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Upper Coastal Bend
Job Announcement
UCB-08-01
Field TechnicianLocation: All district office locations listed below
Opens: January 16, 2008
Closes: end of 2008 eradication seasonHOW TO APPLY
All candidates must complete an official TBWEF application and return it to the office listed above. If you worked for the Foundation previously it is necessary to complete a current application. See more information below.
Job Title
Field TechnicianService Location
Field OfficeFLSA Class
Non-exemptJob Status
Temporary/SeasonalReports To
Field Unit Supervisor/Field Unit ManagerJob Type
Neither Supervisory or ManagementJob Summary
Drives a Foundation vehicle, with or without a loaded trailer, to and from the assigned airport, cotton field or roads surrounding a cotton field to perform the assigned tasks. Deploys and removes boll weevil traps in and around cotton fields. Monitors and collects information from those traps to identify the location and density of boll weevil populations. Maintains accurate chemical records and flight records of aerial applications. Observes whether the proper cotton fields are sprayed in an effective and efficient manner. Operates ground equipment, a high-clearance sprayer or a mist blower, to ground spray assigned cotton fields. Performs duties with daily supervision and a high level of quality control checks.
Essential Duties
Driving
- Follows safe-driving practices.
- Drives a Foundation vehicle from the office to the assigned worksite and back again in a safe manner.
- Reads, understands and follows maps of cotton fields and surrounding areas.
- Maintains complete vehicle mileage and gas records.
- Performs daily maintenance checks on assigned vehicle to ensure mechanical reliability and reports damage and mechanical problems to supervisor immediately.
Trapping
- Follows safety procedures for handling insecticide strips and driving stakes.
- Assembles, deploys, services, cleans and removes boll weevil traps, stakes and trap parts in assigned cotton fields.
- Positions, services and inspects traps to capture boll weevils and monitor their populations in and around cotton fields.
- Records trap and boll weevil information in scanner and on traps.
- Communicates with cotton producers/growers to ensure trap placement and monitoring activities are conducted without property damage or interference with grower’s equipment or operations.
- Monitors and reports cotton-crop stages and crop-destruction status.
Airport Recording
- Completes daily flight records and airport logs.
- Maintains accurate chemical inventory by recording pesticide quantities loaded, applied, unloaded and available in containment area. DOES NOT physically assist in handling or loading of fuel or pesticide into the aircraft.
- Communicates with other Foundation employees about airport weather conditions and aerial-spray progress during aerial applications.
- Checks aircraft spray systems for leaks to ensure systems are in compliance with contract specifications.
Ground Observing
- Drives to cotton fields designated for treatment to observe the spray application.
- Records weather conditions at the designated cotton-field location and flight times of the aerial applicator.
- Maintains radio contact with pilot, supervisor and airport personnel.
Selected Field Technicians who receive additional training may have their essential job duties expanded to include the following ground-equipment operator duties. For these duties, previous experience operating a high-clearance sprayer or mist blower is preferred.
Operating Ground Equipment
- Loads and unloads ground equipment into a trailer for transportation to and from assigned cotton fields.
- Drives truck with an attached trailer, loaded with ground equipment, to and from assigned cotton fields.
- Safely drives and handles a truck and loaded trailer, including the ability to safety and effectively back a trailer.
- Physically assists in handling or loading of pesticide into ground equipment.
- Operates a high-clearance sprayer or a mist blower to apply insecticide to assigned cotton fields, following proper application and safety procedures.
- Maintains complete chemical usage and field treatment logs, recording the amount of chemical used and the fields sprayed.
- Immediately informs supervisor when weather or other conditions are unfavorable for proper ground-spray application. May suspend spray applications with supervisor approval.
- Performs maintenance on ground equipment to ensure it is calibrated and functioning properly at all times and providing good chemical deposition on the cotton field.
- Cleans ground equipment daily after spray applications.
Other Duties
- May clean office and surrounding area, as assigned.
- May load wooden stakes and traps from storage building to vehicles as needed for trap deployment, as assigned.
- May perform Assistant Field Unit Supervisor’s duties occasionally, as assigned.
- May perform mechanic duties occasionally, as assigned.
- May place dye cards in and around cotton fields to record chemical dispersal during aerial application.
- May perform clerical or secretarial duties.
Essential Job Requirements
Education/Experience Requirements
Prefer a high-school education or equivalent and/or two-to-six months farm-related experience or training.
Abilities Requirements
- Drive a Foundation vehicle.
- Identify boll weevils.
- Hammer/drive wooden stakes into the ground.
- Read, write and speak English at a 9th grade level.
- Write in a legible manner.
- Learn and complete simple tasks with minimal direct supervision.
- Follow detailed but uninvolved written or oral instructions and use common sense in carrying out those instructions.
- Enter numbers into a handheld scanner.
- Add, subtract, multiply and divide two-digit numbers.
- Communicate clearly using a two-way radio.
- Communicate clearly with supervisor and co-workers.
- Hear aircraft and radio communication.
- Read and follow cotton-field and road maps.
- Perform math operations using the U.S. system of measurement, volume and distance.
- Deal with problems involving a few concrete variables in standardized situations.
Driving Requirements
- Have and maintain a valid driver’s license.
- Be insurable under the Foundation’s auto insurance guidelines.
Special Requirements
- Willing and able to work hours longer than normal office hours, which may include evenings, weekends and holidays, as requested by supervisor.
- Regular attendance is an essential requirement for this position.
- Willing and able to provide blood samples as needed for ongoing cholinesterase monitoring program.
Physical Requirements
- Must be physically and mentally able to travel to and work in isolated, remote cotton fields. Work involves:
- Performing all essential duties and job responsibilities of this position in a safe and effective manner.
- Driving daily over extremely rough roads, ruts, washouts and slippery, muddy fields.
- Daily walking, hiking, climbing, standing, balancing, kneeling, stooping, bending, stretching and reaching in extremely rugged, cotton-field terrain, including walking across ditches and furrows, up and down steep banks, over muddy ground and through loose, shifting sand.
- Working outside daily in all types of weather, including rain, extreme hot and cold temperatures and fierce, dusty winds.
- Frequent entering and exiting a Foundation vehicle throughout each day.
- Sitting and driving in a normal, seated position for extended periods of time in a vehicle.
- Hammering/driving wooden stakes into the ground.
- Using hands to manipulate equipment and plants.
- Medium work involving lifting 50 lbs. maximum with frequent lifting and/or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 lbs.
- Distance vision, depth perception and field of vision within normal parameters.
- Hearing ability within normal parameters.
Work Environment
- Hazards in the work environment may involve the following:
- Travel by vehicle to and from cotton fields and airports.
- Isolated work in remote cotton fields and county roads where noise level is normally low.
- Work at airports where the noise level is usually moderate to very noisy during aircraft takeoff and landing.
- Work with wooden stakes that may split and splinter when hammered.
- Exposure to stinging and biting insects.
- Exposure to poisonous plants, non-poisonous and poisonous snakes and other types of wildlife found in and around cotton fields and farmland, including mice, rats and other types of rodents.
- Possible exposure to pesticides used in ground equipment.
- Possible exposure to chemicals, pesticides or herbicides, associated with cotton fields and agriculture.
- Possible exposure to conditions consistent with airports, aircrafts and aerial applicators, including aircraft propellers and aircraft fuel.
AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER
Drug-Free Workplace
Pre-employment drug testing required for all applicantsDownload an application form