Duties

The Contract Specialist performs the following major duties:

• Contract Compliance Review: Reviews contracts and solicitations for appropriate contract type, pricing and other contract provisions, selection of source, acquisition method, determinations and findings, documentation, clarity of contract terms, and propriety of cited funds.
• Contract/Procurement Advice and Assistance: Plans, develops, and establishes the contractual strategy for the overall acquisition program. Functions as team leader during contract negotiations. Coordinates with all stakeholders within the agency, including legal counsel, finance, budget, and audit, and with other agencies and congressional staff members.
• Contract Modifications: Administers contracts for highly specialized procurements that involve funding, redirection of effort, coordination of time extensions, incorporation of change orders, and issuance of stop work orders and approval of progress payments.
• Contracting Policy Research, Analysis, and Interpretation: Provides ongoing advice and recommendations to both contracting and technical office personnel. Acts as a liaison to various offices.
• Procurement and Contract Administration: Reviews procurement requests, analyzes the requirement, and recommends revisions to the statement of work or specifications. Reviews documentation (e.g., justification for other than full and open competition). Surveys the market to determine the availability of supplies or services with specialized requirements. Determines the type of contract or agreement, milestones, and acquisition plan including small business requirements.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• COVID-19 vaccination required per EO 14043. (See Additional Information section)
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens.
• Applicants must successfully complete a background security investigation with favorable adjudication. Failure to successfully meet this requirement will be grounds for employment termination.
• All Federal employees are required to have federal salary payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of their choosing.
• A one year trial period is required.
• This is a bargaining unit position.
• This position requires the filing of a Financial Disclosure report.
• This position requires a Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust background investigation.

Peace Corps Information

• This is a Federal civilian job in the Excepted Service. Peace Corps employees are paid on the Foreign Personnel (FP) pay scale.
• Initial appointment of employment cannot exceed five years.
• Additional hiring needs may be filled through this vacancy.
• The Peace Corps is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factors.
• The Peace Corps is a drug-free workplace and promotes a drug-free environment.
• The Peace Corps is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive culture. Our goal is to attract and develop the best and brightest from all lifestyles and backgrounds. The Peace Corps strives to create a culture of inclusion where individuals feel respected and are treated fairly in all aspects of differences. Our commitment is to make a difference in the lives of people around the world.

The Peace Corps provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the hiring process, please notify the Office of Human Resources by calling 202-692-1200 or the Office of Civil Rights and Diversity on 202-692-2139. Decisions on granting reasonable accommodation are made on a case-by-case basis.

Qualifications

Specialized Experience:

You must meet the specialized experience at the grade level(s) in which you choose to be considered by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on 01/24/2022 (the closing date of the announcement). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. To ensure full credit for your experience, please indicate dates of employment by month, day, and year and the number of hours worked per week in your resume.

This vacancy is being announced at two grade levels:

FP-3

Qualifying experience for the FP-3 level includes one year of specialized experience at least equivalent to the FP-4 or GS-12 level which is in or directly related to the line of work of the position to be filled and which has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Specialized experience includes: Experience applying contracting principles, laws, regulations and procedures applicable to pre-award and/or post-award actions sufficient to procure and/or administer contracts for major acquisitions; Experience in a procurement functional area sufficient to provide technical leadership, staff coordination, and consultation including responsibility for formulating guidelines, implementing new developments, and providing policy interpretation; Experience using program or technical requirements to perform or direct in depth evaluations of the financial and technical capabilities, or the performance of the contractor.

FP-2

Qualifying experience for the FP-2 level includes one year of specialized experience at least equivalent to the FP-3 or GS-13 level which is in or directly related to the line of work of the position to be filled and which has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Specialized experience includes: Experience applying contracting principles, laws, regulations and procedures applicable to pre-award and/or post-award actions sufficient to procure and/or administer contracts for major acquisitions; Experience in a procurement functional area sufficient to provide expert technical leadership, staff coordination, and consultation including responsibility for formulating guidelines, implementing new developments, and providing policy interpretation; Experience using business strategies in implementing contracting procedures; Experience using program or technical requirements to perform or direct in depth evaluations of the financial and technical capabilities, or the performance of the contractor.

Additional information on qualification requirements is outlined in the OPM Qualifications Standards Handbook of General Schedule Positions. It is available for your review on the OPM web site at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/

Time-in-Grade Requirements: Internal applicants and Federal employees who are currently holding, or who have held within the previous 52 weeks, a position under a non-temporary appointment in the competitive or excepted service, must meet "time-in-grade" requirements (have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade of the grade for which you are applying (FP-4 or GS-12; FP-3 or GS-13).Note: All current or former Federal employees (including internal employees) must provide a copy of their SF-50 (you may need to submit more than one), "Notice of Personnel Action" that indicates proof of status and time-in-grade eligibility. The SF-50 must include your position, title, series, grade, step, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted).

All qualification requirements must be met by 01/24/2022 (the closing date of this announcement). Qualification claims will be subject to verification.

Please note: Peace Corps employees are employed using the Foreign Personnel (FP) pay scale. The FP pay plan does not follow the same structure as the GS pay plan. In the FP pay plan, as the grade-level numbers decrease the level/pay for the position increases (e.g., the FP-09 is the lowest entry-level pay and the FP-01 is the highest senior-level pay).

Education

This job does not have an education qualification requirement.

Additional information

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements (EO 14043)

As required by Executive Order 14043, Federal employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of the employee's duty location or work arrangement (e.g., telework, remote work, etc.), subject to such exceptions as required by law. If selected, you will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination by entry on duty date. The agency will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request of the agency a legally required exception from this requirement.

Due to COVID-19, the Peace Corps is currently in an expanded telework posture. If selected, you may be expected to temporarily telework, even if your home is located outside the local commuting area. Once employees are permitted to return to the office, you will be expected to report to the duty station listed on this announcement within 30 days. At that time, you may be eligible to request to continue to telework one or more days a pay period depending upon the terms of the agency's telework policy.

Intelligence Background Information

Peace Corps Manual Section 611 is applicable to this position. This section prohibits the employment of certain persons previously engaged in intelligence activities or connected with intelligence agencies within the past 10 years. If you have ever worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), you are not eligible for employment at the Peace Corps in any capacity, and you should not apply for employment.

Acceptance of employment with Peace Corps precludes employment by certain intelligence organizations for a specific period of time, determined by the employing agency, after Peace Corps employment ceases.

Applicants who are found to be otherwise qualified will be required to submit upon request in the future a completed Intelligence Background Questionnaire, or narrative signed statement, indicating whether the applicant has been involved in or has had any connection with intelligence activities or related work and, if so, the nature and dates of his or her involvement. Failure to meet this requirement will result in the applicant being rated ineligible for further consideration. If you have any other type of possible intelligence connection, your application will not be further considered until you submit this form. Except when the CIA or the National Security Agency (NSA) is involved (see below), if your connection with an Intelligence Agency involves an immediate family member who works or has worked in intelligence, the immediate family member should complete the form, not the applicant. Usually relying on memory is sufficient to answer most if not all of the questions.

If you have an immediate family member who works or has worked for the CIA, you should not give them this form to complete. Please contact your relative in person-not by phone, email, social networking, or any other means that is not in person- and ask him or her to contact the Office of General Counsel at the CIA.

If you or an immediate family member have been employed by or associated with the NSA, you or your family member must contact the NSA Prepublication Review Office at 443-634-4095.