Summary You will serve as a Park Manager with National Park Service. This position is located at Mammoth Cave National Park.
This is a temporary promotion or detail not to exceed 1 year. However, you may be released from the assignment and returned to your permanent position of record at any time during this period for any reason. As a temporary promotion, this may be made permanent without further competition.
Duties At the full performance level (GS-15) the major duties of this position include, but are not limited to the following:
- Provides leadership, develops plans, and executes programs to operate and manage Mammoth Cave National Park (MACA).
- Assigns responsibilities, delegates authority, coordinates work plans and programs, and evaluates the effectiveness of individual activities and total operations.
- Responsible for all aspects of planning related to the development, operation and protection of the park.
- Maintains effective public and community relations with a large number of local and national interest groups and individuals such as tribal councils; environmental organizations; chambers of commerce and civic groups; sportsmen's clubs; outdoor and other citizen groups; and newspaper, radio and television representatives.
- Oversees management of the park's interpretive program, environmental education program, and fee collection/management, to ensure the park's diverse clientele receive a quality visitor experience.
- Administers and implements a broad-spectrum program for restoring and managing natural resources.
- Oversees the park's partnerships program and seeks out prospective partners to advance the mission of the park.
For additional information about Mammoth Cave National Park, please visit: Mammoth Cave National Park (U.S. National Park Service).
Qualifications
Requirements Continued... This is a supervisory position that may require completion of a supervisory probationary period.
As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a 1-year probationary period to evaluate your fitness and whether your continuation of employment advances the public interest.
This probationary period is an extension of the appointment process and therefore requires the agency to determine if continued employment would advance the public interest, meet the organization goals and mission of the agency, and/or otherwise promote the efficiency of the service. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, the agency will consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
Under applicable law, the employment of an individual serving a probationary period automatically terminates when that period ends unless the agency affirmatively certifies, in writing, that the individual's employment should continue and that their appointment should be finalized. In the absence of agency action to affirmatively certify continued employment beyond the probationary period, such appointments are terminated. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.
Qualifications:
All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement - 11/18/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement. Competitive candidates must also meet Time-in-Grade requirements as defined in 5 CFR 300, Subpart F.
For current Federal employees, if hours worked per week are not included on your resume, you must submit a non-award SF-50 as part of your application to be used to validate your work schedule and determine the amount of specialized experience that you will be granted. An award SF-50 will not be acceptable documentation for which to consider your amount of qualifying experience. For periods of time that reflect military service, the DD-214 or Statement of Service is sufficient to meet the work schedule requirement as the service dates will be reflected. For all other applicants who are not current federal employees, your resume must state either "full-time" (or "40 hours a week") or "part-time" with the number of hours worked per week to ensure proper crediting of specialized experience.
To qualify for this position at the GS-15 grade level, you must possess the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:
Specialized Experience: To qualify, you must possess at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-14 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). Specialized experience is experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform successfully the duties of the position to be filled. Park-related or similar land management experience may have been in technical, administrative, resource management, or scientific work, fish and wildlife management, recreation management, law enforcement, or other park-related work. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include, but are not limited to: Management or program specialist work involving the development and implementation of policy related to protection, conservation, or management of park areas or similar operations; Management work in a park, recreation, or conservation area; Directing park-related or similar land management programs and work through direct and indirect
supervision. You must include hours per week worked on your resume.
Volunteer Experience: 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.Education This position does not allow substituting education for experience.
Requirements
- Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
- Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
- Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service.
- Direct Deposit participation required.
- Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/.
- Must possess and maintain a valid driver's license throughout employment.
- You are required to wear a uniform and comply with uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.
- You are required to complete training, obtain and maintain a government credit card with travel and purchase authority.
- A financial disclosure report will be required within 30 days of appointment.
- You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.
- You may be required to travel overnight away from home. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
- Travel, transportation & relocation expenses will not be paid. Relocation expenses will be the employee's responsibility.
- Government housing is available.
*Additional Requirements located under Qualifications* How you will be evaluated Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g. resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the additional assessment(s) required for this position. To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process.
Your resume must not exceed 2 pages. Only the document submitted as the "Resume" under the Documents section will be used to determine your qualifications/eligibility and for rating purposes. In the event you submit more than one resume, only the latest submission will be reviewed.
You will be assessed in the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):
- Decision Making
- Leadership
- Organizational Awareness
- Partnering
- Planning and Evaluating
To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and application questionnaire, this position requires successful completion of additional assessment(s), including a structured resume review. These assessments measure the critical competencies listed above that are required to successfully perform the job.
Overstating your qualifications and/or experience in your application materials or application questionnaire may result in your removal from consideration or your score may be lowered. Cheating on an assessment may also result in your removal from consideration. Applicants who include vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate language or information in their application package will be ineligible for further consideration for this position.
Current or former displaced Federal employees who are surplus, displaced, or involuntarily separated have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP). To be considered under CTAP/ICTAP, you must be well-qualified, score at least 85 (i.e., meet the minimum qualification requirements, including any selective placement factors; education, and experience requirements), and be able to perform the duties of the position upon entry.How to apply Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for and be considered for this position, you must complete all required questionnaires, assessments, select appropriate hiring eligibilities, and submit all required documentation as specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the 11/18/2026-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement to receive consideration. Note: You will only be marked eligible for those eligibilities that you selected and provided the appropriate supporting documentation.
The application process is as follows:
- Click the Apply Online button.
- Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. To PREVIEW the application questionnaire, select the following link: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/13108815
- Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date.
Applicants who apply under this job opportunity announcement agree to have their application, associated documents and applicable personal information shared with other Bureaus/Offices within the Department of the Interior (DOI) who have vacancies within the same occupational series, grade, full performance level and in the same geographic location(s), including within the same metro/commuting area. Applying to this announcement does not replace the need to apply to other job opportunity announcements for which you wish to receive consideration.
To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed.
Eligibilities:
Please ensure you complete the Eligibility section of this application. This section determines the hiring paths under which you may be considered for this position. You will only be considered for the eligibilities you select. Applicants are strongly encouraged to reach each eligibility carefully to understand the requirements and select all that apply. For each eligibility selected, you must upload the required supporting documentation. Review the eligibility descriptions to confirm you are providing the correct documents. You may select more than one eligibility, if applicable. If you do not select at least one eligibility, you will not be considered for this vacancy. To learn more about federal hiring paths, visit USAJOBS - Unique Hiring Paths.
To view the announcement status or your application status, visit https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to/application/status. Other information Physical Demands: Work is mostly sedentary; however, significant pressures generated from an extensive variety of influences may result in significant psychological pressure, exposure to stressful situations and periods of intense workload. Frequent public contacts, attendance at conferences, planning and negotiation meetings involve operating in a very stressful environment. Work hours can be long and erratic. Occasional trips to field locations may involve hiking short distances inside the cave, over rough and uneven terrain, traveling over rough roads in 4-wheel drive vehicles, or low level flying in helicopters or fixed-wing aircraft. Frequent work-related travel is required that may involve brief exposure to natural hazards and primitive conditions. A healthy constitution is required although little physical labor is involved.
Work Environment: Work is performed primarily in office and meeting rooms. Field inspections may require trips into caves or river travel.
Telework: The duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.
All DOI employees, their spouses, and minor children may not acquire or retain any claim, permit, lease, small tract entry, or other rights granted by the Department in Federal lands, with limited exceptions. Additional ethics prohibitions can be found here, DOI Ethics Prohibitions | U.S. Department of the Interior.
