Contract Specialist

Summary

This vacancy is for a Contract Specialist, GS-1102-13 with the Department of Homeland Security, United States Coast Guard, Surface Forces Logistics Center, Baltimore, MD.

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Duties

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You will serve as a/an Contract Specialist and be responsible for the development of acquisition strategy through contract execution, contract administration and contract closeout. The incumbent may hold a contracting officer's warrant if determined there is a need. This position acquires a full range of sophisticated supplies and services which may include Coast Guard major acquisitions.

Being a Coast Guard civilian makes you a valuable member of the Coast Guard team. Typical work assignments include:

1. The incumbents, a senior, and a senior contract specialist Lead, are responsible for all contractual phases of the acquisition /procurement process from acquisition planning through contract closeout for a wide variety of complex supplies and services to include major capital assets, technical and engineering services, support services and diverse supplies.

2. Develops acquisition plans, develops procurement administrative lead time milestones. Communicates/collaborates these planning tasks with the program office/customer to ensure mission success.

3. Implements approved contracting strategy to develop the solicitation document and or/quote to include the contract type, the pricing arrangements and incentives, set-aside considerations, subcontracting requirements, source selection plans including evaluation criteria, delivery schedules, security requirements, government property and other required terms and conditions.

4. Develops the solicitation document, publicizes the requirement, analyzes offers received, prepares a negotiation position, evaluates technical and cost proposals, negotiates cost, fee or profit as well as resolve technical issues, and enters into a formal contract. Leads or participates on source selection team.

5. Responsible for conducting extensive and sophisticated cost and pricing analyses. Utilizes cost estimating techniques, such as learning curve, regression analysis, complex contractual arrangements, extensive fact finding, etc. Develops final price for negotiation position and participates as lead or member on the negotiating team ensuring a best value. Analyzes price and cost data contained in contractor's proposals to ascertain reasonableness of price. Performs cost and price analyses in connection with the request for approval of awards, leases, claims, price adjustments, terminations, price determination, escalation, changes orders, etc. Evaluates prospective contractor's financial capability as part of pre-and post-award surveys when appropriate.

6. Business Advisor to program officials providing guidance/advice in all facets of the procurement process to include the development of the statement of work, requirements for competition, market research and request for information, past performance, preparation of evaluation criteria and safeguarding the interest of the United States in its contractual relationships, ensuring contractors receives impartial, fair, and equitable treatment, and the preparation of documentation in these areas.

7. Educates procurement team to include program officials in the requirements for the various business information technology systems used in the procurement process.

8. Utilize critical thinking skills to explore new or innovative contracting approaches to arrive at an equitable contract arrangement that is fair and reasonable and in the best interest of the government. Performs contracting work through the use of negotiation techniques.

9. Keeps management and program officials informed of anticipated workload demands. Anticipates problems and provides advice to program personnel on effective implementation and time frames required.

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

A. Federal Acquisition Certification for Program and Project Managers Level I (FAC P/PM-I) or management determined equivalent within two years of entry into the position.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

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
• A one-year probationary period may be required.
• To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy. To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo and successfully pass a background investigation.
• This is not Bargaining Unit position.
• All Federal employees are required to have Federal salary payments made by direct deposit.

The Office of Personnel management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule, C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.

Qualifications

All qualification requirements must be met by the closing date of the announcement. This includes Time-In-Grade requirements for current status employees applying through merit promotion procedures. Status applicants applying for a promotion must have 52 weeks of specialized experience at the GS-12 grade level. Examples of specialized experience include:

- Procurement planning to include preparation of acquisition and procurement plans; maintaining milestone charts and related schedules

- Preparing and reviewing justifications, determinations and findings, and source selection plans; serves as advisor to program officials to identify procurement objectives to be used in the preparation of statements of work.

- Source selection to include devising broad varieties and types of contract vehicles (solicitations, letter contracts, agreements, and contracts), conducting pre-proposal conferences, performing cost and price analysis, determining competitive range and evaluating contractor responsibility

- Serving as a warranted contracting officer and lead negotiator utilizing quantitative analysis to prepare the Government's negotiating position, plans negotiation strategy, conducts negotiations, documents results and utilizes cost and price analysis techniques to determine price reasonableness; serves as Source Selection Authority.

-Knowledge in contracts to support the United States Coast Guard in major acquisitions supporting but not limited to surface assets (e.g. cutters, boats, etc.), sustainment & maintenance of the assets, and decommissioning/dispositioning of assets, aviation, and/or foreign military sales.

-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 documented knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the work of the position.

-The applicant's resume must clearly document and demonstrate contracting experience to include details regarding the complexity level of contracting experience.

Conditions of Employment (If applicable):

You must comply with education and training requirements for this position see below:

1. For all 1102 positions through H Band.
2. Selectee must meet requirements for Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C):
3. Professional certification within 36 months of entrance on duty.

FAC-C (Professional) Requirements:

DHS is adopting a single level of certification with foundational training and an examination, Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) Professional. New hires without certification shall follow the FAC-C (Professional) requirements. Detailed information on core curricula courses is available at Contracting Certification Course Web Series - Defense Acquisition University (dau.edu).

• Federal Acquisition Certification for Contracting Officer's Representative (FAC-COR): A valid, current FAC-C (Professional) is considered to have met the FAC-COR requirements for all levels, however, an individual with FAC-COR certification does not meet the requirements for the FAC-C (Professional).

• DOD Contracting Professional Certification: A valid, current DOD Contracting Professional Certification is equivalent to a FAC-C (Professional).

• Current federal employees certified at Levels l, Il, or Ill of the legacy FAC-C programs will automatically be certified in the FAC-C (Professional).

Key Requirements:

• U.S. Citizenship is required.

• You MUST provide transcripts in order to receive consideration.

Education Requirements:

This position does have a positive education requirement. If you are including education on your resume, report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. See Required Documents section for detail.

FOREIGN EDUCATION: Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications click here

Evaluations

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 directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

This position does have a positive education requirement. If you are including education on your resume, report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. See Required Documents section for detail.

-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.

1. 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.
2. 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.

Are you qualifying based on education? Submit a copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) from an accredited institution. Once selected & prior to appointment, applicants must provide an official college transcript. Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the U.S. (see FOREIGN EDUCATION below).

College Transcript: If this position requires specific educational course work to qualify, or you are qualifying based in whole or part on education, you are required to provide all unofficial transcripts (undergraduate, graduate, etc.) by the closing date of this announcement or you will be disqualified from further consideration. Transcripts should be legible and detailed, showing course number and department (i.e., bio 101, math 210, etc.), course title, number of credit hours, and grade earned. If course content cannot be easily identified from the title of the course as listed on your transcript, you must submit an official course description from the college/university that reflects the content at the time the course was taken.

FOREIGN EDUCATION : Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications click here

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

Student Loan - Selectee(s) for this position who are newly appointed to a permanent or term position may be eligible for student loan repayment up to $10,000 (pre-tax) for one calendar year. More than one loan may be repaid if the combined repayments do not exceed $10,000. Receipt of this incentive will require a three-year service agreement.

Additional information

E-Verify

DHS uses E-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities.

Fair Chance Act

The Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act prohibits the Department of Homeland Security and its Components from requesting an applicant's criminal history record before that individual receives a conditional offer of employment. In accordance with 5 U.S. Code § 9202(c) and 5 C.F.R § 920.201 certain positions are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Chance to Compete Act. Applicants who believe they have been subjected to a violation of the Fair Chance to Compete for Jobs Act, may submit a written complaint to View email address on click.appcast.io.

Suitability Statement

If you receive a conditional offer of employment for this position, you will be required to complete an Optional Form 306, Declaration for Federal Employment, and to sign and certify the accuracy of all information in your application, prior to entry on duty. False statements on any part of the application may result in withdrawal of offer of employment, dismissal after beginning work, fine, or imprisonment.

Shared Certificates Statement

Applying to this announcement certifies that you give permission for DHS to share your application with others in DHS for similar positions.

Special Employment Consideration

The Department of Homeland Security encourages persons with disabilities to apply, to include persons with intellectual, severe physical or psychiatric disabilities, as defined by 5 CFR 213.3102(u), and or Disabled Veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30 percent or more as defined by 5 CFR 315.707. Veterans, Peace Corps, VISTA volunteers, and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the required documentation, click on the links above or contact the servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for the application and hiring process, please contact View email address on click.appcast.io. Decisions on granting reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis. Visit Reasonable Accommodation

More than 1 selection may be made from this announcement if additional identical vacancies in the same title, series, grade, and unit occur within 45 days from the date the certificate was issued.

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.

DHS offers competitive salaries and an attractive benefits package, including health, dental, vision, life, and long-term care insurance; retirement plan; Thrift Savings Plan [similar to a 401(k)]; Flexible Spending Account; Employee Assistance Program; personal leave days; and paid federal holidays.

Other benefits may include flexible work schedules; tuition reimbursement; transportation subsidies; uniform allowance; health and wellness programs; and fitness centers. DHS is committed to employee development and offers a variety of employee training and developmental opportunities. For more information, go to the DHS Careers website and select "Benefits." Disabled veteran leave will be available to any federal employee hired on or after November 5, 2016, who is a veteran with a service- connected disability rating of 30 percent or more.

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.