Supervisory Horticulturalist (Associate Director, Horticulture & Operations)

The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex, with 21 museums and the National Zoo.  This position is located in Smithsonian Gardens (SG), Facilities Management (FM), within the Smithsonian Institution (SI). Smithsonian Gardens is a Smithsonian recognized Collections Unit that manages collections of garden artifacts, living plants, and the Archives of American Gardens.

Qualifications:

(You must submit unofficial school transcripts)

1. Degree: horticulture; or a related discipline of basic plant science that included at least 30 semester hours in the basic plant sciences, of which at least 16 semester hours were in horticultural subjects such as those dealing with the breeding, care, management, production, and post-harvest handling of horticultural crops.

OR

2. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in horticulture or a related discipline of basic plant science that included course work as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Evaluation of Education: Courses in botany, plant physiology, plant taxonomy, plant pathology, genetics, agronomy, horticulture, and similar courses may be used to meet the 30-semester-hour requirement in basic plant sciences.

The 16-semester-hour requirement in horticulture includes course work in basic horticulture and course work related to any of the recognized subject-matter fields of horticulture, i.e., fruits, vegetables, ornamentals, nursery work, seed production, or course work in related areas of science, such as micro-biology, entomology, plant pathology, plant physiology, or genetics that is directly related to horticultural work.

In addition to the basic qualification requirement above:

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-14 level in the Federal Service.  For this position specialized experience is defined as leading a horticulture and operations team for a public garden, campus, municipality, or museum with public visitation; developing policies, plans and budgets for horticulture management; and implementing an emergency management plan for a museum, campus, municipality, or public garden.

Your resume must be no more than two (2) pages and should clearly demonstrate how your experience aligns with the responsibilities and specialized experience required for this position. Do not copy language directly from the vacancy announcement, as you will be deemed ineligible for consideration. Instead, provide detailed, descriptive information about your actual 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.

Part-time and/or unpaid experience related to this position will be considered to determine the total number of years and months of experience. Be sure to note the number of paid or unpaid hours worked each week.

Responsibilities:

The Supervisory Horticulturalist (Associate Director, Horticulture & Operations) is the senior technical authority on matters relating to the Smithsonian Gardens’ horticulture, visitor operations and emergency management. This position leads the H&O department, reporting to the Director.

In this position, you will:

• Promote stewardship of living plant collections and public gardens. 
• Develop performance goals and evaluates work performance of subordinates against them. 
• Manage intense urban pressures and heavy visitation, with over 24 million visits per year to gardens on the National Mall. 
• Develop and execute rapid-response protocols for extreme weather events, large-scale public demonstrations and security incidents that impact the Smithsonian Institution’s outdoor footprint.

Salary : $169,279