Clarification from the agency

ALL U.S. CITIZENS. DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY

Specific duties include:

• Performs all pre-award and post award acquisition functions for complex acquisitions spanning multiple functional areas to include services, professional services, minor construction, architect/engineering and contracts that may involve unique or novel services
• Provides guidance to less experienced staff, technical and program personnel involved in the development of the SOW or data requirements.
• Reviews requests for acquisition to ensure that each request is complete and adequate funding, description of supplies or services required; provides advice and guidance to less experienced contracting staff.
• Promotes competition and approves or recommends approvals of noncompetitive justifications when competition is impractical.
• Ensures the compliance of acquisition products, including compliance with FAR, VAAR, use of ECMS, and FPDS.
• Determines price reasonableness for all awards and contractor responsibility where applicable.
• Communicates workload status to customers and supervisor. Achieves Procurement Action Lead Times (PALT) for awards.
• Masters all VA and federal electronic acquisition systems, including but not limited to SAM, eCMS, FPDS, PPIRS/CPARS and ensures all systems are properly used for every acquisition.
• Chooses contract type and ensure the solicitation is properly structured to define requirement and basis for selection.
• Incorporates new or changed contract requirements with appropriate modifications, or settles issues that develop after contract award.
• Works with program customer, supervisor and legal counsel to resolve protest and disputes as necessary.

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:11/12/2024.

TIME-IN-GRADE REQUIREMENT: Applicants who are current Federal employees, former Federal employees applying for reinstatement, or a current federal employee applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment must meet time in grade requirements. 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.

NOTE: This does not apply to Non-Federal Applicants, or applicants applying for consideration under Non-Competitive Authority (i.e.... "30% or more Disability", VRA, and/or Schedule A).

To verify your eligibility, you must submit a copy of your most recent Notification of Personnel Action, Standard Form 50 (SF-50). You must provide a copy of your most recent SF-50 that indicates proof of status, and shows Time in Grade (for example, you were a career or career-conditional employee) and identifies your position title, series, grade, step, salary, tenure, and type of service (Competitive or Excepted). 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 also submit your most recent promotion or within-grade increase in addition to your recent SF-50. If you previously held a higher grade, you must also submit any SF-50 showing that grade. DO NOT submit Award SF-50's and/or General Adjustment SF-50's as they cannot be used to prove time-in-grade.

• For a GS-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12 level.

This is an individual qualification standard developed by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy under the authority of 41 U.S.C. 433. It does not apply to Department of Defense positions.

Basic Requirements for GS-13 and Above:

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.

• Specialized Experience: 1 year equivalent to at least next lower grade level.
  • This position is considered a senior level contracting position, as defined by the Federal Acquisition Institute, and therefore carries a requirement for specialized experience. Specialized experience is defined as demonstrated experience equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal service specifically related to federal procurement. In federal procurement most activities performed by a contract specialist are inherently governmental. While not all inclusive, illustrative examples include:
    • Functioning as the source selection authority in source selection activities, approving contractual documents, including documents that define requirements, incentive plans and evaluation criteria, determining prices fair and reasonable, determining contractor responsibility, awarding contracts, administering contracts (including modifying contracts), terminating contracts, and determining whether costs are reasonable, allocable and allowable (Federal Register Policy Letter 11-01.)
    • In accordance with VA policy the incumbent is required to have a FAC-C Professional Certification at the time of assuming the position. The FAC-C Professional applies to all executive civilian agencies and this certification program is accepted by all agencies as evidence that an employee meets readiness requirements to perform contracting functions. The specialized position requirements are in accordance with the Office of Federal Procurement Policy memorandum for the FAC-C workforce as outlined in OFPP Memorandum https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/FAC-C-Modernization-Memorandum-19-Jan-2023.pdf and implemented by the Office of Personnel Management standards for 1102s https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/1100/contracting-series-1102/.

How you will be evaluated

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

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE. Applicants who do not fully address the specialized experience needed for the position (as described above in the job announcement) in their resume will not be referred for consideration.

After you have met the minimum qualifications, you will be rated on the following competencies based on your application for this position:

• Problem Solving - Analyzes problems; weighs relevance and accuracy of information; evaluates alternatives and implements solutions.
• Customer Service - Anticipates and meets the needs of customers. Delivers quality products and services; committed to improvement.
• Communication (oral) - Oral communications are clear/convincing and organized for audience. Listens effectively; clarifies information as needed; listens to challenges with procurements and offers solutions.
• Flexibility - Prioritizes work effectively and is able to asses task importance and urgency.
• Interpersonal Skills - Treats others with respect. Considers and responds appropriately to the needs of complex situations. Provides meaningful advice and mentorship to less experienced staff.
• Technical Competence - Applies principles, procedures, regulations, and policies related to acquisition expertise; assists less experienced staff in interpreting policies, procedures and or processes to help them meet mission requirements.
• Communication (written) - Written communications are clear/convincing and organized for audience. Listens effectively; clarifies info as needed; written guidance to less experienced staff is concise and accurate.