National park jobs

Two different employers run the jobs in a national park, they pay differently, they house you differently, and their application windows are months apart. Almost every guide to this subject misses that distinction — and it is the one that decides whether you get hired.

Who actually employs you

A job "in a national park" is almost always one of two things, and they behave nothing alike.

• The National Park Service — a federal employer. Park rangers, interpreters, fee collection, trail crew, fire. Federal pay scales, federal hiring, and applications through USAJOBS only.
• A concessionaire — a private company holding the contract to run the lodges, restaurants, shops and tours inside the park. Xanterra, Delaware North and Aramark run most of them. Far more jobs than the Park Service offers, much faster hiring, and housing that is usually cheaper than anything you would find outside the gates.

If you want to be a ranger, you need the first. If you want to spend a season living in a national park and be paid for it, the second hires many more people and hires them sooner.

What park housing actually costs

This is the number that decides whether a seasonal wage is worth taking, and it is the number almost nobody publishes. These come from the employers' own material.

Read those meal columns carefully, because they are worth more than the rent difference. A Yellowstone dorm place at $17 a day with every meal included is roughly $510 a month for housing and food together. The Grand Canyon at $50–75 a week is cheaper rent and no meals, so you are buying and cooking your own — a real cost in a place where the nearest full supermarket can be an hour away.

Housing is also not offered on every role. Xanterra states outright that some Glacier positions — carpenter, commercial laundry, warehouse driver — may not include it. Confirm before you accept.

When to apply — the windows that close early

The single most common mistake is applying in spring for summer work. For the federal roles, spring is months too late.

• National Park Service, summer season: apply October to February. Work generally runs March to September.
• National Park Service, winter season: apply July to August.
• Federal wildland fire: BLM and NPS temporary postings typically open on USAJOBS 1–21 October; most Forest Service postings 15–29 October, some extended into mid-November.
• Concessionaires: much longer windows. Xanterra states a Yellowstone recruiting period of 1 March – 30 November, and a Glacier season of 13 April – 10 October.

One federal detail worth knowing: some USAJOBS announcements close at the first 75 applicants, whichever comes first. A posting can be open for a fortnight on paper and shut in two days in practice. Applying late is applying for nothing.

How many jobs there actually are

For 2026 the Park Service plans 5,000+ seasonal hires, including up to 1,560 nine-month positions — the first year it has used the nine-month seasonal authority, which runs through January 2027. Most of the remainder are six-month appointments.

The concessionaires hire on a similar scale in a single park: Xanterra takes on roughly 3,500 people for a Yellowstone summer and about 400 for the winter season.

What it pays

Park Service seasonal roles sit on the federal General Schedule, usually GS-3 to GS-7 depending on the position and your experience. Wildland fire is the exception: it moved to a special base rate in 2025 that pays materially more than the ordinary GS scale at the same grade — the detail is on our wildland firefighter page.

Concessionaire pay is set by the company, not the government, and varies by park and role. Treat the housing and meals as part of the package rather than a deduction: a job paying less per hour with $17-a-day housing and three meals can leave you with more at the end of a season than one paying more with rent to find.

Do not use the BLS "Firefighters" median for federal wildland fire. That occupation is overwhelmingly municipal structural firefighting and describes a different job on a different pay system.

Where to look

• USAJOBS — the only route into Park Service roles. Filter Work Type to Temporary. Nothing else lists them.
• The concessionaires directly — Xanterra, Delaware North and Aramark each run their own careers site and hire from it.
• Seasonal job boards — CoolWorks in particular carries most of the concessionaire postings in one place, with the housing terms attached.

Never pay a fee to be placed in a national park job. Every employer named here recruits directly and free.

Sources

• Xanterra Travel Collection — Yellowstone National Park Lodges and Glacier National Park Lodges, published employee housing rates and recruiting periods.
• Delaware North at the Grand Canyon — published employee housing rates.
• National Park Service — 2026 seasonal hiring plans and application windows.
• U.S. Office of Personnel Management — General Schedule pay tables.

Common questions