Reservists (Intermittent)
Reservist employees:
- Are hired to perform work on a temporary, on-call, and intermittent basis.
- Help FEMA respond to, recover from and mitigate all hazards by performing a variety of emergency management functions which are not limited to: disaster survivors assistance, conducting and verifying damage assessments, and providing administrative, financial and logistical support.
- Do not acquire competitive status or career tenure.
Watch this video to learn about Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams. They help survivors by giving personal, complete customer service during and after disasters:
View here: Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams Aid Colorado Flood Survivors
What is a Reservist?
Reservists work on an intermittent basis, supporting survivors of all-hazard incidents. They are the main FEMA workforce during an emergency or disaster, that assists the agency in accomplishing its mission.
Selection
Reservist employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act, they are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service.
Reservist employees can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process.
What is a Cadre?
Cadres are groups of personnel organized by operational function and FEMA Qualification System (FQS) position. Each Reservist is hired to a position within a Cadre based on his or her skills and experience. The following is a list of Cadres within FEMA, which includes a description and an email contact. Please review each Cadre. If you have questions or if you would like to submit your resume for consideration, use the Cadre email provided.
Cadre Name | Cadre Description | Cadre Contact |
Acquisitions (ACQ) | Manages contracting activities by providing procurement advice, guidance, and information to coworkers, customers, and/or other contracting parties. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-ACQ-Cadre@fema.dhs.gov |
Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) | Supports field employees, leads, supervisors, and managers by providing a range of decision- making, conflict prevention, and conflict resolution services on request to prevent escalation; into formal actions or complaints. Additional responsibilities include:
| Erika.Jordan@fema.dhs.gov |
Disaster Emergency Communications (DEC) | Deploys, installs, operates, maintains, and protects telecommunications and operations assets in response to all- hazards disasters and in support of planned special events. Additional responsibilities include:
| Fema-DECD-Cadre@fema.dhs.gov |
Disaster Field Training Operations (DFTO) | Plans, develops, promotes, and delivers disaster performance improvement and training opportunities with EMI and Regional Offices. | Marcie.Mcfarland@fema.dhs.gov |
Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) | Establishes a timely presence on the ground in the affected areas to address disaster survivors’ immediate and emerging needs by meeting survivors at their homes or in their communities. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-DSA-RSV@fema.dhs.gov |
Disability Integration (DI) | Leads FEMA's commitment to achieving whole community emergency management, inclusive of individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs, by providing guidance, tools, methods and strategies to establish equal physical, program and effective communication access. | fema-direcruit@fema.dhs.gov |
Environmental/Historic Preservation (EHP) | The EHP cadre provides technical expertise and develops tools to address and resolve anticipated EHP issues relating to compliance review and approval process for proposed actions to be funded by FEMA during emergency and recovery operations. | EHPCadre@fema.dhs.gov |
Equal Rights (ER) | Responsible for equal rights and civil rights function and diversity initiatives. ER reviews reasonable accommodation requests and receives accessible electronic and information technology requests in support of multiple statutory requirements. | James.Montgomery2@fema.dhs.gov |
External Affairs (EA) | Communicates with and responds to FEMA stakeholders in Congress, State, Tribal and local governments, media, the private sector, as well as, internal FEMA employees. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-EA-RSV@fema.dhs.gov |
Financial Management (FM) | Creates, monitors, and verifies allocations and obligations in the appropriate financial systems and prepares financial reports within incident field offices. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-Financial-Management-Reservist@fema.dhs.gov |
Hazard Mitigation (HM) | Manages risk reduction activities from all natural hazards to include public education, private sector partnership, technical assistance to local and State governments, grants management, insurance coordination, and community planning. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-HM-DisasterPersonnel@fema.dhs.gov |
Human Resources (HR) | Identifies, acquires, sustains, and maintains a quality workforce to meet the FEMA mission. | Louis.Perez@fema.dhs.gov |
Individual Assistance (IA) | Ensures that individuals and families affected by disasters have access to the full range of FEMA programs in a timely manner and that the best possible level of service is provided to applicants in the administration of these programs. Additional responsibilities include:
| IA-NationalReservist@fema.dhs.gov |
Information Technology (IT) | Provides the most efficient, expeditious, and cost saving information services at all incident locations during initial setup, continuation of operations, phase down, and at closure. Additional responsibilities include:
| FEMA-IWMO-RPM-IT@fema.dhs.gov |
Logistics (LOG) | Coordinates and monitors all aspects of resource planning, movement, ordering, tracking, and property management of initial response resources (IRR), teams, and accountable property during the life of an incident. Additional responsibilities include:
| FemaLogReservist@fema.dhs.gov |
National Disaster Recovery Support (NDRS) | Assists the Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator and/or the Federal Coordinating Officer in facilitating disaster recovery coordination and collaboration between the Federal, State, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, voluntary and faith-based community organizations. | FEMA-NDRS-Reservist-Program@fema.dhs.gov |
Office of Chief Council (OCC) | Responsible for ensuring that FEMA field operations are consistent with all applicable statutes; regulations; and agency policies, directives, and standards. Additional responsibilities include:
| Rosa.Rios@fema.dhs.gov |
Operations (OPS) | Encompasses the integration of Federal, State, tribal, and local response programs to ensure efficient and effective delivery of immediate emergency assistance to individuals and communities impacted by major disasters, emergencies, or acts of terrorism. Functionally, Operations describes the employment of tactics, initiation of actions and commitment of resources in response to an incident requiring Federal support. | OperationsCadre@fema.dhs.gov |
Planning (PL) | Plans, collects, evaluates, disseminates, and manages information regarding the threat or incident and the status of Federal resources. | PlanningCadre@fema.dhs.gov |
Public Assistance (PA) | Provides assistance for debris removal, implementation of emergency protective measures, and permanent restoration of infrastructure to assist States, local governments, and certain private non-profit entities under the Stafford Act. | FEMA-PA-Reservist-Program@fema.dhs.gov |
Safety (SF) | Provides a safe and healthy work environment for FEMA employees and our emergency management partners at fixed sites, incident operations, and facilities. Additional responsibilities include:
| |
Security (SEC) | Implements and manages physical security programs in support of the Agency’s all-hazard emergency management programs for the protection of personnel, property, and facilities. Additional responsibilities include:
|
How do Reservists differ from Permanent Employees?
Duration
Reservists are appointed for a two-year period. They are not guaranteed employment or renewal of employment.
Work opportunities are intermittent due to the irregular nature of disasters.
Career Tenure and Competitive Status
Reservists do not earn career tenure or competitive status in the Federal government. This means that they must compete with the public for Federal jobs rather than receive preference.
How do I apply for Reservist jobs?
- Apply Now for a Reservist position at FEMA through the USAJOBS.gov site or submit your resume to a Cadre which matches your experience and skills.
- Steps to Apply - Find out what FEMA looks for in employees and how to apply for a job, including information for applicants with disabilities.
- Tips & Guidelines to Federal Employment - Get general information about applying for jobs in and working for the Federal Government.
For more information
To learn more, please review the below additional resources on the Reservist Program.