Emergency Specialist 3 - Assistant Center Manager

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.

Essential Functions (Major Duties or Responsibilities):

• Dispatch Center Coordinator: In support of large fires or other incidents, the Assistant Center Manager determines needs, plans, initiates and supervises an appropriate support organization to mobilize firefighting or other resources for incidents within the Central Montana Zone/Dillon Division and upon request for statewide or national incidents. DDC supports the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest, two DNRC units (Dillon and Anaconda Units), and prescribed fire operations for the Bureau of Land Management (Butte and Dillon Districts).
• Logistical Support: Gathers and interprets county, state and federal fire related intelligence to provide current and accurate information needed by dispatchers, incident commanders, and fire managers so fire danger can be assessed accurately, in a timely manner so ultimately management of fires can be safer and at a lower cost.
• Staff Management: Supervises dispatch staff including permanent personnel, seasonal temporary and additional support in performance of duties in support of Dillon Interagency Dispatch Center.
• Initial Attack: Responsible for supervising and overseeing the mobilization of firefighting forces including personnel, equipment, aircraft and supplies, for Federal and State incidents. Provides initial attack fire suppression actions for wildland and wildland/urban interface fires reported for the responsibility areas of Montana DNRC, and Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

APPLICATION MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION ARE:

• Online State of Montana application
• Resume
• Cover Letter

HELPFUL HINT: You must check the "relevant document" box to ensure your attachments are uploading correctly to the specific application.

Benefits:

• Paid Vacation, Sick Leave and Holidays
• Health, Dental, Prescription, and Vision Coverage
• Retirement Plans
• Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) - Employment with the State of Montana may qualify you to receive student loan forgiveness under the PSLF.  Look here, https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/public-service to learn more and see if you may qualify!
• If you are interested in a complete job description, please contact HR at Stacey.Gabrio@mt.gov.

Physical and Environmental Demands:

Work is primarily performed in an office environment. However, assignments to remote field locations for incidents are sometimes required. In order to maintain continuous communications during critical and emergency incidents, long periods of sitting in a confined work area are required. During these shifts of high mental stress, the dispatcher must be attentive to constant and simultaneous communication and information exchange from multi-frequency radio traffic, telephone lines, radio scanners and interpersonal communications. This results in high noise levels and requires a high level of concentration to assimilate information. Sixteen-to-eighteen-hour shifts are not uncommon at the start of a large or multiple fire situation, followed by up to fourteen days of twelve-to-sixteen-hour shifts.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

This position requires education and experience of 1 -2 years of related job experience and a high school diploma or a 2 -year job- related college or vocational training. Must have extensive knowledge of various wildland dispatch software applications including WildCAD, IRWIN, IRoc, InFORM. Knowledge of multifrequency radio and phone operation, Microsoft Office Suite, DNRC Financial Code Generator, and various Federal and State software systems.

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"

Effective May 4, 2026, this agency is participating in E-Verify to confirm employment eligibility. After accepting a job offer and completing Form I-9, your information will be submitted to the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration for verification.