This position is located in the Small Business Administration, Performance Planning and CFO in the Acquisitions Operations Division with a duty station in either Denver, CO or Washington, DC. This Contract Specialist is responsible for cradle-to-grave contracting for a variety of supply, service, and minor construction efforts primarily for acquisitions above and below the simplified purchase threshold.

Duties

As a Contract Specialist, some of your duties will include: Serves as advisor to program officials in procurement planning meetings. Advises program officials of the procurement objectives to be used and assists in the preparation of statements of work or performance work statements. Conducts preproposal conferences with prospective contractors to arrive at a clear understanding of what is required under the proposed contract. Issues necessary solicitation amendments to clarify questions concerning such topics as specification changes, language ambiguities, or clarification of contract clauses. Prepares determinations and findings and solicitation documents. Performs detailed analyses of all elements of price and cost (costs if applicable) in contractor proposals and makes competitive range determinations if using FAR 15 and the Government announced the right to award with discussions. Serves as lead negotiator in commercial acquisitions and non-commercial acquisitions. Plans the negotiation strategy, coordinates strategy with negotiation team, and leads the negotiation. Negotiating teams may include engineers, auditors, attorneys, and scientists in the negotiation and settlement actions involving significant Government and contractor program obligations. This includes negotiating any bilateral changes in the post-award environment. Serves as senior contract specialist responsible for pre-award and post award functions involving highly specialized procurements of significant importance to the agency. Develops procurement objectives for the program in terms of competition and price range, and constructs the contractual vehicle including use of pricing arrangements, subcontracting policy, set-aside policies, and similar considerations. Prepares and maintains current acquisition plans, appropriate milestone charts, and related schedules. Salary by location: This announcement reflects the GS base salary. The actual salary will be based on the selectee's location, grade, and step. Salary Range-Denver, CO: $114,970 - $149,465 Salary Range-Washington, DC: $117,962 - $153,354

Requirements

• You must be a U.S. Citizen
• You must successfully complete a background investigation.
• You may be required to serve a one-year probationary period.

Qualifications

BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR GS-13 and ABOVE: A. Applicants must have 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 GS-12 grade level in the Federal service, obtained in either the private or public, as defined under Specialized Experience below. AND B. 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. C.Exceptions: Applicants holding a GS-1102 position in federal service will be considered to have met the standard for positions they occupied on 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 D. D. 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 Paragraphs A and B 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 D, 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. In order to be rated as qualified, you must provide copies of your college transcripts. Failure to provide copies of your college transcripts may result in a rating of "Ineligible". AND SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: Applicants must possess one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent in difficulty and responsibility to the next lower grade level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular competencies/knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. This experience need not have been in the federal government. Applicants must have one year (52 weeks) of specialized experience at the GS-12 grade level or equivalent pay band. This experience includes all the following: 1. Performing operational contracting in both supply and services purchasing and contracting as a contract specialist/administrator; and 2. Developing acquisition packages that include assisting program offices with developing scopes of work, source selection plans, and crafting technical evaluation factors; and 3. Conducting research related to acquisitions; and 4. Presenting findings on contracting approaches and methodologies used in federal acquisition regulations. These qualifications must be clearly referenced in your resume. AND Selective Placement Factor: This position requires a special qualification that has been determined to be essential to perform the duties and will be used as a screen out element. Those who do not provide evidence they possess the following selective factor(s) will be rated not qualified. NOTE: As of February 1, 2023, the FAC-C certification program has transitioned to a single-level FAC-C (Professional) requirement: A. You must possess a FAC-C(Pro) / DAWIA Professional certification OR industry equivalent such as the NCMA Certified Professional Contract Manager or a combination of experience and education that evidence comparable skills to FAC-C(Pro). ). You can find additional information regarding the certification requirements https://www.fai.gov/certification/fac-c/new-fac-c-professional. OR B. If you do not currently have the FAC-C (Pro) you will be required to obtain certification within 24 months of entrance upon duty. You will be required to sign a training agreement and a statement of understanding. Additional information on the qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on OPM's Qualifications web site: Contracting Series, 1102 (opm.gov) Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g. Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (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. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. TIME-IN-GRADE: If you are a current career or career-conditional federal employee applying for promotion under Merit Promotion you must have completed a minimum of 52 weeks in positions at the next level lower than the position being filled All qualification requirements must be met by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) on 07/25/2024.

Education

Education may not be substituted for experience for this position.

APPLICANTS PLEASE NOTE: Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications (particularly positions with a positive education requirement.) Therefore, applicants must report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Verify School accreditation. All education claimed by applicants will be verified by the appointing agency accordingly. *** If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. *** For further information, click on: Foreign Education.

Contacts

• Address Performance Planning and CFO 409 3rd Street SW 6th Floor Washington, DC 20416 US
• Name: Lorraine Atencio-Curry
• Email: [email protected]