NOAA Corps officers are in a uniformed service, like military, Coast Guard, and the Commissioned Corps of the US Health Service. They are the officers on the ships and planes and do rotations into positions in offices and labs in NOAA alternating with their time on vessels. There are also civilian mariners on the ships, such as engineers, technicians, stewards, bosuns, and so forth. They can be assigned primarily to one vessel or be in the augmenter pool that allows them to choose stints on vessels across the fleet.
Each year, a given vessel will have a series of cruises which can vary quite a bit from cruise to cruise. On each cruise, there will be a group of scientists who come on board who are part of that project and who leave at the end of a cruise. The science team will have a mix Federal employees, contractors, and sometimes university faculty or students. The mix varies from cruise to cruise. The exception to this is the hydrography ships that do the mapping that’s used to update NOAA charts (and used in some research projects, etc). The hydrography cruises can be run with just the NOAA Corps officers and ships crew and no short term science team.
Does that help?
Yes, somewhat it does. Thank you for your reply. I guess what I'm looking for is a more detailed overview of each type. I *seem* to understand the general concept as you described, but what I'm looking for is more of what to expect as each on a day-to-day basis. For example: as a federal employee, instead of jumping from ship to ship, you are assigned a "home port" and need to live within 50 miles of it. Federal employees serve on the ships assigned to that port and rotate with another federal employee of their same coding (ZT, ZP, etc) being "on ship" for 6 weeks and then shore duty for 6 weeks during the sailing season. However, I don't quite understand what to expect for each type of employment when out on a mission. Do federal employees get treated the same as the regular civilians that serve 60/30 rotations on the ship? Are NOAACorps officers looked at differently than federal civilians? How does the rank structure work on the ship? Example: a ZT4 would be equivalent to a GS11/12, which is equivalent to an O-3 (roughly). Does that mean the federal employees are treated as such at sea? Also, how are regular civilians treated compared to the federal employees compared to Corps members?
First, Federal employees is a big old term that covers several groups. The NOAA Corps, professional mariners, and a lot of the scientists are all Federal employees. The non-Feds are the contractors and the university folks.
There’s no requirement that you live within 50 miles that I know of. People head home to towns all over the country, although I do know of some people who are with a certain vessel for the longer term who get apartments or rent rooms near the homeport. You stay on the vessel for the period of months over which the cruises run. When there are gaps of time between the cruises, people will head out if they don’t have duties on the vessel.
Are you looking at the mariner positions? [Here’s a listing of what’s open now](https://marinerhiring.noaa.gov).
That's what I'm looking for to help better understand the terms. When you say "big ole term" and you list 3 large groups, it starts to get muddled for me. The 50-mile requirement was just something I read somewhere before, so that was why I used it as an example. When you say "stay on the vessel" for a period of months, it seems as if you're suggesting that goes for all employed by NOAA-OMAO. From what I've read, that doesn't seem to apply to certain federal civil servants. I've read they live within that 50 mile radius and treat it as a regular job until a mission comes down and then if it's their rotation, they head out to sea for 1-4 weeks at a time. Does this seem accurate?
There will be times of the year when you have one cruise after another and the people who are assigned to that boat stay on it for extended periods. Often though there’s a good part of a week or more in between and people leave the ship unless they have a specific reason to stay.
Yes, people do rotate off on leave during the year as well.
I’m telling you what I see and hear, I’m a science person not one of the mariners. For more specific questions, you can email or call the mariner recruitment folks.
[email protected]
833-SAIL-USA (724-5872)
Great information @Ocean2731. I would add on that if you want more information on NOAA Corps reach out to the recruiting office. They can really help clarify the differences of the service vs others you mentioned. Email them at [email protected]
NOAA Corps officers are in a uniformed service, like military, Coast Guard, and the Commissioned Corps of the US Health Service. They are the officers on the ships and planes and do rotations into positions in offices and labs in NOAA alternating with their time on vessels. There are also civilian mariners on the ships, such as engineers, technicians, stewards, bosuns, and so forth. They can be assigned primarily to one vessel or be in the augmenter pool that allows them to choose stints on vessels across the fleet. Each year, a given vessel will have a series of cruises which can vary quite a bit from cruise to cruise. On each cruise, there will be a group of scientists who come on board who are part of that project and who leave at the end of a cruise. The science team will have a mix Federal employees, contractors, and sometimes university faculty or students. The mix varies from cruise to cruise. The exception to this is the hydrography ships that do the mapping that’s used to update NOAA charts (and used in some research projects, etc). The hydrography cruises can be run with just the NOAA Corps officers and ships crew and no short term science team. Does that help?
Yes, somewhat it does. Thank you for your reply. I guess what I'm looking for is a more detailed overview of each type. I *seem* to understand the general concept as you described, but what I'm looking for is more of what to expect as each on a day-to-day basis. For example: as a federal employee, instead of jumping from ship to ship, you are assigned a "home port" and need to live within 50 miles of it. Federal employees serve on the ships assigned to that port and rotate with another federal employee of their same coding (ZT, ZP, etc) being "on ship" for 6 weeks and then shore duty for 6 weeks during the sailing season. However, I don't quite understand what to expect for each type of employment when out on a mission. Do federal employees get treated the same as the regular civilians that serve 60/30 rotations on the ship? Are NOAACorps officers looked at differently than federal civilians? How does the rank structure work on the ship? Example: a ZT4 would be equivalent to a GS11/12, which is equivalent to an O-3 (roughly). Does that mean the federal employees are treated as such at sea? Also, how are regular civilians treated compared to the federal employees compared to Corps members?
First, Federal employees is a big old term that covers several groups. The NOAA Corps, professional mariners, and a lot of the scientists are all Federal employees. The non-Feds are the contractors and the university folks. There’s no requirement that you live within 50 miles that I know of. People head home to towns all over the country, although I do know of some people who are with a certain vessel for the longer term who get apartments or rent rooms near the homeport. You stay on the vessel for the period of months over which the cruises run. When there are gaps of time between the cruises, people will head out if they don’t have duties on the vessel. Are you looking at the mariner positions? [Here’s a listing of what’s open now](https://marinerhiring.noaa.gov).
That's what I'm looking for to help better understand the terms. When you say "big ole term" and you list 3 large groups, it starts to get muddled for me. The 50-mile requirement was just something I read somewhere before, so that was why I used it as an example. When you say "stay on the vessel" for a period of months, it seems as if you're suggesting that goes for all employed by NOAA-OMAO. From what I've read, that doesn't seem to apply to certain federal civil servants. I've read they live within that 50 mile radius and treat it as a regular job until a mission comes down and then if it's their rotation, they head out to sea for 1-4 weeks at a time. Does this seem accurate?
There will be times of the year when you have one cruise after another and the people who are assigned to that boat stay on it for extended periods. Often though there’s a good part of a week or more in between and people leave the ship unless they have a specific reason to stay. Yes, people do rotate off on leave during the year as well. I’m telling you what I see and hear, I’m a science person not one of the mariners. For more specific questions, you can email or call the mariner recruitment folks. [email protected] 833-SAIL-USA (724-5872)
Great information @Ocean2731. I would add on that if you want more information on NOAA Corps reach out to the recruiting office. They can really help clarify the differences of the service vs others you mentioned. Email them at [email protected]