Natural Resource Specialist 2 (PCN 10-1726)

State of Alaska; Fairbanks (AK); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid telework model

Career advancement opportunities

Job summary

The State of Alaska in Fairbanks seeks a Natural Resource Specialist 2 to support the Division of Mining, Land & Water. You will evaluate permit requests for state land uses and authorize easements for long‑term needs, delivering well-reasoned, defensible decisions.

The role involves complex cases, strong analytical and communication skills, and occasional fieldwork with travel across interior Alaska. Alaska residency is required.

Qualifications

• Analytical thinking, problem solving, and the ability to apply knowledge to complex natural resource challenges.
• Decision making under uncertain conditions with clear communication.
• Oral communication and writing skills for clear, concise reports and decisions.
• Knowledge of laws, government processes, and regulatory frameworks relevant to natural resource management.
• Research skills: data collection, analysis, and interpretation to support decisions.
• Experience in compliance inspection and ability to apply rules and issue appropriate actions.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate permit requests for state land uses and authorize easements for long-term needs.
• Produce documented decisions explaining conclusions and recommendations.
• Handle novel, complex, and potentially controversial cases with innovative and defensible solutions.
• Occasional fieldwork and travel within interior Alaska and to remote locations as needed.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Problem solving

Decision making

Oral communication

Writing

Legal/government knowledge

Research

Compliance inspection

Education

Education in natural resource field

Job description

The Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mining, Land & Water, is recruiting for a Natural Resource Specialist 2 in Fairbanks.

This position is open to Alaska Residents only.

Please check our residency definition to determine if you qualify.

What You Will Be Doing:

This position is on the DMLW Northern Region Permits and Easements Team. The team primarily evaluates permit requests for uses of state land, as well as authorizing easements for a variety of long-term needs. Cases assigned to you will be novel, complex, and controversial, requiring innovative and creative solutions. Your findings will be documented in administrative decisions communicating how you came to your conclusions.

Mission and Values/Culture:

The position offers a rewarding opportunity to help manage state-owned land within a creative and supportive team. This position plays a key role in achieving our mission by evaluating requests to use state land and determining whether the use is appropriate and whether any modifications to the requested activity are required for the project to move forward.

Benefits of Joining Our Team:

The DMLW offers meaningful work improving the lives of Alaskans every day! Our team provides a friendly and supportive environment, a hybrid telework model, flexible work schedules, autonomy, opportunities for career advancement, and extensive land management training.

The Working Environment You Can Expect:

The Fairbanks office is situated on a charming, wooded campus along the Chena River, near many amenities. As a Natural Resource Specialist 2, there is a good balance between individual and collaborative efforts to ensure decisions are well considered. Opportunities for occasional, short-duration fieldwork are frequently available. This often includes travel along the major interior road systems along the Parks, Steese, Richardson, Elliott, Dalton, and Alaska Highway corridors, but can more rarely also include travel to remote locations via small plane, ATV, snowmachine, or boat.

We are looking for a candidate who possesses the following position-specific competencies.

• Research: Knowledge of the scientific principles, methods, and processes used to conduct a systematic and objective inquiry; including study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; and the reporting of results.
• Compliance Inspection: Knowledge of the guidelines, regulations, and procedures associated with compliance inquiries, including application of compliance rules and criteria and ability to make appropriate decisions and issue citations, fines, or orders.

Competency-Based Minimum Qualifications Instructions

This job class uses competency-based minimum qualifications.

Please ensure your application (through work history, volunteer experience (duties summary), training, education, licenses, certifications, etc.) supports how you have gained the knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors (competencies) and that you possess the minimum required competencies for the job class.

Competency Description

The competency description(s) listed below have been designed to promote a common understanding of the essential elements of the job class. They highlight the more general and customary knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), tasks, and behaviors used to describe the competency. They typically list expectations instead of specific tasks and are only used as parameters and guidelines. A competency’s description is not intended to exclusively define every KSA, task, and behavior needed to meet the competency successfully, but rather to provide the manager/agency with a broad reference of options for how an applicant can meet the job expectation.

Minimum Qualifications

Any combination of education and/or experience that provides the applicant with competencies in:

• Analytical Thinking/Problem Solving: uses a logical, systematic, sequential approach to address problems or opportunities or manage a situation by drawing on one’s knowledge and experience base and calling on other references and resources as necessary.
• Decision-Making: Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change.
• Legal, Government, and Jurisprudence: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, legal practices and documents, Government regulations, Executive orders, agency rules, Government organization and functions, and the democratic political process.
• Oral Communication: Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately.
• Writing: Recognizes or uses correct English grammar, punctuation, and spelling; communicates information (for example, facts, ideas, or messages) in a succinct and organized manner; produces written information, which may include technical material, that is appropriate for the intended audience.

equivalent to those typically gained by:

Education in a natural resource field (such as forestry, geology, agronomy, and hydrology), public administration, planning, economics, cartography, or a closely related field and/or professional level experience in natural resource management.

Definitions:

“Competencies” means a combination of interrelated knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors that enable a person to act effectively in a job or situation.

“Professional experience” means work that is creative, analytical, evaluative, and interpretive; requires a range and depth of specialized knowledge of the profession's principles, concepts, theories, and practices; and is performed with the power or right to decide or act according to one's own judgment.

“Qualified” means is assessed to credibly possess the competencies needed to learn the job in a reasonable period.

“Training” and “education” in this guidance are synonyms for the process of acquiring knowledge and skills through instruction. It includes instruction through formal and informal methods (such as classroom, on-line, self-study, and on-the-job), from accredited and unaccredited sources, and long duration (such as a post-secondary degree) and short-duration (such as a seminar) programs.

“Typically gained by” means the prevalent, usual method of gaining the competencies expected for entry into the job.

Special Note:

For purposes of the minimum qualifications, natural resource management is defined as the management of the land, water, mineral, forest, oil, gas, agricultural, archaeological, natural and cultural history, park, and related surface and subsurface resources. Experience or education in natural resource management means involvement in the above resources exclusively. Those with experience or education in managing these resources may specialize in different management functions (for example, planning, regulation, research or title). All of this experience is applicable to the natural resource management definition. Some positions may require education in a particular area of natural resource management or specific technical knowledge and training gained through specialized education or progressively greater responsibilities at the lower levels of the series.

** Please read the information below carefully. **

If invited to interview,

please bring the following materials. Failure to do so may result in loss of consideration. Required documents include:

• A copy of your last two performance appraisals (if you are a current or former State of Alaska employee), or two letters or evaluations from former supervisors (if you are not a current or former State of Alaska employee or if performance appraisals are not available)
• A list of three professional references with current contact information, one of which must be from a current or former supervisor.
• A copy of a professional writing sample you authored (e.g., decisional document, technical paper, or report).

SPECIAL NOTICES

• This position requires some field work to conduct site inspections to verify authorization compliance or assist other DNR personnel with compliance inspections or site monitoring. This may involve travel to remote areas via small plane, helicopter, ATV, snowmachine, or boat.
• This position may participate in field inspections to assess land use impacts of various authorizations, as well as inspect existing authorizations for compliance. Inspections are conducted in both summer and winter conditions.

Supplemental Questions

For your application to be evaluated, you must answer the Supplemental Questions. The State of Alaska (SOA) uses four proficiency levels to measure and describe an applicant’s competence in applying specific behaviors, knowledge, skills, and abilities to accomplish a specific task. The four proficiency levels are Mastery, Fluency, Literacy, and Discovery. You must rate your proficiency level for each competency listed in the supplemental questions.

Education

If post-secondary education is required to meet the minimum qualifications, you must fill out the Education section of the application. If you have not yet obtained a degree, please indicate the units you have completed. Copies of transcripts are required to verify educational credentials if used to meet the minimum qualifications for a position.

Special Instructions for Foreign Education

Education completed at foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the minimum qualifications listed above. If using this education to meet minimum qualification requirements, you must demonstrate that the credentials have been submitted to a private organization specializing in interpreting foreign educational credentials and that such education has been deemed at least equivalent to that gained in standard U.S. education programs. Alternatively, an accredited U.S. post‑secondary institution must report that the other institution's transcript is given full value or that full value is recognized in relevant subject areas aligned with the post‑secondary institution's curricula. You must provide this evidence when applying.

Work Experience

If using work experience not already documented in your application, also provide the employer’s name, job title, employment dates, and whether full or part‑time. Applications will be reviewed to determine whether the responses are supported and whether the minimum qualifications