Archeologist

Reclamation is seeking a career professional looking for an opportunity to capitalize on their expertise as a Archeologist. You can make a difference in the West by assisting in meeting increasing water demands while protecting the environment.

Duty Location: Billings, Montana and Rapid City, South Dakota

For living conditions go to: https://www.usbr.gov/gp/employment/living_conditions.pdf.

• Is the primary functional specialist for all National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) compliance activities, including the preparation of appropriate cultural resource and historic property related documents.
• Identifies existing and potential cultural resource impacts associated with planning, construction, operation, and maintenance activities of Reclamation projects for the Montana Area Office (MTAO) or Dakotas Area Office (DKAO).
• Collaborates with engineers, hydrologists, planners, facility managers, environmental specialists, natural resource specialists, and other professionals and specialists to identify, minimize, or mitigate adverse impacts to cultural resources and/or historic properties, and/or paleontological resources.
• Provides assistance and serves as cultural resource liaison to other Federal agencies, Indian tribes, as well as State and local entities to ensure that outside customers have a clear understanding of NHPA and Reclamation's responsibilities for compliance.
• Prepares other special technical reports, such as those related to museum and historic properties, and/or academic papers, and lends technical assistance to Government or contracting personnel involved in preparing such reports and/or permits. Reviews and interprets reports received to ensure they meet Reclamation standards.
• Interprets and provides advice on the National Historic Preservation Act and regulations of 36 CFR Part 800, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, Archaeological Resources Protection Act, and/or other cultural resources legislation to Area Office staff and management.

To be eligible for consideration, you must first meet the Basic Education Requirement for this position, having:

A degree that included 3 semester hours each in the following course areas:

• History of archeology.
• Archeology of a major geographical area such as North America or Africa.
• Regional archeology, archeological cultures, or sites in a specific part or portion of a major geographical area to acquire or develop a foundation for regional specialization for professional development.
• Theory and methods of archeology. Methods include, but are not limited to, typology, classification, sampling, cultural evolution, diffusion, dating, and analytical techniques.
• Archeological field school, to provide a basic understanding of theoretical and practical approaches to research design implementation, field preservation techniques, and report preparation by participation in actual field work.

AND

Six semester hours of related course work in:

• geography, geology, or cultural geography
• history, historiography, or historical archeology
• environmental studies-scientific writing (nonfiction English composition) and/or
• surveying

AND

• Archeological field school

OR

Related Curriculum - You could otherwise meet the basic education requirement with a degree in anthropology (with emphasis on ethnology, physical anthropology, or scientific linguistics), history, American studies, or a related discipline may be accepted as satisfying in full the educational requirements, provided the curriculum supplied academic course work is sufficiently similar to the requirements above including archeological field school.

OR

Combination of Education and Experience - You can combine education and experience to meet the basic education requirement College-level education or training that provided knowledge equivalent to that described above, plus appropriate technical experience or additional education.

OR

Experience - Four years of archeological work experience that demonstrated a thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles and theories of professional archeology. The work experience must have included archeology field experience, which may include that gained in an archeological field school. Field experience should have included a combination of professional experience in archeological survey, excavation, laboratory analysis, and preparation of written materials. Applicants with such field experience should, after additional experience under the direction of a higher-grade archeologist, be able to demonstrate the ability to be a crew chief, directing the work of others at a single location as a part of a larger archeological project.

In addition to meeting the Basic Education Qualification Requirements, applicants must have additional education and/or specialized experience as defined below:

GS-11:

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and complexity to at least the GS-09 level in federal including experience planning and conducting archeological investigations; conducting or overseeing work in support of historic preservation; conducting cultural resource fieldwork such as surveys and excavations; and performing field inspections, research, or assessments.

OR

Education: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education, in a related field.

OR

Combination of specialized experience and graduate education as defined above.

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.

Time-In-Grade: Current career or career-conditional employees of the Federal government, or former career or career-conditional employees, who have a break in service of less than one year, are required to meet the time-in-grade restriction of one year of Federal experience at the next lower-grade, with few exceptions outlined in 5 CFR 300.603(b).

You must meet all Eligibility and Qualification requirements, including time-in-grade restrictions and any selective placement factors if applicable, by 05/22/2024.