Contract Specialist

Summary

This position is located in the Office of the Comptroller, Energy and Natural Resources Division. The Comptroller oversees and directs all aspects of the Division's financial management, budget formulation, contract, and procurement programs. The incumbent serves as a Contracting Officer for the Division and must hold or be able to obtain a Contracting Officer's warrant.

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Duties

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As a Contracting Officer, your typical work assignments may include the following:

• Develops, interprets, and performs procurement of goods and services using formal advertising or negotiation procedures; evaluates contract price proposals; and administers or close out of contracts.
• Provides advice and guidance to procurement customers regarding all aspects of the acquisition process, including acquisition plans, market research, and statements of work.
• Manages a buying workload of purchase requests within the Simplified Acquisition Threshold.
• Uses contracting writing program to generate Purchase Orders (PO's) or GSA Schedule Task or Delivery Orders.
• Negotiates contract modifications and the terms and cost of changes to contracts.
• Engages management and contracting officers on contracting actions, procedures, and policy matters.
• Performs the full range of contract specialist duties necessary to award, administer, and close out a variety of contract types, including fixed-price, cost, time and materials, and labor hours.
• Prepares pre-award and post-award documents, responsibility determinations, waivers, justification, and approvals for other than full and open competition, determinations, and findings.
• Generates a variety of procurement actions via GSA federal supply schedules, UNICOR, GWAC, agency BPA's and commercial sources in the open market while also applying Simplified Acquisition Procedures and Socioeconomic Programs where appropriate.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen or national.
• You must complete a background investigation to include drug testing.
• Selective Service Registration is required, as applicable.
• You must complete or have completed a one-year probationary period.
• You must maintain a bank account for direct deposit of salary.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet the following criteria in A and B below:

A) Basic Requirement :

1. Must have 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with a major in any field; or
2. Must have 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
3. Must meet the basic requirement based on an EXCEPTION: occupied a GS-1102 Contract Specialist position at the GS-5 through GS-12 on January 1, 2000; or
4. Must possess an Agency-approved Waiver of any or all requirements of A and B above. I understand that I must upload the waiver document with my application.

B) Contracting Certification

This position requires a Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) Professional. You must demonstrate that you have this certification by submitting a copy of your certificate. Present Clip Dashboard demonstrating compliance for FAI's previous Continuous Learning Points (CLP) Cycle 5/1/2024 - 4/30/2026. Failure to submit your certificate will result in your application not being considered for the position. Current employees must maintain 80 CLPs every two years, which begins on the date they were certified.

In addition to the Basic Requirement and Certification described above, applicants must meet the following Qualification requirements:

GS-12 : You must have one year of specialized experience at, or equivalent to, the GS-11 Federal grade level or above utilizing a wide range of contracting methods and types to procure goods and services and administering the terms of the contract to include contract scope determinations, contract modifications, supplemental agreements, justifications, and approval reviews.

Time in Grade : Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements (one year at the next lower grade) by the closing date of announcement.

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 skill and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

YOUR RESUME MUST support your responses to the online questionnaire and provide specific details as to how your experience meets the specialized experience as described in the vacancy announcement if you are using experience to meet all or part of the qualification requirements. Please ensure that your resume includes the month and year that you began and ended each position held or that position will not be credited toward meeting the specialized experience requirement. Part-time employment will be prorated in crediting experience. Failure to provide details will result in an ineligible rating. Your latest resume submitted for this vacancy announcement will be used to determine qualifications and supersedes previous submissions.

Only experience and education obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered .

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Education

All academic degrees and coursework must be completed at a college or university that has obtained accreditation or pre-accreditation status from an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For a list of schools that meet this criteria, see

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet the above education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to timely provide such evidence by submitting proof of creditability of education as evaluated by a credentialing agency with your application materials. More information may be found at

All documentation must be in English or include an English translation.

Additional information

Career Transition Programs: The Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) provides eligible surplus and displaced competitive service employees in DOJ with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) provides eligible displaced Federal competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. If you have received written notification of your eligibility for consideration under CTAP/ICTAP, you may receive special priority consideration for this position if you are well-qualified for the position with a score of 85 or better on established ranking criteria.

Veterans Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA ): VEOA allows eligible veterans to apply and compete for positions announced under merit promotion procedures when the hiring agency is recruiting from outside its own workforce. To be eligible, a veteran must be honorably separated and either a preference eligible or have substantially completed three (3) or more years of continuous active military service. If you are applying for a Merit Promotion announcement and wish to be considered under the VEOA, you must submit a copy of the Member Copy 4 of your DD-214, in addition to any other required documents listed on this announcement. You can find additional information at:

Military Spouses :You're eligible if you are a spouse of an active duty member of the armed forces; a spouse of a service member who is 100% disabled due to a service-connected injury; or a spouse of a service member killed while on active duty. You must meet certain criteria for each of these eligibility categories. Learn more about the specific criteria for military spouses

Schedule A : DOJ welcomes and encourages applications from persons with disabilities and is firmly committed to satisfying its affirmative obligations under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure that persons with disabilities have every opportunity to be hired and advanced on the basis of merit within the Department. DOJ also encourages eligible Schedule A applicants to submit their resumes to View email address on click.appcast.io, and reference "Federal Career Opportunities" in the subject line. Additional information is found at:

Land Management applicants on a time-limited appointment are eligible to apply. The Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act, P.L. 114-47 was signed into law on August 7, 2015, allowing certain individuals who currently are or formerly were under time-limited competitive appointments at certain land management agencies to compete for permanent positions in the competitive service at a land management agency, or any other agency, under merit promotion procedures.

Benefits : DOJ offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes, in part, paid vacation; sick leave; holidays; telework; life insurance; health benefits; and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System.

General Employment Information:

1. DOJ EEO STATEMENT: Find our EEO statement online at:
2. SELECTIVE SERVICE: Additional information is found at:

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

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Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full-time, part-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.