Park Superintendent (PCN 10-5058)

Job Description

The Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation, is recruiting for a Park Superintendent in Juneau.

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 manages the operations of Alaska State Park units across the Southeast Region, including major communities such as Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Haines. The incumbent supervises field staff, seasonal employees, and volunteers while directing maintenance, enforcement, and resource management activities to ensure safe facilities and protection of natural and cultural resources. The position oversees regional budgets, contracts, and revenue programs, ensuring park operations are conducted efficiently and within authorized funding levels. The superintendent works closely with local communities, partner agencies, and stakeholders to address land management issues, permits, and park development projects. The position also implements park management plans and policies while resolving complex operational, environmental, and public use challenges across the region.

Mission and Values/Culture: The Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) manages Alaska’s natural resources for the maximum benefit of the people of Alaska, ensuring responsible stewardship for current and future generations. Within DNR, the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation (DPOR) protects and manages Alaska’s state parks while providing high-quality outdoor recreation opportunities and preserving natural, cultural, and historic resources. The Field Operations section carries out this mission by maintaining park facilities, protecting park resources, ensuring visitor safety, and delivering consistent services across Alaska’s diverse and often remote park units. Our culture emphasizes public service, stewardship of public lands, teamwork, professionalism, and accountability in the management of Alaska’s state park system. Staff work collaboratively with communities, partner agencies, and stakeholders to ensure parks remain accessible, well-managed, and sustainable for all Alaskans and visitors.

Benefits of Joining Our Team: Working in Alaska State Parks Field Operations provides the opportunity to contribute directly to the stewardship and management of some of Alaska’s most iconic public lands. Employees play a meaningful role in protecting natural and cultural resources while ensuring safe, high-quality outdoor recreation opportunities for residents and visitors. Team members gain valuable experience in public land management, leadership, and collaboration with local communities, partner agencies, and stakeholders across the state. The position offers opportunities for professional growth, training, and career advancement within the Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation and the Department of Natural Resources. Employees also benefit from the rewards of public service, working with a dedicated team committed to protecting Alaska’s parks and maintaining access to outdoor recreation for future generations.

The Working Environment You Can Expect: This position is based in Juneau, Alaska, a coastal capital city known for its access to world-class outdoor recreation, vibrant community, and proximity to many Southeast Alaska State Park units. The work environment includes a combination of office-based planning and administrative duties with regular travel throughout the Southeast Region, including communities such as Sitka, Haines, and Ketchikan. The position requires periodic field visits by vehicle, boat, or small aircraft to inspect park facilities, meet with staff and partners, and oversee operations in remote park locations.

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

• Self-Management: Sets well-defined and realistic personal goals; displays a high level of initiative, effort, and commitment towards completing assignments in a timely manner; works with minimal supervision; is motivated to achieve; demonstrates responsible behavior.
• Supervision: Plans, distributes, and monitors work assignments; sets task priorities; evaluates work performance and provides feedback to others on their performance; ensures that staff are appropriately selected, utilized, and developed, and that they are treated in a fair and equitable manner. Assignments include the authority and responsibility to recommend or independently take action to employ (i.e., appoint, transfer, promote), discipline or discharge, or adjudicate grievances of direct reports.
• Public Planning: Knowledge of functions, principles, methods, and techniques of public planning, including those related to community planning, outdoor recreation planning, and natural resource management, such as demand forecasting, environmental impact analysis, financial forecasting, and land use planning and zoning.

Click here to learn more about working for the Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation.

Minimum Qualifications

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 Possess a valid driver’s license. AND Any combination of education and/or experience that provides the applicant with competencies in:

• Administration and Management: Knowledge of planning, coordination, and execution of business functions, resource allocation, and production.
• Human Capital Management: Builds and manages workforce based on organizational goals, budget considerations, and staffing needs. Ensures that employees are appropriately recruited, selected, appraised, and rewarded; takes action to address performance problems. Manages a multi-sector workforce and a variety of work situations.
• Parks and Recreation Management: Knowledge of the principles, practices, and theories of parks and recreation management related to preserving, enhancing, maintaining, and protecting natural, historical, and cultural resources within park lands while considering the safety and welfare of park visitors.
• Partnering: Develops networks and builds alliances; collaborates across boundaries to build strategic relationships and achieve common goals.
• Planning and Evaluating: Organizes work, sets priorities, and determines resource requirements; determines short- or long-term goals and strategies to achieve them; coordinates with other organizations or parts of the organization to accomplish goals; monitors progress and evaluates outcomes.

Equivalent to those typically gained by: Any combination of progressively responsible professional experience managing a region and/or unit’s budget, administering programs, and/or prioritizing and allocating funds; progressively responsible professional experience in government policy and/or planning; experience supervising staff with varied responsibilities and priorities; and/or post-secondary education in a natural or physical science, outdoor studies, management, and/or business administration.

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

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

“Progressively responsible” means indicating growth and/or advancement in complexity, difficulty, or level of responsibility.

“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.

Special Note: Travel to remote locations by small plane or boat may be required. Positions may have access to arms and ammunition; in those cases, applicants will be subject to criminal background check that includes fingerprinting.

Additional Required Information

** Please read the information below carefully. **

At the time of the interview, please ensure that you provide the following materials. Failure to do so may result in loss of consideration. Required documents include:

• Valid driver’s license.
• Three professional references.

SPECIAL NOTICES

• Requires frequent travel within the Region.
• Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Awareness Clearance training shall be required within six months of initial assignment, and biennially thereafter. Park Superintendents will have access to firearms and must be able to discuss CJIS information with law enforcement staff in the region. Park superintendents need to review and/or be aware of cases of natural resource infractions, commercial use suspensions, or facility damage. They are therefore required to pass all mandatory background checks, including, but not limited to, providing fingerprints for an FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) security clearance background check and a criminal history background check.

Application Notice You can ONLY apply for this position through the Workplace Alaska website or by submitting a paper application. Instructions for applying are available on the Workplace Alaska How to Apply webpage. Your application must be received by 5:00 p.m. Alaska Standard Time on the closing date.

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. It is your responsibility to 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 are met. If they are not, the applicant may not advance to the recruitment interview and selection phase.

Note: Attaching a resume does not substitute for completing the application in full. Noting, "see resume" or any similar response on any portion of your application may lead to a determination that your application is incomplete and removal from consideration for this job posting.

Bargaining Unit If you are a current state employee, please indicate the union to which you belong at the time of application. Do not complete this question if you are not a current state employee.

Driver’s License Requirement Applicants must possess a valid driver's license. Proof of licensure will be required prior to reporting to duty.

Firearms This position requires the use or possession of a firearm or ammunition. In accordance with the federal Omnibus Consolidated Appropriations Act of 1997 (PL 104-208), if you have been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, you may not hold this position.

A "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" is an offense that is (1) a misdemeanor under Federal or state law and (2) has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed by a current or former spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim as a spouse, parent, or guardian, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim.

If you have ever been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, do NOT apply for this position.

Please ensure your application (through work history, training, education, licenses, certifications, etc.) supports/demonstrates that you possess the minimum required competencies for the job class.

EEO STATEMENT The State of Alaska complies with Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Individuals with disabilities who require accommodation, auxiliary aids or services, or alternative communication formats should call 1-800-587-0430 or (907) 465-4095 in Juneau or TTY: Alaska Relay 711 or 1-800-770-8973 or correspond with the Division of Personnel & Labor Relations at P.O. Box 110201, Juneau, AK 99811-0201. The State of Alaska is an equal opportunity employer.

Contact Information

If you choose to be contacted by email, please ensure that your email address is correct on your application and that your spam filter will permit emails from the governmentjobs.com domain.

Workplace Alaska Application Questions & Assistance Questions regarding application submission or system operation errors should be directed to the Workplace Alaska hotline at 1-800-587-0430 (toll-free) or (907) 465-4095 if you are in the Juneau area. Requests for information may also be emailed to [email protected].

For assistance with your password, please visit the password reset page.

For specific information about this position, please get in touch with the hiring manager at the following:

Matthew Wedeking Division Operations Manager Phone: 907-269-8702 Email: [email protected]