Duties

The incumbent of this position will occupy an entry level Contract Specialist position. This opportunity offers tailored learning and development activities to include formal and informal instruction, guidance, and mentoring. The goal of this career development plan is to enable the selected individual to meet the requirement of the full performance level. At the successful conclusion of the development period, the full performance salary range increases beginning at $74,950 to $142,547.

Even though this position is advertised at the entry level, applicants may be placed at the full performance level upon selection if they meet the education and experience requirements. At the full-performance level, duties may include, but are not limited to:

Serving as a contracting officer performing the full range of contract specialist duties necessary to award, administer, and close out a variety of contract types, including, but not limited to, firm fixed price, cost, labor hour, and task order contract types.

Performing all contracting functions for important and complex agency acquisitions involving diverse supplies and services, e.g., telecommunications and other electronic systems and subsystems, information systems; IT software and hardware; and other non IT services, etc. including negotiating complex modification to contracts vehicles.

Preparing pre-award and post-award documents, e.g., solicitations, market research reports, pre-negotiation and post- negotiation memoranda, responsibility determinations, waivers, justifications and approvals for other than full and open competition, determinations and findings, protest responses, debriefings, cure notices, etc.

Monitoring contractors' performance, evaluating and negotiating change orders and contract modifications, and resolving post-award performance or payment problems.

Utilizing in-depth price/cost analysis techniques for supporting the development of pre-negotiation and award price determination documents.

Serving as an advisor to customers at the AO and the courts nationwide on contracting issues.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

AO employees are required to attest to their vaccination status. New employees are required to complete a Certification of Vaccination Form. The information provided on the form will be treated as confidential information and will be managed by the AO Human Resources Office.

All information is subject to verification. Applicants are advised that false answers or omissions of information on application materials or inability to meet the following conditions may be grounds for non-selection, withdrawal of an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.

Selection for this position is contingent upon completion of OF-306, Declaration of Federal Employment during the pre-employment process and proof of U.S. citizenship for competitive status positions or conversion to a competitive status position with the AO. If non-citizens are considered for hire into a temporary or any other position with non-competitive status or when it is confirmed by the AO Human Resources Office there are no qualified U.S. citizens for a competitive status position (unless prohibited by a law or statue), non-citizens must provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. and proof of entitlement to receive compensation. Additional information on the employment of non-citizens can be found at USAJOBS Help Center | Employment of non-citizens / . For a list of documents that may be used to provide proof of citizenship or authorization to work in the United States, please refer to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification .

All new AO employees will be required to complete an FBI fingerprint-based national criminal database and records check and pass a public trust suitability check.

New employees to the AO will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights/responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/ .

All new AO employees are required to identify a financial institution for direct deposit of pay before appointment.

You will be required to serve a trial period if selected for a first-time appointment to the Federal government, transferring from another Federal agency, or serving as a first-time supervisor. Failure to successfully complete the trial period may result in termination of employment.

If appointed to a temporary position, management may have the discretion of converting the position to permanent depending upon funding and staffing allocation.

Qualifications

Applicants must have demonstrated experience as listed below. This requirement is according to the AO Classification, Compensation, and Recruitment Systems which include interpretive guidance and reference to the OPM Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions.

Specialized Experience at the Entry Level (Equivalence of the GS-7-8-9):

Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience is demonstrated experience applying contracting principles and procedures to the planning, award and management of contracting actions for a wide range of services and supplies OR

If you do not possess the specialized experience described above, you can use your bachelor's degree with a superior academic achievement to qualify for the specialized experience requirement. Superior academic achievement is defined as a 3.5 GPA in your major or an overall GPA of 2.9. Your bachelor's degree must include 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, organization and management. Transcript must be submitted to reflect degree conferral date, GPA, and list of coursework. Failure to submit your transcript will result in you being found ineligible for this position.

Specialized Experience at the Mid Level (Equivalence of the GS-11-12):

Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience is demonstrated experience applying contracting principles and procedures to the planning, award and management of contracting actions for a wide range of services and supplies.

No education can be substituted for specialized experience at the mid performance level.

Specialized Experience at the Full Performance (Equivalence of the GS-13):

Applicants must have at least one year of specialized experience, which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience is demonstrated experience applying contracting principles and procedures to the planning, award and management of contracting actions for a wide range of services and supplies.

No education can be substituted for specialized experience at the full performance level.

Desired but not required: Applicants with the following certifications are highly desirable.

• Federal Acquisition Certification-Contracting (FAC-C) Level III or Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification Level III certification
• Federal Acquisition Certification-Contracting (FAC-C) Level II or Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification Level II certification
• Federal Acquisition Certification-Contracting (FAC-C) Level I or Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification Level I certification

Education

BASIC REQUIREMENTS
Basic requirements for the Equivalence of GS-5 through GS-12: Applicants must meet ONE of the following three basic requirements to be placed in this job series:
- A four-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree in any field; OR
- At least 24 semester hours in any combination of the following: accounting, business, finance, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management, or a passing score on an equivalent examination; OR
- Federal employees classified within the 1102 family as of January 1, 2000 are deemed to have met basic qualification requirements for all 1102 Contract Specialist positions.

Basic Requirements for the Equivalence of GS-13 and above: Applicants must meet ONE of the following two basic requirement to be placed in this job series at this level:
- 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; OR
- Federal employees classified within the 1102 family as of January 1, 2000 are deemed to have met basic qualification requirements for all 1102 Contract Specialist positions.

NOTE: This job series has education requirements. To validate that you meet the education requirements you claim based on how you answer the questionnaire, a copy of your transcript must be submitted. Failure to submit your transcript may make you ineligible for this position.

Additional information

The AO is an Equal Opportunity Employer.