Fire Behaviour Specialist

**Job Information**

Job Requisition ID: 74496
Ministry: Forestry and Parks
Location: Edmonton
Full or Part-Time: Full Time
Hours of Work: 36.25 hours per week
Permanent/Temporary: Permanent
Scope: Open Competition
Closing Date: September 25, 2025
Pay Grade: Natural Resource 8

**Salary**: $2,896.94 to $3,741.60 biweekly ($75,610 to $97,655/year)

**Role Responsibilities**:
Reporting to the Fire Behaviour Program Lead, the Fire Behaviour Specialist will provide expert advice, technical guidance, and technology transfer to division staff in support of prevention, pre-suppression, and suppression activities. A comprehensive understanding of wildland fire behaviour principles is essential, as nearly all actions taken during a wildfire depend on how the fire behaves. Fire behaviour forms the foundation for models and knowledge used in prediction, planning, and training, and understanding it is critical for safe and effective firefighting operations.

Key responsibilities include:

- Provide specialized products and services to branch-level decision-makers, incorporating sound fire behaviour principles to support planning, decision documents, and strategic direction.
- Facilitate knowledge and technology transfer to division staff.
- Audit, analyze, and report on the sustainability, efficiency, and effectiveness of decision support systems and tools.
- Oversee the development of Alberta’s FBP (Fire Behaviour Prediction) Fuel Type layer, which is used for fire behaviour forecasting and modelling at multiple scales and in different contexts.
- Participate in the Fire Behaviour Service Centre (FBSC) Coordinator roster, providing detailed information on current and forecast fire danger, fire behaviour, and significant fire activity to fire managers and Incident Management Teams, supporting strategic and tactical decision-making.
- Participate in incident management roles on wildfire and prescribed fire as required.

Please

**APS Competencies**:
Competencies are behaviors that are essential to reach our goals in serving Albertans. We encourage you to have an in depth understanding of the competencies that are required for this opportunity and to be prepared to demonstrate them during the recruitment process.

This link will assist you with understanding competencies:

- **Systems Thinking**: Considers emerging trends when contributing ideas to the development of broader priorities, strategies and approaches, and considers inter-relationships among different aspects of an approach including how they relate to other programs.
- **Creative Problem Solving**: Finds ways to improve complex systems to better meet goals and outcomes, and continuously engages others to scope and solve issues.
- **Drive for Results**: Identifies and acts on opportunities to partner with other groups to achieve desired outcomes, and identifies ways to exceed performance expectations.
- **Develop Networks**: Considers how changes might impact colleagues, clients and stakeholders, and actively seeks their input and/or involvement regarding those changes, and maintains relationships even when no specific project/initiative is underway.

**Qualifications**:
Minimum Requirement
- A degree in a related field (e.g., natural resource conservation, ecosystem management, or natural/environmental sciences such as biology, ecology, forestry, soil science, geology, or geography) plus four years of related experience, including recent and significant experience in wildland fire planning and management.

Equivalency:

- A related two-year diploma plus six years of related experience.
- Additional related education may be considered in lieu of experience based on one year of education for one year of experience or vice versa.

Additional Requirements:

- Strong verbal and written communication skills to convey technical and scientific information.
- Strong organizational skills to maintain efficiency in a fast-paced work environment.
- Ability to manage rapidly changing workload priorities.
- Ability to lead and work effectively within interdisciplinary teams.
- Certifications:

- Certified Fire Behaviour Analyst (FBAN).
- Class 5 Driver's License.
- Defensive Driving
- WHMIS and TDG (Air and Ground)
- Standard First Aid

Assets:

- Certified Fire Behaviour Analyst on Type 1 Incident Management Team.
- Spatial fire growth modeling, including competence in Prometheus.
- In-depth knowledge of Fire Weather Index (FWI) and Fire Behaviour Prediction (FBP) subsystems of the Canadian Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS).
- Working knowledge of AWARE, PPS, and FIRES.
- Wildland Fire Behaviour Specialist training.
- I-300 Intermediate Incident Command System training.

**Notes**:
This position is a permanent, full-time role with the standard weekly work hours of 36.25, Monday to Friday. The incumbent may be requested to work overtime, evening and weekends due to the emergency nature of wildfires.

Travel within the area and throughout the province will be requir