Contract Specialist

Full Job Description

This position is located within one of the service organizations of the National Acquisition Center (NAC).

The NAC is strategically aligned under the Office of Procurement and Logistics (OPAL), and Construction, both located in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The NAC is an organization that focuses on business solutions by partnering with the customer to strategically plan, award, and administer high visibility, and unique acquisition requirements with VA-wide implications.

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/02/2026.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service.

An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials.

If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement.

In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade.

Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

See the Required Document section below for more information regarding the SF-50s needed to verify time-in-grade.

You may qualify based on your experience and education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirements for Contracting Series, 1102 at the GS-12 level: A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with a major in any field; or At least 24 semester hours in any combination of the following fields: accounting, business, finances, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management.

AND Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization.

Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Applying contracting regulations, policies, procedures and requirements to administer contracts.

Applying pre-solicitation and solicitation principles, requirements, and processes to prepare solicitation documents including cost and pricing standards.

Experience using negotiation techniques to conduct pre-award and post-award negotiations such as supplemental agreements or settlement actions.

Experience in cost and price analysis techniques to prepare proposals against previous history, actual expenditures and established rates to determine negotiation positions.

Utilizing oral and written communications to convey technical contract regulations and requirements, and to document contracting methods and techniques employed to obtain negotiation objectives.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Accountability Acquisition Strategy Attention to Detail Contract Administration Cost Estimation and Analysis Customer Service Decision Making Flexibility Influencing/Negotiating Integrity/Honesty Interpersonal Skills Learning Reading Comprehension Reasoning Self-Management Stress Tolerance Teamwork Written Communication 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; religions; 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. Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week.

Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities.

Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The work is sedentary in nature. The work is performed primarily in office areas or conference rooms and similar environments.

However, it may require some traveling and visits to Government and/or contractor's facilities and other contract-related performance sites.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies.

To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy.

To be found well qualified, applicants must meet the following qualifications: Performing the full range of pre-solicitation, pre-award, and post-award duties, including acquisition planning, solicitation development, price/cost analysis, negotiation, pre-award responsibility and responsiveness determinations, and post-award contract administration including exercising contract options, executing modifications, and contract closeout.

Evaluating, interpreting, analyzing, and selecting contract provisions and applying Federal statutes and regulations.

Collaborating with managers or other Contract Specialists and/or Cost/Price Analysts to analyze costs, proposals, and trends, and makes recommendations for specification requirements.

Reviewing drafts and finalizing a wide variety of written documentation directly related to acquisitions such as plans for major procurements, milestone charts, solicitation documents, modifications and Request for Proposals.

Conducting briefings and meetings on complex acquisition issues.

Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/.

Major Duties:

Major Duties: Maintaining responsibility for the solicitation, analysis, negotiation, award, and administration of a group of contracts and performs the full range of contract or contract administration duties related to the life cycle of contracts.

Engaging in acquisition planning, pre- and post-award responsibilities and contract awards for all major contracting elements for the NAC.

Actively participating in various work teams to ensure the best possible acquisition outcomes, to include but not limited to; Contract Review Boards, IPTs, and negotiation teams, as appropriate.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Compressed/Flexible: May be available with supervisor approval Telework: Ad-hoc telework (situational telework) available as determined by the agency policy Virtual: This is not a virtual position Position Description/PD#: PD44084A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Required