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In this Interpreter Sign Language Technical Expert (Sign Language Interpreter Expert Specialist)-Reservist position, you will be a member of the Civil Rights Cadre and will provide Sign Language Interpreting services to FEMA staff, disaster survivors, and the general public in order to achieve equal access and effective communication throughout all phases of emergency response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness. Typical assignments include:
Interpreting a variety of situations and conditions during disaster response and recovery, including but not limited to, Internal FEMA staff meetings, briefings, training sessions, conference calls, community meetings, and other events.
Ensure communication between Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing/Deaf-Blind persons and hearing persons is conveyed successfully from the source language into the target language or communication form most clearly understood by the participants.
Interact with various other Cadres within FEMA while maintaining collaborative professional relationships with colleagues, senior staff, community organizations, and disaster survivors.
Perform additional programmatic duties in support of the cadre's mission.
What else do I need to know?
At FEMA, our mission to help people before, during and after disasters; so, 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.
As a Reservist Employee, your role is to support response or recovery efforts. Reservists are intermittent, on-call employees. Please note that this is not a full-time position, and you only are paid when deployed. Deployment frequency and length varies based on disaster response need. Due to the irregular nature of disasters, Reservist employees are not guaranteed regular recurring hours, deployments, or renewal of employment.
The Civilian Reservist Emergency Workforce (CREW) Act protects the job rights of FEMA Reservists while they are deployed to disasters, emergencies, and critical trainings by including FEMA Reservists under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployments Rights Act (USERRA). This means that if you hold another job, you are able to deploy as a FEMA reservist and your job will be protected. It also protects you against penalization, discrimination, or loss of employee benefits as a result of your deployments to disasters, emergencies, and critical trainings. For more information, please visit FEMA.gov/careers or review the USERRA Resources from the Department of Labor.
FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflect the diversity of the nation. At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people it serves. To learn about the ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit fema.gov.
Conditions of Employment
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.
Conditions of Employment:
You must be a U.S. citizen to be considered for this position.
You must successfully pass a background investigation.
Travel will 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.
This position is temporary and intermittent, and you may be deployed to work during disaster declarations.
You will be paid only during times of deployment or when attending critical trainings.
You will be paid sick leave and earn one hour of sick leave for every 20 hours in a pay status, up to four hours each pay period.
You will be eligible to enroll in Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB) within 60 days of check-in to support a disaster. Enrollment in FEHB is terminated after 365 cumulative days in non-pay status.
You will be eligible for the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), when you are deployed to support a disaster and expected to work 130 hours or more per month for at least 90 consecutive days.
Qualifications
To qualify for the Interpreter Sign Language Technical Expert (Sign Language Interpreter Expert Specialist)-Reservist, you must possess extensive experience in each of the following areas:
Assessing individual communication needs to determine interpreting services required; and
Interpreting (spoken to sign/sign to spoken) for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals in a variety of professional settings.
In addition:
Minimum age of eighteen years of age is required.
All candidates must be a high school graduate or possess a GED.
Please read the following important information to ensure we have everything we need to consider your application:
Do not copy and paste the duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire from this announcement into your resume as that will not be considered a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.
Please limit your resume to five pages. If more than five pages are submitted, only the first five pages will be reviewed to determine your eligibility and qualifications. Your full resume will be made available to the hiring manager if you are referred.
Your resume serves as the basis for experience related qualification determinations, and you must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable), as it relates to this job opportunity. Please use your own words, be clear, and specific when describing your work history. We cannot make assumptions regarding your experience.
Documenting your experience:
Qualifications are based on breadth/level of experience. In addition to describing duties performed, you must provide your job title (including series and grade if a federal position), start and end dates of each period of employment (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY), and the number of hours worked per week if part time.
Current or former FEMA Reservists/Disaster Assistance Employee (DAE): To accurately credit your experience from intermittent positions and Reservist Deployments, you must list the dates (from MM/DD/YY to MM/DD/YY) of each deployment, along with the job title and specific duties you were responsible for during each deployment.
Determining length of General or Specialized Experience is dependent on the above information. Failure to provide the above information in your resume may result in your application being found "not qualified". Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration.
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 provides valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
For additional information on crediting experience and/or education, please reference the OPM General Schedule Qualification Standards
Education
No Educational Substitution: There is no educational substitution for this position, and you must meet the qualifications listed in the "requirements" section of this announcement.
Additional information
If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application, prior to entry on duty. False statements on any part of the application may result in withdrawal of offer of employment, dismissal after beginning work, fine, or imprisonment.
The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits the Department of Homeland Security and its Components from requesting an applicant's criminal history record before that individual receives a conditional offer of employment. In accordance with 5 U.S. Code § 9202(c) and 5 C.F.R § 920.201 certain positions are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Chance to Compete Act. Applicants who believe they have been subjected to a violation of the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, may submit a written complaint to FEMA-Misconduct@fema.dhs.gov.
DHS uses E-verify, an internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.
Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with other in DHS for similar positions.
All candidates must be able to deploy with little or no advance notice to anywhere in the United States and its territories for an extended period of time. Deployments may include working in excess of eight hours a day, or in excess of 40 hours in a given week, including weekends and holidays, and under stressful, physically demanding, and austere conditions. When activated and deployed, you serve in a federal travel status and are entitled to lodging, transportation and per diem reimbursements for authorized expenses in accordance with federal travel regulations.
All candidates must be available to deploy at all times during the term of this appointment unless pre-approved through authorized Reservist leave. Reservists may take up to 90 days of unpaid Reservist Leave per year.
FEMA Reservist employees must maintain an address of primary residency (which will serve as the official duty station of the employee), in a Stafford Act "State", as defined by Section 102(4) of the Stafford Act.
If selected for this position, you will be required to complete FEMA's onboarding program and a subsequent orientation program. Additional orientation information will be provided post selection.
The salary range indicated in this announcement reflects the minimum locality pay up to maximum locality pay for the Rest of U.S. locality pay area. The salary range will be adjusted for the selected duty location and associated OPM locality pay area. General Schedule locality pay tables and locality adjustment information may be found under the OPM Salaries & Wages website.
This vacancy may be eligible for a signing bonus.