Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation's mission is to help ensure that Montana's land and water resources provide benefits for present and future generations. The DNRC believes employees are their most important asset. The DNRC empowers employees to exercise professional judgment in carrying out their duties. Employees are provided with the training and tools necessary to achieve the mission. Both team effort and individual employee expertise are supported and sustained. *Core Values:* The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservations Forestry and Trust Land Division recognizes that building a collaborative, professional, and inclusive work environment is critical to fulfilling our mission of managing, protecting, and promoting stewardship of Montana’s forests and lands for the benefit of current and future generations and our trust beneficiaries. We hold ourselves to these high standards as we are accountable to the people of Montana. * We value and respect each other. * We create collaborative work environments. * We build and maintain strong relationships. * We practice accountability. * We celebrate our successes and take pride in our work. *Job Overview:* This position is the Eastern Land Office (ELO) Rural Fire Coordinator (RFC). It is the mission of the DNRC Fire Protection Program to protect lives, property, and natural resources from wildfire by providing safe and effective services to Montana’s citizens as well as leadership, coordination, and resources to the State’s wildfire organizations. To achieve that mission, the DNRC carries out a unified fire protection program spanning the state of Montana. The Department implements that program in two major ways: by directly protecting approximately 5.5 million acres of state, private and federal land, and by protecting approximately 45 million acres of state and private land via State/County Cooperative (County Coop) protection. ELO implements this mission in an eleven county Eastern Area as well as contributing substantially to the unified, statewide fire protection program and the strategic direction of it. Working closely with the Area Fire Management Officer and the Assistant Fire Management Officer, the RFC assists in the management and implementation of the Forestry Division Fire Protection Program for the ELO; including program activities in the areas of safe and effective fire response/fire suppression, fire prevention, community preparedness and homeowner risk reduction/fire adapted communities; as well as prescribed fire and fuel hazard reduction. The RFC also works to achieve mutually beneficial goals of the DNRC Fire Protection, Forestry Assistance, Good Neighbor Authority, and Trust Lands Management programs. A primary responsibility of the ELO RFC is to manage the County Coop fire protection arrangement across the eleven counties of the ELO. The DNRC’s fundamental role in areas of County Coop protection is to build and maintain the capacity of local governments, so that local firefighters routinely succeed on initial attack and avoid the need for large-scale intervention by the DNRC or our federal partners. However, the ELO also maintains resources and access to resources that enable the DNRC to intervene on the behalf of local government with agency resources to help local government firefighters control fires at initial or extended attack. The RFC is responsible for representing the ELO in many settings, as well as developing and maintaining effective working relationships with personnel from the Department’s other Land Offices; the Fire Protection Bureau and Forestry Division; cooperating local, state, tribal, and federal agencies; county governments; fire councils, districts, and departments. The RFC reports to the Area Assistant Fire Management Officer. *Essential Functions (Major Duties or Responsibilities):*These job functions are the essential duties of the position and are not inclusive of all the duties that may be assigned to the incumbent. *Program Management/Administration:* Implement the Fire Protection Programs within the Eastern Land Office operating area. The RFC exercises professional judgement and initiative; to provide leadership and vision, program direction, supervision, structure, management and administration, and coordination enabling the ELO to effectively execute the of the Fire Protection Program, by carrying out its constituent sub-programs within the parameters of associated program guidance; and contribute to the success of the DNRC Fire Protection Strategic Plan. *Fire Suppression*: Performs fire management suppression and pre-suppression duties based on agency needs and individual qualifications and certifications on national, regional, or local interagency incident management overhead teams. This includes providing backup for the supervisor as duty officer. *Fire Program Execution and Resource Coordination:* Implements the Fire Program within the assigned Land Office jurisdictional areas to protect lives, property, and natural resources on state and private lands by providing resources, leadership, and coordination to ensure safe and responsive fire suppression. *Supervision [Varies by Area]:*Supervise area fire staff including permanent FTE, seasonal, temporaries, and contractors to ensure the area has adequately trained personnel to meet fire prevention and suppression program requirements. *APPLICATION MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION ARE: * * State Application * Cover Letter * Resume *HELPFUL HINT: * *You must check the “relevant document” box to ensure your attachments are uploading correctly to the specific application.* BENEFITS: * Health Care & Benefits * Retirement * Paid Vacation, Sick Leave and Holidays Approximately 25% travel time with occasional overnight travel. *If you are interested in a complete job description, please contact HR at Makayla.Mangold@mt.gov. *Minimum Qualifications (Education and Experience):* Requires education and experience equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in forestry, fire management/suppression, public administration, or a related field and three (3) years’ experience or a High School diploma and six (6) years’ experience as a Fully Qualified Single Resource Boss and a T4 Incident Commander (or the ability to attain the T4 Incident Commander certification within one year), including Incident Command System (ISC) training and related fire program management experience, and supervisory experience. Ability to attain and maintain certification as a Task Force Leader within three years of hire; including ability to maintain physical conditioning at the “Arduous” level as measured by the Work Capacity Test (Pack Test.) *Required knowledge, skills, and abilities:* Requires advanced knowledge of the principles and practices of Wildland Firefighting; emergency management; natural resources; program administration; adult education and training; and fire management including suppression, protection, planning, and prevention. Requires knowledge of state and Federal fire protection and natural resources laws including the Departments legal responsibilities to personnel, cooperative personnel, and volunteers; wildfire and structural fire protection techniques relating to WUI; volunteer group organization and management; local government organization, jurisdiction and authorities; equipment management and maintenance; fire budgeting, billing and auditing methods and procedures; communication systems; safety management methods and procedures; public administration; research methods and techniques; and program goals, objectives, and requirements. Supervisory responsibilities require knowledge of Department and State personnel procedures and policies, organizational theory, employment law, and personnel management practices. This position requires skill in developing strategy and directing operations involving diverse personnel and needs which can at times can be crisis driven; analyzing, interpreting, and communicating a variety of detailed and complex information to a wide variety of audiences including financial data and fire behavior/suppression principles; and translating technical information to a broad-ranging professional and vocational audience. Strong written and verbal communication skills including interpersonal skills, negotiation, tact, and diplomacy are also vital. This position requires the ability to synthesize Department’s mission, laws, philosophy, and changes in technologies into comprehensive programs of supervised resource management; be flexible, decisive, assertive, resourceful, and forward thinking under pressure; make informed decisions in emergencies and interpret broad objectives of the Division and individual programs; manage multiple priorities; elicit the cooperation of others; and to collaborate effectively with other managers and professionals. Essential functions occur in both office and field settings. Field work involves exposure to varying weather conditions, terrain, and road conditions; travel in mountainous terrain by vehicle or on foot; and arduous amounts of walking up and down hills. Wildland fire-suppression oversight involves exposure to smoke, dust, and related fire hazards and low-level flight in light helicopters over mountainous terrain. Overnight travel and staying onsite is required. *SPECIAL INFORMATION:* Candidates must be eligible to work in the United States. A valid driver's license is required with less than 12 conviction points in the most recent completed 36 months. *ELIGIBILITY TO WORK*: In accordance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act, the person selected must produce within three days of hire documents that show authorization to work in the United States. Examples of such documentation include a birth certificate or Social Security card along with a driver’s license or other picture I.D., or a U.S. passport, or a "green card". **Title:** *Program Specialist 1 - Area Rural Fire Specialist * **Location:** *Miles City* **Requisition ID:** *25140642*