Supervisory Contract Specialist

Summary

This vacancy is for a GS-1102-14, Supervisory Contract Specialist with the United States Coast Guard's Deputy Commandant for Systems (DCS), Director of Contracting and Procurement/Head of Contracting Activity (HCA), Contracting and Procurement Office - Headquarters (HQ COCO) located in Chesapeake, VA.

Duties

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You will serve as a Supervisory Contracting Officer managing a branch of Contracting Officers and Contract Specialists overseeing the start-to-end contracting and procurement process, developing contracting strategies of various complexities with complete responsibility to plan and execute all contractual actions and phases as assigned. Being a Coast Guard civilian makes you a valuable member of the Coast Guard team. Typical supervisory duties and work assignments include:

• Supervises contracting staff and oversees all contracting activities within the assigned area of responsibility, including pre-award and post-award phases for a variety of acquisition types primarily for services and supplies.
• Plans, directs, coordinates, and manages day-to-day operations of their branch, establishing workload priorities, formulating goals and long-range planning activities, and implementing policies and procedures.
• Assigns work to subordinates based on organizational priorities, assignment difficulty, and employee capabilities; sets and adjusts short-term priorities and monitors schedules for completion of work.
• Evaluates work performance of subordinates, provides direction, leadership, counseling, and guidance, and oversees staff training and development.
• Initiates and/or recommends personnel actions such as recruitment, promotion, awards, disciplinary actions, performance appraisals, and reassignment; ensures compliance with applicable laws, regulations, policies, and procedures.
• Provides advice and assistance to senior management on organizational planning, staff development, and management issues; compiles and drafts reports for higher-level review to include ensuring that data calls are addressed timely.
• Performs procurement oversight for complex, high-dollar value solicitations and contractual actions; serves as Contracting Officer with signatory authority up to an unlimited warrant.
• Exercises significant responsibilities in advising management officials of higher rank on contracting issues, ensuring standards are maintained and equity in contractor assessments, and making decisions on non-routine, costly, or controversial matters, including training needs and requests.
• Provides meaningful and timely performance reviews and evaluations of subordinate employees.
• May serve as lead Contracting Officer/Senior Contract Specialist for cradle-to-grave contracting and procurement activities, analyzing team members' workload, assigning/reassigning procurement actions based on priorities, skill levels, and individual abilities, articulating and communicating to team members the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestone expectations, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines/timeframes for completion.

• Serve as a coach and mentor, providing developmental guidance to staff as needed, engaging in activities that influence a mindset of continual learning and personal/professional development.

• Build collaborative cross-boundary and cross-functional partnerships with a focus on fostering a culture of collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation.

• Serve as a senior business advisor, consultant, and liaison to top management officials, policy makers, and non-governmental organizations and instructions on challenging, new developments in contracting/procurement initiatives.

• Communicate and articulate timely and effectively, at the appropriate levels, issues, concerns, and potential impacts of high visibility actions requiring senior and executive leadership knowledge, engagement, and/or insight.
• Represents the organization at functional and administrative meetings and conferences; establishes and maintains effective working relationships with internal stakeholders, senior officials, and external representatives of government agencies and private industry.

• Manage acquisitions involving diverse areas including complex acquisitions, state-of-the-art systems and subsystems, engineering and technical support service.

• Act as the chairperson or as a participant on formal Source Solution Evaluation Board (SSEB) for competitively negotiated procurements subject to relevant Federal Action Regulations Parts.

• Possess active knowledge, understanding, and proactive learning of the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO) and the associated supplemental regulation, policy, procedures, and guidance.

• Conduct in-depth compliance and evaluation of complex, unusual, or unprecedented contract activities with awareness and consideration of potential political implications.

• Maintain complete authority for all contractual actions and phases; using automated systems to research sources; collecting data on contractors' past performance and documenting contractors' performance on current contracts; prepare solicitation instructions, and direct the efforts of technical, cost, and business management evaluation teams.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• Perform proactive and collaborative procurement planning through program and stakeholder partnerships. Develop, execute, and oversee procurement objectives; coordinate contractual actions involving multiple complex, multi-million to billion dollar contracts and relevant schedules.
• Perform Contracting Officer and contract administration activities for significant, highly specialized procurements; administering the contract for a complete state-of-the-art system; and directing the full range of contract administration actions required of the system acquisition, including the issuance of contract modification, exercise of options, investigation and resolution of contractor related issues, concerns, and delays.

• Maintain the knowledge, skills, abilities and qualifications to obtain and retain Contracting Officer authority at the unlimited warrant level.

Mandatory training is required which must be successfully completed and other training may occur as necessary for success in the position.

Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting Professional (FAC-C) or DAWIA Level III equivalent is required for this position.

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement.

Do NOT include the following types of information in your resume:

• Social Security Number (SSN)
• Date of Birth (DOB)
• Photos of yourself (if included on your resume you will not be considered for this position)
• Personal information: such as age, gender, religious affiliation, etc.

Key Requirements:

• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• Must be registered or exempt from the Selective Service. See www.sss.gov
• A one-year probationary period may be required.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements: This position has a positive Education Requirement in addition to at least one year of Specialized Experience or substitution of education for experience or combination (if applicable) in order to be found minimally qualified. Transcripts must be submitted with your application package. You MUST meet the following requirements:

Extension of duties described above:

• Perform proactive and collaborative procurement planning through program and stakeholder partnerships. Develop, execute, and oversee procurement objectives; coordinate contractual actions involving multiple complex, multi-million to billion dollar contracts and relevant schedules.
• Perform Contracting Officer and contract administration activities for significant, highly specialized procurements; administering the contract for a complete state-of-the-art system; and directing the full range of contract administration actions required of the system acquisition, including the issuance of contract modification, exercise of options, investigation and resolution of contractor related issues, concerns, and delays.
• Maintain the knowledge, skills, abilities and qualifications to obtain and retain Contracting Officer authority at the unlimited warrant level.

EDUCATION:

Basic Requirements for GS-13 and Above

1. Completion of all mandatory training prescribed by the head of the agency for progression to GS-13 or higher-level contracting positions, including 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 level of the position, and must have provided the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the work of the position.
   and
2. 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.
3. Exceptions: Employees in GS-1102 positions will be considered to have met the standard for positions they occupy 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.
4. 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.

AND

To qualify at the GS-14 grade level, applicants must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-13 grade level in the federal or private sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work.

NOTE: All experience statements (i.e., duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire) copied from this announcement and pasted into your resume will not be considered as a demonstration of your qualifications for this position.

Specialized experience may include the following:

• Knowledge of contracting methods, types and principles, laws, statutes, Executive Orders, regulations and procedures applicable to pre-award and post-award actions.
• Knowledge of negotiations techniques to serve as the lead negotiator in developing pre-negotiations strategies, negotiation the acquisition of applicable service and system and directing or performing post-award negotiation involving contract changes or modifications.
• Experience in cost and price analysis techniques
• Ability to perform proactive and collaborative procurement planning through program and stakeholder partnerships. Develop, execute, and oversee procurement objectives; coordinate contractual actions involving multiple complex, multi-million to billion dollar contracts and relevant schedules.
• Ability to perform Contracting Officer and contract administration activities for significant, highly specialized procurements; administering the contract for a complete state-of-the-art system; and directing the full range of contract administration actions required of the system acquisition, including the issuance of contract modification, exercise of options, investigation and resolution of contractor related issues, concerns, and delays.
• Ability to maintain the knowledge, skills, abilities and qualifications to obtain and retain Contracting Officer authority at the unlimited warrant level.

Mandatory Specialized experience must include: GS-14 Supervisory Contract Specialists are required to sit for a warrant board for a limited and unlimited warrant authority unless the warrant board is waived by the Head of Contracting Activity.

NOTE: Education cannot be substituted for experience at this grade level.

National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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