Contract Specialist

Full Job Description

About the Position: This position is a DOD Cyber Excepted Service (CES) personnel system position in the Excepted Service under 10 USC 1599f.

Employees occupying CES positions are in the Excepted Service and must adhere to U.S. Code, Title 10, as well as Department of Defense Instruction 1400.25.

This position is located at Fort Meade, Maryland. CYBER EXCEPTED SERVICE POSITIONS ARE NOT SUBJECT TO THE TWO-PAGE RESUME LIMIT.

YOUR FULL RESUME WILL NEED TO BE UPLOADED TO YOUR USAJOBS PROFILE USING THE DOCUMENT TYPE "OTHER DOCUMENTS".

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job.

You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected.

See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

Army CES positions apply Veteran's Preference to preference eligible candidates, as defined by Section 2108 of Title 5 U.S.C., in accordance with the procedures provided in DoD Instruction 1400.25, Volume 3005, "CES Employment and Placement".

If you are a veteran claiming veterans' preference, as defined by Section 2108 of Title 5 U.S.C., you must submit documents verifying your eligibility with your application package.

Current Army Cyber Excepted Service (CES) Employee Current Army Defense Civilian Intelligence Personnel System (DCIPS) Employee Current Civilian Employees of the Organization Applying to Cyber Excepted Service (CES) Positions Current Department of Army Civilian Employees Current DoD Cyber Excepted Service (CES) Employee (non-Army) Current Permanent DoD Civilian Employee (non-Army) Applying to Cyber Excepted Service Positions Non-Department of Defense (DoD) Transfer Applying to Cyber Excepted Service Positions In order to qualify, you must meet the education and/or experience requirements described below.

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).

You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Additional information about transcripts is in this document.

Basic Requirement for Contract Specialist: Degree: Bachelor's degree (or higher degree) from an accredited educational institution authorized to grant baccalaureate degrees.

OR Exemption: You are exempt from the education requirements above if (A) you are a current civilian employee in DoD who occupied GS-1102 positions or contracting positions with authority to award or administer contracts above the simplified acquisition threshold in an Executive Department on or before September 30, 2000; OR (B) you are a current military member who occupied a similar occupational specialty to the GS (or equivalent)-1102 on or before September 30, 2000.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement above, to qualify for this position you must also meet the qualification requirements listed below: To qualify based on your experience, your resume must describe one year specialized experience that demonstrates the possession of knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies necessary for immediate success in the position.

Such experience is typically in or directly related to the work of the position to be filled.

Specialized experience would be demonstrated by: (1) Implementing acquisition strategies for a wide range of supplies and services with experience in the contracting career field; (2) Performing pre-award activities such as conducting market research and drafting solicitations; (3) Applying various cost and price analysis techniques to ensure fair and reasonable pricing; AND (4) Participating in complex negotiations while performing additional functions such as administering and preparing contracts to be obligated to ensure contractor compliance with all terms and conditions.

Some federal jobs allow you to substitute your education for the required experience in order to qualify.

For this job, you must meet the qualification requirement using experience alone--no substitution of education for experience is permitted. Major Duties:

• Plans the overall approach to meet contracting program objectives for a wide range of programs or systems, which may involve emerging rapid acquisition processes, span multiple years or involve successive program stages.
• Reviews complex requirements packages for adequacy and compliance with administrative, regulatory, and procedural requirements.
• Analyzes difficult, multi-faceted contracting issues; determines and implements course of action which in many cases departs from previous approaches.
• Procures complex and/or diversified services and/or commodities.
• Plans and coordinates the negotiation strategy with the negotiation team. Conducts negotiations independently or serves as lead negotiator on price, technical requirements, and/or terms and conditions of the contract.
• Prepares/oversees the preparation of the final contract to include appropriate standard clauses and special provisions and incentives, such as price redetermination, cost and performance incentive provisions, and/or post negotiation memoranda.
• Executes post-award contract performance management actions on assigned contracts. Performs contract administration.
• Serves as business advisor to a wide range of customers, makes substantive contributions to special projects/initiatives and performs special assignments.
• Serves as point of contact for procurements and provides contracting advice, guidance, training, and assistance to team members.