Contract Specialist

Department of Veterans Affairs • Washington, DC

406d • $103,409 - $167,336

About The Position

The purpose of this position is to serve as a Contract Specialist for the US Department of Veterans Affairs with the responsibility for performing professional work involving procurement of supplies and services using procedures outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, VA Acquisition Regulations, Public Laws, and agency policy. This is a Warranted Contracting Officer position. Incumbent shall meet all requirements and apply for a Warrant within 120-days of assignment. Incumbent shall successfully obtain subject Warrant within 60-days of submitting their application.

Requirements

• Completion of all mandatory training prescribed by the head of the agency for progression to GS-13 or higher level contracting positions.
• At least 4-years experience in contracting or related positions, with at least 1 year of specialized experience at or equivalent to work at the next lower level of the position.
• A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree, that included or was supplemented by at least 24 semester hours in fields such as accounting, business, finance, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge of Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and VA Acquisition Regulations (VAAR).
• Experience with various types of contracts including firm-fixed price, firm-fixed price with economic price adjustments, and cost reimbursement.
• Experience with negotiation techniques sufficient to negotiate prices, terms and conditions, contract modifications and settlements.

Responsibilities

• Performs a complete review of recommended sole-source requirements and conducts necessary market analyses to test the noncompetitive assumptions of requisitions.
• Responsible for advertising all applicable requirements and preparing the solicitation document using agency contract writing systems for issuance, ensuring regulatory and legal sufficiency, and promoting maximum competition.
• Conducts public bid openings, reviews bids and determines responsiveness and responsibility of low bidder in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements when using sealed bidding.
• Conducts negotiations for competitive and noncompetitive procurements.
• Conducts cost and/or price analysis of offerors' proposals.
• Reviews auditors' reports for adequacy of analysis while considering all information in developing an overall pricing negotiation strategy.
• Prepares detailed price negotiation memoranda, outlining in writing the details of negotiations with contractors in competitive and noncompetitive negotiations.
• Conducts post-award conferences with Contractor and Government personnel to provide information and to clarify standard and special contractual provisions of the contract.
• Closes out contract upon completion of the contract, resolution of all conflicts, and final disposition of payment and obtains adequate release of Claims documents to protect the agency.

Benefits

• Comprehensive total rewards package including salary adjustments based on location.
• Retention Incentive: 10% after 90 days of fully successful or better performance upon supervisor approval.
• Eligibility for annual leave accrual based on prior work experience or military service experience.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Administration of Human Resource Programs
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees