This announcement is issued under the Direct Hire Authority (DHA) to recruit for positions for which there is a critical hiring need. Selectee(s) will receive a career or career-conditional appointment in the competitive service and may be required to serve a one year probationary period. First time hires to the Federal government salaries are normally set at the beginning of the salary range listed above.

Duties

In this position, you will serve as a/an Contract Specialist in the Management Bureau, Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA). In this position, you will: -Be responsible for all pre-award and post-award functions involving highly complex negotiated procurements of significant importance to the Agency. Requirements of the contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, inter-agency agreements are typically highly specialized and involve complex systems or sensitive international programs. -Conduct reviews of highly specialized contracts and contracting plans and monitor all acquisition strategy and documents and instruments for a variety of highly specialized, complex, and unique contracts for a variety of programs that involve a broad spectrum of systems. -Monitor and ensure contractor's performance complies within contract, regulatory, and statutory provisions through telephone conversations, correspondence, reports, vouchers, and visits. -Perform procurement planning activities in assigned organizations, which may include reviewing and clearing project papers and representing M/OAA at program planning meetings.

Requirements

Qualifications

In order to qualify for this position at the GS-13 level, you must meet both the Basic Requirement and Specialized Experience requirements below: Basic Requirement: A. Completion of all mandatory training prescribed by the head of the agency for progression to GS-13 or higher level contracting positions, including at least 4-years experience in contracting or related positions. At least 1 year of that experience must have been specialized experience at or equivalent to work at the next lower level of the position, and must have provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the work of the position; AND A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours in any combination of the following fields: accounting, business, finance, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management. (Must include a copy of transcripts with application) -OR- B. Exception: Employees in GS-1102 positions will be considered to have met the standard for positions they occupy as of January 1, 2000. This also applies to positions at the same grade in the same agency or other agencies if the specialized experience requirements are met. However, they will have to meet the basic requirements and specialized experience requirements in order to qualify for promotion to a higher grade, unless granted a waiver under Paragraph C. (Please Note: Unless you have held a GS-1102 position prior to January 1, 2000, this exception only allows you to apply for positions at your current grade level. In order to be promoted to a higher grade level, you must meet the Basic requirement above. You must provide an appropriate SF-50 to verify your grade level if you are a federal employee and applying for this exception). -OR- C. Waiver: When filling a specific vacant position, the senior procurement executive of the selecting agency, at his or her discretion, may waive any or all of the requirements of Paragraph A above if the senior procurement executive certifies that the applicant possesses significant potential for advancement to levels of greater responsibility and authority, based on demonstrated analytical and decision making capabilities, job performance, and qualifying experience. With respect to each waiver granted under this Paragraph C, the senior procurement executive must document for the record the basis of the waiver. If an individual is placed in a position in an agency on the basis of a waiver, the agency may later reassign that individual to another position at the same grade within that agency without additional waiver action. (Please note: If you are applying under the Exception or Waiver, you must indicate that by making the appropriate selection on the assessment questionnaire). Specialized Experience Requirement: You must have at least one year of specialized experience at least equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal service, with experience in all of the following: 1) Conducting reviews of highly specialized contracts and contracting plans; 2) Monitoring acquisition strategy and documents and instruments for complex and unique contracts; 3) Coordinating contract administration activities for long-term, extensive technical service contracts and/or cost type contracts; and 4) Developing and implementing new procurement plans, schedules, or methods to accommodate changing program requirements. In order to qualify for this position, your resume must provide sufficient experience and/or education, knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the specific position for which you are being considered. Your resume is the key means we have for evaluating your skills, knowledge, and abilities as they relate to this position. Therefore, we encourage you to be clear and specific when describing your experience. Your resume must demonstrate at least one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to the advertised grade level or pay band in the Federal service or equivalent experience in the private or public sector. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer and part time experience. You must clearly identify the duties and responsibilities in each position held and the dates worked and total number of hours per week. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment.

Education

ARE YOU USING YOUR EDUCATION TO QUALIFY? You MUST provide transcripts or other documentation to support your educational claims. Unless otherwise stated: (1) unofficial transcripts are acceptable, or (2) you may submit a list with all of your courses, grades, semester, year, and credit for the course. All materials must be submitted by the closing date of the announcement.

GRADUATE EDUCATION: One academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credits hours that your graduate school has determined to represent one academic year of full-time study. Such study may have been performed on a full-time or part-time basis. If you cannot obtain your graduate school's definition of one year of graduate study, 18 semester hours (or 27 quarter hours) should be considered as satisfying the requirement for one year of full-time graduate study.

FOREIGN EDUCATION: If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet the qualification requirements, you must show that the education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.htm

Contacts

• Address US Agency for International Development 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20523 US
• Name: Philadelphia Services Branch
• Email: [email protected]