Duties

Summary

The USPS OIG is seeking a highly qualified applicant to fill our Contracting Officer position in the Office of General Counsel, Contracting team located in Arlington, VA.
Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will serve as a Contracting Officer and will provide advice in the areas of contracting and procurement with moderate supervision. The successful candidate will be responsible for providing excellent customer service in contracting and procurement by resolving significant and complex contracting issues, creating innovative solutions for customer needs, and working well with customers from all OIG components.

Candidates will be evaluated on the skills that they possess that are directly related to the duties of the position and the experience, education and training that indicate the applicant's ability to acquire the particular knowledge and skills needed to perform the duties of the position. Only those candidates who meet all qualification and eligibility requirements and who submit the required information by 11:59 PM EST on 06/17/2021 will be considered.

The USPS OIG uses a Pay Banding system, which is equivalent to the Federal GS scale. Grade and salary determinations will be made based upon a candidate's education and professional experience.

This position is being advertised at the Journey Band level, equivalent to a GS-9 - GS-13. The salary range for this position is $60,129.00 - $134,798.00. The salary figures include locality pay. Promotion potential to a GS-13 at management's discretion.

Please note that the duties and responsibilities associated with this position may vary based upon the agency's needs at the time of hire. The following description of major duties and responsibilities is only intended to give applicants a general overview of the expectations.

• Plans, negotiates, leads, and/or administers procurement of goods, systems or services, including those with specialized, state-of-the-art, critical or scarce requirements. The procurements are characterized by a lack of any previous cost data, require the use of a wide variety of cost and fixed-price contracts, multi-year contracts and extensive use of subcontractors, involve frequent changes in terms, conditions or funding arrangements, and similar difficulties.
• Develops and/or reviews contractual pricing arrangements and incentives characterized by multiple incentives requiring innovative contracting techniques, i.e. sharing arrangements such as cost-plus-incentive-fees or fixed-price-incentive-fees where the agency and the contractor share cost risk, or economic price adjustment clauses for adjusting labor and material costs where price cannot be reasonably predicted at the time of negotiation.
• Audits or reviews acquisitions of similar complexity. Presents findings and recommends corrective actions and policy or procedure improvements.
• Reviews, advises on, develops, and recommends operating unit-wide or agency-wide procurement processes and systems, procedures and policies, or equivalent assignment.
• As assigned, serves as Contracting Officer for the Office of the Inspector General.

Travel Required

Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
13

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• Must be able to pass a drug screening and medical assessment questionnaire.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain Background Investigation
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a government-issued credit card
• May be required to successfully complete a 12-month probationary period

Qualifications

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

You must meet ALL of the minimum qualifications listed below.

• Bachelor's Degree from an accredited college or university, with at least 24 semester hours in subject related to purchasing, such as accounting, business, finance, law, economics, quantitative analysis, marketing, contracting or purchasing, organization, or management

AND

• Must have worked as a warranted Contracting Officer.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience using PRISM.
• Actively working towards certified Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) Level III, FAC-C Level III, CPCM, CPFM, Institute of Supply Management (ISM) certification or equivalent Postal Service certification.
• Experience with Postal Service contracting policies, rules, and practices.

EVALUATION FACTORS
You must have the experience, knowledge and skills as listed in EACH of the evaluation factors. Failure to demonstrate that you meet all of the evaluation factor requirements as listed below will result in a score of zero (0); an ineligible status, and you will not be referred for further consideration. Include your major accomplishments relevant to the position requirements in your resume. You must clearly address each one of these factors in your resume or cover letter. Resume should not exceed 2 pages.

• Knowledge of contracting methods and contract types to plan and carry out long-term pre-award and/or post-award procurement actions, and to innovate and create efficiencies in the contracting process.
• Knowledge of the principles of acquisition planning sufficient to develop and implement a plan to procure a multiyear program or system involving successive program stages.
• Knowledge of contract administration and termination techniques sufficient to administer and close out contracts.
• Knowledge of price/cost analysis techniques, such as price realism, sufficient to evaluate contractor proposals and prepare a pre-negotiation position.
• Knowledge of the regulations and techniques of source selection sufficient to conduct a selection with moderate supervision.
• Skill in negotiation techniques to conduct contract negotiations and to meet and deal with high level business, industry, scientific, and/or United States Postal Service officials.
• Ability to negotiate various contract types using methods, and techniques such as cost and incentive contracting, award fee, cost sharing arrangements, processing of unsolicited proposals, multiple awards, special provisions relating to proprietary rights, and rights in data.

You will no longer be considered for this position if you receive a zero (0) rating on any evaluation factor.

Failure to demonstrate that you meet all evaluation factor requirements will result in a score of zero (0). Upon receipt of a zero score, you will be deemed "not minimally qualified," and you will not be referred for further consideration.

Education

Education must be accredited by an institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Applicants can verify accreditation here: www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred. Special Instructions for Candidates with Foreign Education: Education completed outside the United States must be deemed equivalent to that gained in U.S. education programs. You must submit all necessary documents to a private U.S. credential evaluation service to interpret equivalency of your education against courses given in U.S. accredited colleges and universities. For further information visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Additional information

Pay is only part of the compensation you will earn working for the USPS OIG. We offer a broad array of benefits programs:

Health, Dental, Vision, Life and Long Term Care Insurances with Flexible Spending options.

For more information about these programs visit www.opm.gov/insure.

Retirement and Thrift Savings. For more information about these programs see www.opm.gov/retire and http://www.tsp.gov/.

Flexible Work Schedules. USPS OIG offers a range of family friendly flexibilities including flexible work schedules, telework and employee assistance programs.

Leave and Holidays. In addition to 10 paid holidays each year, you will earn 13 days of paid sick leave and 13 to 26 paid vacation days each year depending on your years of service.

For further information, please refer to our website at:
https://www.uspsoig.gov/frequently-asked-questions

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Status: Exempt (Nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay; Exempt employees are not).

This agency provides Reasonable Accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you require accommodations for any part of the application and/or hiring process, please send an email to jobs@uspsoig.gov. The decision on granting an accommodation request will be made on a case by case basis.

How You Will Be Evaluated

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

The Human Resources Office will review your resume and supporting documentation to ensure that you meet the minimum qualifications required for this position. You will no longer be considered for this position if you: receive a zero (0) rating on any evaluation factor; fail to attach all required documentation; if your application materials indicate that you are not minimally-qualified for this position; or if you fail to qualify on the interview. Only the top-rated candidates will be referred to a review official or the selecting official for further consideration. Top-rated applicants may be required to participate in an interview. Your rating may be further adjusted or rated as ineligible by the review official or the selecting official based on your interview performance. Once all applicant scores are finalized, the selecting official will make a final decision. NOTE: If you receive a zero (0) rating on any evaluation factor or on the interview, you will be considered NOT MINIMALLY QUALIFIED for the position and rated ineligible.

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
Yes

Required Documents

You must submit all required documents by 11:59 PM EST on the closing date of this announcement, Vacancy Announcement 2021-95-11120136-PC, by closing date 06/17/2021.

1. RESUME. When completing your online application or uploading your resume, you must categorize it as a "Resume" document). IMPORTANT: You must clearly address each one of the evaluation factors in your resume or cover letter. Resume should not exceed 2 pages.

2. CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, OR WARRANTS. Required: DAWIA Level III, FAC-C Level III, CPCM, CPFM, ISM certification or equivalent Postal Service certification. Equivalency may be demonstrated by certification transcript from similar professional training organizations. (upload and save as "Professional Certification" document)

3. TRANSCRIPTS from an accredited college or university. The information presented in the transcript must be verifiable and should contain the name of the institution, applicant's name, list of completed courses, semester hours, GPA, date and type of Bachelor's Degree issued. Education completed outside the United States must be deemed equivalent to that gained in conventional/accredited U.S. education programs to be acceptable for Federal employment. Attach document verifying that it has been deemed equivalent. For further information visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html . (Required: Upload and save as "Transcript" document.)

4. UPLOAD SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS which may include:

Veterans Preference Documentation. If you are claiming veterans preference you must submit the Member 4 copy of your DD-214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty, and/or other proof of veterans preference eligibility including your VA letter, form SF-15 (www.opm.gov/forms) and all required documents related to your SF-15 claim. Veterans can request the Member 4 copy of their DD-214 at http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records, and can download a copy of their VA letter from https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal. (If applicable to you, you are required to upload each veterans' preference document and categorize as "DD-214" or "SF-15" or "Other Veterans Document") Reasonable Accommodation Documentation. If you are requesting a reasonable accommodation to the USA Hire Competency Based Assessments, submit documentation to support your request, including the Reasonable Accommodation Request Form found at http://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Reasonable_Accommodations_for_USA_Hire .
• SF-50 if you are or have been a Federal employee to demonstrate tenure and competitive/excepted service for eligibility purposes. (If applicable to you, you are Required to upload each applicable SF-50 and categorize as a "SF-50" document.)

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.