Clarification from the agency

All U.S. Citizens

If you are selected for this position, you will perform the following tasks:

• Researches and provides guidance on complex issues such as contract structure, negotiation strategies, and performance management involving procurement of significant importance to the Commission.
• Explains both federal and Commission policies and procedures to coworkers, other agency and industry personnel.
• Negotiates meaningful and effective contracts for a broad spectrum of the agency's needs, applying knowledge of law and business practices to a broad range of actions and establish and maintain the confidence and trust of agency staff.
• Coordinates procurement actions and meets frequently with customers regarding procurement activities.
• Executes all aspects of contracting transactions from applying techniques to research market conditions and sources, developing and refining their needs through strategy, evaluation, negotiation, and selection of contractors for a dynamic range of supplies and specialized services to obtain the best value solutions for the agency's diverse needs.
• Assesses workload, reporting workload and briefing the status of workload to both internal and external customers as well as obtaining/performing quality checks of all workload.
• Serves as advisor to customers in procurement planning meetings.
• Prepares and maintains acquisition plans, current milestone charts, and related schedules.
• Attends conferences and exhibits or initiates meetings with industry associations, Small Business Administration, and others for the purpose of expanding competition.
• Reviews all procurement package documents to ensure that the package is complete and information contained in the package is adequate for industry to respond.
• Develops acquisition plans that will best support the requirements and customer needs taking into account previous history and market conditions.
• Examines specifications to match requirements to available options, identifies exceptions or changes needed in standard contract provisions, selects appropriate contract type, coordinates socioeconomic factors and their appropriate activities, and makes determinations concerning method of solicitation, evaluation methodology and delivery considerations.
• Develops and publicizes/issues the solicitation. Amends the solicitation to clarify/change requirements, language ambiguities, or clarification of provisions and clauses.
• Evaluates offers/proposals for responsiveness/conformance to the particular solicitation and ability to perform the contract. Determines if competition is sufficient. Obtains reports and evaluates fiscal soundness, quality control, previous record of performance and other indicators of capacity to perform. Coordinates with the evaluation team to ensure evaluations are conducted in accordance with the Commission's plan.
• Educates the evaluation team on the evaluation process. Reviews the efforts of the evaluation team to ensure that they are operating in accordance with the evaluation plan. Reviews all evaluation documentation. Analyzes commercial pricing practices applicable to the commodities and the latest economic developments.
• Analyzes cost and pricing data submitted by offerors to substantiate direct and indirect costs and profit. Determines reasonableness of prices or costs offered. Conducts studies of specific item costs in areas of limited competition. Analyzes marketing data and terms/conditions of previous contracts. Conducts extensive negotiations before and/or after contract award.
• Formulates the negotiation strategy, identifies areas subject to negotiation, consults with technical specialists concerning data submitted by offerors, coordinates strategy with negotiation team, leads the negotiations and documents the results of the negotiations.
• Awards contracts within delegated contracting officer authority, or recommends award to contracting officer on contracts outside delegated authority.Prepares debriefings and the Commission's position on protests from unsuccessful bidders as well as renders/recommends decisions on claims.
• Responsibilities typically include incrementally funding the contract, preparation of rate and cost adjustments, redirection of effort, coordination of time extension, incorporation of change orders, issuance of stop work orders, issuance of cure notices or show cause letters and monitoring of Government property reporting.
• Monitors contractor's performance through telephone conversations, correspondence, reports, vouchers, and visits for status of contract performance, scheduling, problems that have arisen and provide proposed solutions.
• Assists Contracting Officer's Representatives (CORs) in understanding their duties and providing guidance and oversight of the administration of the contract. Interprets contract terms for contractors and provides appropriate advice and guidance. Negotiates and issues contract modifications.
• Terminates and closes contracts.

Conditions of employment

• U.S. citizenship requirement must be met by the closing date of this vacancy.
• This position is subject to a background investigation.
• Males born after December 31, 1959 must register with Selective Service.
• You may serve a one-year probationary period under this appointment.
• This position is not in the bargaining unit.
• This position is designated as eligible for remote work. If selected, you must be approved for remote work prior to onboarding in accordance with FTC's Workplace Flexibilities Policy.
• If approved for remote work or telework from a regional office, your salary may change based on your official duty station.

Qualifications

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

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-13 position, you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 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.

Basic Requirements

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

To qualify for a Contract Specialist at the GS-13 level, you must meet the following Additional Requirements.

You must demonstrate in your resume at least one (1) year of qualifying experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the Federal service obtained in either the private or public sector, performing the following types of tasks:

• 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

Applicants selected for this position will be required to maintain the FAC-C Level II or III Certification, which includes earning 80 continuous learning points every two years, beginning with the date of certification, to assure skills training is current every two years.


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). 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

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.

If your resume or application does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s). 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 minimum 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.