Supervisory Contract Specialist

Summary

This position is located in Management Services, Office of the Inspector General, Department of Education. The incumbent oversees acquisition plans, review work statements, develop independent government cost estimates, secure clearances and perform all aspects of contract negotiations and awards.

This job is open to

Clarification from the agency

Status Candidates, Noncompetitive Former Federal Employees with Reinstatement Eligibility, VEOA, Individuals with Disabilities, Military Spouses, Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Vista, Eligible Family Member, ICTAP, CTAP, Land & base management, National Guard & reserves.

Duties

The Inspector General of the Department of Education ( Department) heads an independent and objective organization responsible for audit, investigation, and other services related to programs and operations of the Department. The Inspector General provides leadership and coordination and recommends policies for activities designated to promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of programs and operations, as well as to prevent and detect fraud and abuse in such programs and operations. The Inspector General is the principal advisor to the Secretary of the Department on the above matters and is responsible for keeping the Secretary and Congress fully and currently informed about problems and deficiencies relating to the administration of the Department's programs and operations and the necessity for and progress of corrective action.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) consists or the following seven components:

• Immediate Office of the Inspector General

• Audit Services

• Investigation Services

• Technology Services

• Management Services

• Legal Services/Counsel to the Inspector General

• Enterprise and External Affairs

Management Services provides management, administrative, and planning support to the OIG's major operations and administrative programs as well to the OIG senior leadership regarding business operations support matters. Management Services coordinates the formulation and issuance of OIG policies, procedures, and standards of operations; staying current with Administration and Congressional legislative activities, external directives, and Department program and management changes impacting OIG operations and policies; as well as oversees and manages the agency's annual budget appropriation and procurement functions, human resources recruitment and retention responsibilities, space and infrastructure support.

As a Supervisory Contract Specialist the major duties include but are not limited to:

Workload Management

- Works with staff, relevant stakeholders, and customers to mitigate risk, resolve workload issues, and manage contract actions.

- Ensures that contract management activities are undertaken consistent with internal protocols.

- Builds and maintains relationships with internal and external customers to facilitate the timely delivery of goods and services.

Acquisition Planning and Solicitation

- Meets with program officials early in the requirements development stage to provide strategic business advice to ensure that program and procurement objectives are met.

- Develops innovative strategies that have a broad and long-range impact on programs.

- Documents an acquisition strategy in coordination with the relevant stakeholders fully compliant with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), the Memorandum of Understanding with the Contracts and Acquisition Management (CAM) office, and Departmental regulations, policies, and procedures.

Contract Negotiation and Source Selection

- Coordinates the technical evaluation of offers and participates in technical panel consensus meetings to ensure compliance with solicitation requirements.

- Evaluate business proposals based on the evaluation techniques set forth in FAR and develop the negotiation objectives in conjunction with program officials.

- Leads the Government’s negotiating team by facilitating discussions between the Department and potential vendors creating solutions that present win-win scenarios for all stakeholders.

Supervision

- Supervises a staff whose responsibility is to execute purchases in support of the OIG. Plans and schedules the work to be accomplished by the team and sets priorities based on schedules and goals set by the Inspector General (IG).

- Evaluates subordinates’ performance; approves leave; recommends promotions, reassignments, and disciplinary measures. Keeps employees informed of OIG goals and objectives. Approves all formal documents associated with recruitment and placement, position classification, performance standards, training, appraisals, awards, leave and disciplinary actions.

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

Must be a US Citizen

Males 18 and over must be registered with the Selective Service.

You may be subject to serve a one-year probationary period.

Relocation will not be paid.

You must complete a background investigation and fingerprint check.

Requires a financial disclosure statement.

Verification of Employment eligibility in the United States is required.

Statement of Employment & Financial Interest is required .

You may be subject to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period.

You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

If you are a current federal employee, you must meet all time-in-grade and time-after competitive appointment qualifications within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement. To verify that you meet these requirements, we will review your responses to the core eligibility questions on the occupational questionnaire, as well as your submitted resume and required documents. To make an accurate determination, you will need to include on your resume your federal position title, pay plan, occupational series, grade level, agency, dates for which you held the grade level (stated as MM/YYYY to MM/YYYY, OR MM/YYYY to PRESENT), and total hours worked per week. 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).

TELEWORK ELIGIBILITY:

You may be eligible for occasional telework in which you are required to report to the office on a regular basis. Participation must be requested and approved by the supervisor and there must be a signed telework agreement. The number of telework days approved is determined by the agency policy, emergency situations, the approval of your immediate supervisor. You must have access to high speed internet and cell phone service meeting current Agency policy from the approved work location.

Qualifications

Applicants must have 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-13 level in the Federal service which provided the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the duties of the position.

Qualifying specialized experience must demonstrate the following:

Experience negotiating contracts with industry officials and to resolve problems that arise during the performance of contracts.

Experience in performing contracting functions (i.e. pre-award, post-award, cost/price analysis, negotiations, or administration) for the acquisition of goods or services.

Experience interpreting and applying Federal contracting laws, regulations, principles, policies, and procedures to develop and issues solicitations and contracts.

Experience working with stakeholders to assess their needs, offering solutions that will meet or exceed their expectations and providing quality products and services in a timely manner.

Experience leading debriefings with unsuccessful offerors and responds to protests.

In Addition, applicants experience must also demonstrate that the candidate possesses the following qualities:

Ability to assign, review, and supervise others;

Objectivity and fairness in judging people on their ability, and situations on the facts and circumstances;

Ability to adjust to change, work pressures, or difficult situations without undue stress;

Willingness to consider new ideas or divergent points of view; and

Capacity to "see the job through."

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).

Knowledge of a wide range of contract types, methods, and techniques and in applying innovative ways to achieve better value procurement.

Knowledge of Federal Acquisition laws, regulations and procedures.

Ability to effectively communicate with stakeholders (internal/external) at all levels of the organization or agency regarding contractual and/or acquisition matters.

Skill in negotiation techniques to conduct contract negotiations and to meet and deal with high-level internal and external stakeholders.

Education

Basic Requirements for GS-13 and Above

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

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.

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.

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.

Additional information

Veterans’ Career Counseling: If you are a veteran interested in receiving tips on preparing a Federal resume and/or how to prepare for an interview, you may email to schedule a session with a career counselor (“Veterans Counseling Session” should be placed in the subject line of the email).

Student Loan Default: If selected for this position, we will verify that you have not defaulted on any loan funded or guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are found to be in default, we will contact you to make arrangements for repayment prior to making an official offer of employment.

Suitability and Investigation: If selected for this position, you will be required to complete the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) to determine your suitability for federal employment and successfully complete a pre-appointment investigation/background check.

Essential/Non-Essential: This position is considered essential for purposes of reporting to work during federal government closures.

Financial Disclosure: This position requires a financial disclosure.

Bargaining Unit: This position is not included in the bargaining unit.

Selections: Agencies have broad authority under law to hire from any appropriate source of eligibles and may fill a vacancy in the competitive service by any method authorized. We may make additional selections from this vacancy announcement within 90 days from the date the selection certificates are issued, should vacancies occur. We may also share selection certificates amongst program offices across the agency.

Applicants tentatively selected for this position will be required to submit to a urinalysis prior to appointment to screen for illegal drug use, and will be subject to periodic random testing thereafter.

Applicants eligible for selection preference under the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) must meet the agency definition of "well qualified." At ED-OIG, this means a score of 85.0 or higher.

How You Will Be Evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:

1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications

Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your submitted resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if you are outside of the area of consideration (i.e., who may apply) or your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements.

2. Rating and Ranking

If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required KSAs by comparing your submitted resume and documents against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. (The occupational questionnaire is the list of questions in the automated system that you will have an opportunity to answer once you apply for the position). You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications and competencies listed in this vacancy announcement (if applicable). Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), the responses you provide on the application questionnaire, and the result of the Monster Competency Based Assessment(s) (if applicable) required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

Based on the outcome of this evaluation, you will be assigned a numerical score (out of 100 possible). If your responses to the occupational questionnaire are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration.

3. Referral and Selection

If you are found to be amongst the most highly qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request that you submit a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this