Duties

Summary

As a Contract Specialist, you will adopt commercial best practices, realize significant efficiencies, reduce operating costs, and allow agencies to redeploy resources towards mission accomplishment and aid agency downsizing efforts.

• This position is located in the Office of Acquisition Operations, GSA, Federal Acquisition Service, Office of Travel, Transportation, and Logistics, Washington, DC

We are currently filling one vacancy, but additional vacancies may be filled as needed.

Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

Additionally, these programs are ones that 1) are extremely complex, high dollar value and progressive; 2) the Government market represents a significant business investment for any participating company or subsidiary of a corporation; 3) the Administrator of GSA, officials at the Office of Management and Budget, and fiscal and procurement executives in participating agencies monitor progress due to criticality and sensitivity of the programs; and 4) the final solutions are Government-wide state-of-the-art products and services.

• Perform Pre/Post award functions involving highly specialized procurements, typically involving systems or programs such as research, development, or production of extensive, specialized equipment/systems, state-of-the-art information technology products, equipment/services impacting GSA customers, or similarly complex commodities/services integral to national defense/security.
• Perform procurement planning to identify large-scale systems, components, equipment, and services to be acquired by contract. Develop procurement objectives, interims of competition and price range, establish the contractual strategy for the overall acquisition, and construct contractual vehicles. Develop cost accounting and life-cycle acquisition plans, appropriate milestone charts, and related schedules to plan develop and administer all contractual aspects of the agency travel acquisition program. Direct the development of the source selection plan and oversee the Source Selection Board. Develop pre-negotiation positions and strategies, determine the types of contract and negotiation authority to be used and prepare any justifications.
• Prepare determinations, findings, and solicitation documents. Performs detailed analyses of all elements of cost in contractor proposals and make competitive range determinations. Conduct pre-proposal conferences with prospective contractors to arrive at a clear understanding of what is required under the proposed contract. Obtain appropriate data from business and technical officials. Function as lead contract negotiator in developing pre-negotiation strategies. Coordinate with a broad range of Federal customers, Federal finance organizations, legal, and other interested parties.
• Serve as principal advisor to program officials, representing the agency in procurement planning meetings. Provide expert technical guidance, coordination, and consultation to identify procurement objectives and methodologies, implement new developments, and provide policy interpretation to various contracting activities.
• Direct the full range of contract administration actions required for the programs. Terminate contracts for the convenience of the Government or default by the contractor. Issue necessary modifications. As needed explore new or innovative contracting approaches to arrive at an equitable contractual arrangement. Direct disposition of claims and similar matters.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - Occasional travel may be required.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
14

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Apply online (See How to Apply section.)
• U.S. Citizenship or National
• Meet time-in-grade requirements within 30 days of closing date.
• Direct Deposit of salary check to financial organization required.

If selected, you must meet the following conditions:

• Receive authorization from OPM on any job offer you receive, if you are or were (within the last 5 years) a political Schedule A, Schedule C or Non-Career SES employee in the Executive Branch.
• Undergo and pass a background investigation (Tier 5 investigation level). You must be granted this clearance before you can start the job.
• Complete a financial disclosure report to verify that no conflict, or an appearance of conflict, exists between your financial interest and this position.

Qualifications

NOTE: Qualifications are based on length and level of experience. Therefore, in addition to describing duties performed, applicants must provide the exact dates of each period of employment (from month/year to month/year) and the number of hours per week if part time. Qualification determinations cannot be made when resumes do not include the required information, so failure to provide this information may result in disqualification. For a brief video on How to Create a Federal Resume, click here .

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). AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and other national service alumni are encouraged to apply.

The GS-14 salary range starts at $121,316per year.

You must meet all qualification and eligibility requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement.
Applicants must meet the requirements set forth in 1, 2, or 3 below:

All of the following: (a) GSA's Mandatory Training Requirements which can be met by one of the following: If you have a FAC-C Level II or III, or a DAWIA level II or III certification, your training is fully qualifying for GSA's Mandatory Training requirement. If the certification is over 2 years old, 80 hours of Continuous Learning Points are required to maintain certification. A Certificate of Achievement or other applicable documentation will be required as proof of maintaining certification; (b) Have at least 4-years of experience in contracting or related positions including 1 year of specialized experience at or equivalent to work at the level as described below; and (c) Completion of 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.

Exceptions: Employees in GS-1102 positions will be considered to have met the standard for positions they occupied on January 1, 2000 or positions at the same grade in the same agency or other agencies if the specialized experience requirements are met. However, for promotions to a higher grade, they will have to meet Option 1 unless granted a waiver.

Waiver: GSA's senior procurement executive has the discretion to waive any or all of the requirements in 1 above and certify 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.

Specialized experience for the GS-14 is: one year of experience equivalent to the GS-13 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as experience utilizing contracting regulations, policies, and procedures to; perform the full range of pre-award and post-award activities on various contract types such as fixed price, fixed price economic price adjustment, various cost type contracts, requirements contracts, performance based acquisitions, and multiple award schedules; defend pre-award and/or post-award protests, contract claims, and contract disputes; work as part of an effective, integrated project team as well as work collaboratively with junior contract specialists and coworkers. Examples should detail evidence of professional potential, business acumen, strong oral/written communication, and relationship building in order to procure a variety of complex or specialized products and/or services.

Failure to provide proof of education (transcripts showing date and degree confirmed (Bachelor Degree) and the 24 semester hours of required courses) and other supplemental contracting documentation will result in an incomplete application and you will not be considered.

Education

Please see Qualifications Section.

Additional information

Bargaining Unit status: NA

Relocation-related expenses are not approved and will be your responsibility.

Management Rights Additional vacancies may be filled from this announcement as needed. This vacancy announcement does not preclude filling this position by other means. Management also has the right not to fill the position.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

If you are found qualified for the position, your responses to the self-assessment vacancy questions will be used to assign a numerical score. If your responses to the vacancy questions are not supported by your resume then your score may be adjusted lower by the Human Resources Specialist. Scores are not augmented by Veteran's preference points for this type of announcement (Merit Promotion).

You will be evaluated on the vacancy related questions that were designed to assess your overall possession of the following competencies/ knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Mastery of procurement principles and program requirements to plan, manage, and make decisions that significantly affect the development of complex, long range and interrelated programs, and to develop innovative contractual language, terms and conditions.
• Mastery of the principles of acquisition planning sufficient to develop and implement a plan to procure multi-year contracts for highly technical equipment, systems, and services.
• Mastery of negotiation techniques to conduct extensive contract negotiations, developing pre-negotiation strategies, and dealing with high-level business, industry, scientific and/or Government officials.
• Expert knowledge of and ability to interpret laws, regulations, principles and policies to generate new procurement concepts and to recommend to top management approval of procurements for the largest, newest and/or critical state of the art systems, equipment and services.
• Mastery of contracting methods and contract types.
• Mastery of procurement principles and program requirements to plan, manage, and make decisions that significantly affect the development of complex, long range and interrelated programs, and to develop innovative contractual language, terms and conditions.

A variety of assessments/assessment tools may be used to evaluate candidates for specific vacancies covered by this announcement.

Candidates will be notified when further assessments are implemented and provided with instructions on how to access and complete the assessment(s). Be sure to APPLY EARLY as most assessments must be completed fully and submitted before the announcement closing.

If you are a GSA Career Transition Assistance eligible, you must be considered well qualified (minimum score or 85) to receive priority. CTAP

To preview questions please click here .

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
High Risk (HR)

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

Please review the following to determine which documents you must submit in order to complete your application.

CTAP Eligible: Submit proof of eligibility including agency notice; SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (or similar agency form); and most recent performance rating.

GSA OIG Employees: GSA Office of Inspector General (OIG) employees submit a SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, indicating current position title, series, grade, and career tenure.

College Transcripts: Submit a photocopy of your college transcript(s) if the qualifications for this announcement have an education requirement, or if you are using education to meet all or part of the qualification requirements.

Proof of contracting certification:

(a) FAC-C or DAWIA Level II or higher certification (copy of certificate)

If certification is over 2 years old, also submit (b) or (c) below:

(b) Continuous Learning Points (CLPs) history identifying the completion of 80 CLPs every two years. The 80 CLPs every two years must be from the issuance date of certification to current period.

(c) If you are a FAITAS member, you may submit your Continuous Learning Achievement Certificate from FAITAS. On your "My Continuous Learning" page, click on the "approved" link under Achievement Status to print a copy of your most recent certificate.

Failure to provide proof of education (transcripts showing date and degree confirmed (Bachelor Degree) and the 24 semester hours of required courses) and other supplemental contracting documentation will result in an incomplete application and you will not be considered.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

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. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.