Community Planner – Natural Hazard Mitigation

A Community Planner within FEMA’s Region 3 engages communities regarding risk reduction strategies and provides technical advice and guidance in the development of mitigation strategies through planning to reduce vulnerability to future hazards. The ideal candidate has experience interpreting and applying land use and planning laws, regulations, and policies, conducting reviews of regional, district and/or community plans, and consulting with stakeholders on community planning.

Duties
What will I do in this position if hired?

In this position, you will serve as a Community Planner, responsible for coordinating and providing technical assistance and training to state and local officials as applicable on the preparation, revision, and updating of hazard mitigation plans to comply with federal requirements, regulations, policies, and guidance. Typical assignments include:

• Providing written recommendations for plan improvements;
• Tracking assigned plans through all elements of the review process, including data entry and drafting of review and approval letters;
• Coordinating with Regional Community and Hazard Mitigation Planners; and supporting other Mitigation activities as required, including Floodplain
• Management and Insurance, RiskMAP, outreach, and grants.
• Providing training and technical assistance.

What else do I need to know?

At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management 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 operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

This announcement is for a position as a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee). CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Appointments to CORE positions are typically between two years and four years in duration and may be renewed based upon workload needs and funding availability. Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After three years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA.

FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflects the diversity of the nation.  At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people we serve. To learn about FEMA’s ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit www.fema.gov.

Requirements
Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for this position.
• You must successfully pass a background investigation.
• Travel may be required.
• You must be able to obtain and maintain a Government credit card.
• Selective service registration is required for males born after 12/31/59.

Please review “Other Information” section for additional key requirements.
To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo, successfully pass, and maintain a background investigation for Public Trust – Moderate Risk as a condition of placement into this position. This may include a credit check after initial job qualifications are determined, a review of financial issues, such as delinquency in the payment of debts, child support and/or tax obligations, as well as certain criminal offenses and illegal use or possession of drugs (please visit: Mythbuster on Federal Hiring Policies for additional information). For more information on background investigations for Federal jobs, please visit OPM Investigations.

Please ensure you meet the qualification requirements described below.

Qualifications
All qualifications and eligibility requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

Basic Requirements to be considered for this position:

Degree: community planning; or related field such as urban affairs, architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, sociology, geography, economics, political science, or public administration that included at least 12 semester hours in the planning process, socioeconomic and physical elements of planning, urban and regional economic analysis, and development finance.

OR

Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in one of the above disciplines, or a combination of related courses totaling at least 24 semester hours in any combination of the above disciplines of which at least 12 semester hours were in the planning process, and socioeconomic and physical elements of planning, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Note: Applicants with degrees in related fields, such as those listed above, who do not have the 12 semester hours of specified course work must have had at least 1 year of work experience in community planning acquired under the supervision and guidance of a community planner.

In addition to the basic requirements listed above, you must meet the following specialized experience requirement(s) to be considered for the position:

You qualify for this position at the IC-11 level if you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-09 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the Federal or Private Sector and must demonstrate all of the following:

1. Applying land use and planning laws, regulations, and policies;
2. Evaluating community planning projects and preparing reports; and
3. Developing, preparing, and/or delivering briefings for stakeholders.

OR

3 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree

You qualify for this position at the IC-12 level if you must possess one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the IC-11 level in the Federal government, which has equipped you with the skills needed to successfully perform the duties of the position. Experience may be obtained in the Federal or Private Sector and must demonstrate all of the following:

1. Reviewing or evaluating regional, district, and/or neighborhood plans for compliance;
2. Gathering, managing, and analyzing data, such as Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) or risk analysis to reduce vulnerability to potential hazards; and
3. Coordinating with external stakeholders such as State, Tribal, or local officials to meet program goals.

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.

How to Apply
To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section above by 11:59pm (EST) on the closing date of the announcement.

To begin, click the “Apply Online” button on the job announcement posting.
Follow the directions to register or login if you have an existing account.
Submit all required documents and complete the assessment questionnaire.
Upon completion of your application, you will receive an acknowledgement email.
Note: One or more positions may be filled using this vacancy announcement. Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions.

If you have questions about this announcement or the application process, please contact the Human Resources Specialist listed in the Agency Contact Information prior to the close of the announcement.

An employee, job applicant, or an individual acting on behalf of the employee, may request a Reasonable Accommodation by emailing FEMA-Reasonable-Accommodation@fema.dhs.gov with “time sensitive” in the subject line.

To review the common definitions of terms found in this announcement, please visit the DHS Common Definitions page.

Agency contact information
Tiffany Largent
Phone
540-533-2189

TDD
800-877-8339