There Any Special Requirements For This Position?

This vacancy is limited to the first 60 applications received and will close at midnight Eastern Time on the day this application limit is reached regardless of the closing date specified in this vacancy announcement . Any application received prior to midnight Eastern Time of the day the application limit is reached will be accepted and considered. You are strongly encouraged to submit all required supporting documents at the time of application should the vacancy close earlier than stated in this announcement due to the applicant limit being reached. Supporting documents will not be accepted once the vacancy announcement closes.

Because this position requires travel for official business, the selectee will be required to apply for a charge card within 30 calendar days of appointment. Individuals who have delinquent account balances from a previous Government charge card will be required to satisfy their existing obligation before a new card can be issued.

A background investigation will be required for this position. Continued employment will be subject to the applicant's successful completion of a background security investigation and favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet these requirements will be grounds for termination.

Throughout the recruitment and hiring process we will be communicating with you via email; therefore, it is imperative that the email address you provide when applying for this vacancy remains active. Should your email address change, please notify the point of contact identified in the vacancy announcement as soon as possible so that we can update our system.

Qualifications

DEFINITIONS :

Undergraduate Education: A year of undergraduate education is 30 semester hours, 45 quarter hours or the equivalent of college study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university for which high school graduation or the equivalent was a prerequisite.

Graduate Education: In the absence of specific graduate program information, a year of graduate education is 18 semester hours or 27 quarter hours of graduate level college course work, or the number of credit hours the school attended has determined to represent 1 year of full-time study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university.

Experience: One year of work experience is twelve months working full-time (at least 35-40 hours per week). Part-time experience can be pro-rated (i.e., a year at 20 hours per week is credited as 6 months of experience). If your position consisted of mixed duties, experience credit is given for the percentage of time that you spent on qualifying duties (i.e., if you held a position for 2 years, full-time, consisting of 25% personnel work and 75% budget work, and then applied for a budget position you could calculate your experience as follows: 2 years = 24 months. 24 months x 75% [percentage of time spent on budget duties] = 18 months of qualifying experience.)

BASIC REQUIREMENTS : This standard allows qualification requirements to be met through education or experience.

Education: All academic degrees and coursework must be from accredited or pre-accredited institutions. Undergraduate or Graduate Education: Degree in computer science, engineering, information science, information systems management, mathematics, operations research, statistics, or technology management or degree that provided a minimum of 24 semester hours in one or more of the fields identified above and required the development or adaptation of applications, systems or networks.

OR

Experience: Experience must be IT related; the experience may be demonstrated by paid or unpaid experience and/or completion of specific, intensive training (for example, IT certification), as appropriate.

For the GS-5 through GS-15 (or equivalent) grade levels, individuals must have IT-related experience demonstrating each of the four competencies listed below:

Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail.

Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (that is, any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services.

Oral Communication - Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.

Problem Solving - Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations.

FOR GS-11 : Applicants must meet one of the following to qualify for the GS-11 level:

Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education (36 semester hours, 54 quarter hours or the equivalent) leading to such a degree in computer science, information science, information systems management, mathematics, statistics, operations research, or engineering, or course work that required the development or adaptation of computer programs and systems and provided knowledge equivalent to a major in the computer field.

OR

One year of appropriate specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-09 level in the Federal service that demonstrates accomplishment of computer project assignments that required a range of knowledge of computer requirements and techniques; i.e., on the basis of general design criteria provided, experience in developing modifications to parts of a system that required significant revisions in the logic or techniques used in the original development.

To be creditable, accomplishments normally would have involved the following, or the equivalent: (1) Knowledge of the customary approaches, techniques, and requirements appropriate to an assigned computer applications area or computer specialty area in an organization; (2) Planning the sequence of actions necessary to accomplish the assignment where this entailed coordination with others outside the organizational unit and development of project controls; and (3) Adaptation of guidelines or precedents to the needs of the assignment..

FOR GS-12 : Applicants must meet the following to qualify for the GS-12 level:

One year of appropriate specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 level in the Federal service that demonstrates accomplishment of computer project assignments that required a wide range of knowledge of computer requirements and techniques pertinent to the position to be filled. Such knowledge is generally demonstrated by assignments where the applicant analyzed a number of alternative approaches in the process of advising others concerning major aspects of automated data processing system design, such as what system interrelationships must be considered, or what operating mode, system software, and/or equipment configuration is most appropriate for a given project.

This level of work experience would reflect independence in planning and carrying out the assignment, selecting the approach or methodology to be used, resolving most of the conflicts that arise, and coordinating the work with others as necessary.

You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements for the position by the closing date of the announcement.

Education

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.