This position is located within the Office of the Executive Director, Financial Management Office (FMO), Acquisition Branch. The Acquisition Branch awards contracts and orders for necessary products and services under the requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). The position is a Lead Contract Specialist assisting the Chief Acquisition Officer in planning, directing, and coordinating all activities for a variety of supply and service contracts.

• Has signature authority to enter into contracts, agreements and related instruments on behalf of the FTC necessary to support the agency’s mission of preventing business practices that are anticompetitive, deceptive or unfair to consumers; and enhancing informed consumer choice and public understanding of the competitive process.
• Serves as an acquisition team leader and interacts professionally with a variety of functional program specialists such as accountants, attorneys, economists, statisticians and other subject­ matter experts to prepare and coordinate the Government position, and conduct negotiations with the contractor.
• Reviews program acquisition requests and the clarity of "scopes of work", selects the best acquisition method and ensures adequate understanding of instruction and performance characteristics.
• Serves as a principal contracting advisor to the program management office, and represents the agency as the program's contractual authority at conferences and meetings. Meets with representatives of commercial firms, manufacturers and educational institutions to ensure open competition, and to negotiate contract terms, conditions and modifications for goods or services.
• Negotiates for services that are new, lack precedent, and involve difficulty in defining the scope of work to be performed.
• Negotiates forward-pricing rate agreements and other cost or pricing arrangements and analyzes all applicable elements such as various expense pools, labor rates, contractor business volume forecasts, economic conditions, business trends, union agreements, local labor markets and inflation rates.
• Conducts general acquisition- related studies to search for buying and market trends, cost-reduction programs, compliance with small business and minority business program procurement activities, etc.
• Performs continual planning to integrate the actions involving contractual obligations and responsibilities of both the Government and the contractor.
• Assists the team through knowledge and application of leadership and team building skills such as group facilitation, consensus building, coordination, coaching, problem solving, interpersonal communication, integration of work processes and products, obtaining resources and liaison with the supervisor.
• Ensures that the organization's strategic plan, mission, vision, and values are communicated to the team and integrated into the team's strategies, goals, objectives, work plans and work products and services.
• Articulates and communicates to the team the assignment, project, problems to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and/or program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion.
• Leads the team in identifying, distributing and balancing workload and tasks among employees in accordance with established work flow, skill level and/or occupational specialization; making adjustments to accomplish the workload in accordance with established priorities to ensure timely accomplishment of assigned team tasks; and ensuring that each employee has an integral role in developing the final team product.
• Trains or arranges for the training of team members in methods and techniques of team building and working in teams to accomplish tasks or projects, and provide or arrange for specific administrative or technical training necessary for accomplishment of individual and team tasks.
• Monitors and reports on the status and progress of work, checking on work in progress and reviewing completed work to see that the supervisor's instructions on work priorities, methods, deadlines and quality have been met.
• Prepares reports and maintains records of work accomplishments and administrative information, as required, and coordinates the preparation, presentation and communication of work-related information to the supervisor.
• Researches, learns and applies a wide range of qualitative and/or quantitative methods to identify, assess, analyze and improve team effectiveness, efficiency and work products;
• Leads the team in assessing its strengths and weaknesses and provide leadership to the team in exploring alternatives and determining what improvements can be made (e.g., in work methods, processes and procedures).
• Supports program area customers by providing guidance and assistance in drafting statements of objectives (SOOs), statements of work (SOWs) performance work statements (PWSs), and with the conduct of acquisition planning and market research activities.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. citizen & meet the specialized experience to qualify.
• Probationary period of one (1) year may be required.
• Relocation expenses will not be paid.
• You must be able to obtain and maintain a background investigation.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.

All applications must be received on-line via USA Jobs

Time-In-Grade Requirement: If you are current Federal employee, you meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For this GS-14 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13 level. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility MUST be submitted within your application package. 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.

Qualifications

By the closing date of this vacancy announcement, you must meet the following educational/experience requirements listed below:

You must meet the requirements in 1, 2, or 3 below

1. All of the following:

• Completion of Training listed in Level I & II of FAC-C Course Requirements; or FAC-C Level II or III, or a DAWIA level II or III certification. If your certification is over 2 years old, 80 hours of Continuous Learning Points are required to maintain certification.
• At least 4 years of experience in contracting or related positions including one year of specialized experience at or equivalent to work at the GS-13 level described below;
• Completion of 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.

     2. Exception: If you held a GS-14 equivalent position in the Contracting series (1102) on January 1, 2000, you will be exempt from meeting the educational requirements for the grade level of that position.

     3.  Waiver: FTC's senior procurement executive has the discretion to waive any or all of the requirements in 1 above.

Specialized Experience For the GS 14 level: - You must also have at least 52 weeks (1 year) year of specialized experience at the GS-13 or equivalent level in the Federal service that has equipped you with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position.

Specialized experience includes:

• Preparing pre-negotiation memorandums and conduct negotiations with potential contractors
• Preparing the competitive range, post negotiation memorandums and the source selection decision document
• Reviewing correspondence, progress reports, and data submitted by the contractor during performance to detect any factors not in accordance with the contract or otherwise adversely affecting the government's interest and
• Leading work on a variety of highly complex and concurrent procurement and contractual processes and/or reviews

How you will be evaluated

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

DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE: PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Your resume or application must support the specialized experience describe in this vacancy. Your resume or application must contain sufficiently detailed information upon which to make a qualification determination. Please ensure that your resume or application contains specific information such as position titles, beginning and ending dates of employment for each position, average number of hours worked per week, and if the position is/was in the Federal government, you should provide the position series and grade level.

If you meet the qualification requirements, you will be referred to the selecting official. If your resume does not support the specialized experience, your final rating may be modified and you may be removed from consideration.

The Human Resources Office is ultimately responsible for determining your final rating. Your application will be rated on the extent and quality of your experience, education and training relevant to the position.