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Supervisory Contract Specialist, GS-1102-15, FPL GS-15 (MP)

Department of Education
Department of Education Headquarters

Summary

This position is located in the Federal Student Aid, Office of Strategic Acquisition Planning (ENS), Contracts Operations Division (ENSO). The core mission of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) is to administer the federal financial aid programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Overview

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Accepting applications
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Location
3 vacancies in the following locations:
Work site options
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Remote job
No
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Salary
$147,945 - $197,200 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 15
Promotion potential
15
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full-time
Travel Required
Not required
Appointment type
Permanent
Occupations and job series
Supervisory status
Yes
Federal service type
This job is in the Competitive Service
Represented by a union
No
Drug test
No
Security clearance
Other
Position sensitivity and risk
High Risk (HR)
Jobs require a background check and some require a security clearance. The type depends on the job.
Background check type
Financial disclosure required
No
Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.
Announcement number
FSA-26-13030948-ST
Control number
882100400

Duties

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APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 50 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 50th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first. We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.

As a Supervisory Contract Specialist, GS-1102-15, you will be responsible for:

  • Serving as the supervisory contracting specialist who has unlimited signatory authority and an advisor to the business unit in the acquisition process and is responsible for pre-award and post-award functions involving highly specialized procurements of significance and sensitivity.
  • Reviewing negotiation strategies on major procurements and providing direction and guidance as required on a variety of types of contracts.
  • Managing and directing the full range of acquisition planning, negotiations, award, modification, management/administration, and termination of contracts encompassing the full range of diverse and extremely complex types (including the application of new and advanced concepts).
  • Exercising full responsibility in the application of procurement laws, rules, regulations, decisions, and other directives and sound business judgment on all contractual actions for the procurement of information management systems, technical support, and information technology systems and subsystems, and/or highly complex services.
  • Exercising supervisory control over assigned staff twenty-five percent of the time. Plans, directs, coordinates, and reviews subordinates' work, sets priorities, and establishes schedules for work completion. Assigning work based on priorities, requirements of assignments, and staff capabilities, ensuring timely performance of work and quality standards are met.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

Condition of Employment:

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you may be required to serve a probationary period or trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: - your performance and conduct; - the needs and interests of the agency; - whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and - whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period OR trial period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

You must meet all qualification requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement.

If you are a current federal employee, you must meet all time-in-grade and time-after competitive appointment qualifications within 30 days of the closing date of this vacancy announcement. To verify that you meet these requirements, we will review your responses to the core eligibility questions on the occupational questionnaire, as well as your submitted resume and required documents. To make an accurate determination, you will need to include on your resume your federal position title, pay plan, occupational series, grade level, agency, dates for which you held the grade level (stated as MM/YYYY to MM/YYYY, OR MM/YYYY to PRESENT), and total hours worked per week.

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).

Current Contract Specialist must provide a copy of their Federal Acquisitions Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) (Professional) or equivalent.

Applicants must obtain and maintain Federal Acquisitions Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) (Professional) within 12 months of the hiring date.

Key Requirements:

  1. Must be a US Citizen.
  2. Males 18 and over must be registered with the Selective Service.
  3. Must complete a Background Investigation and Fingerprint check.
  4. Must be determined suitable for federal employment.
  5. Relocation expenses will not be paid.
  6. You may be subject to serve a one-year supervisory probationary period.

Qualifications

Selective Placement Factor: You must meet the following selective placement factor:

The candidate must hold a current Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C (Professional)) certification or equivalent or meet the experience, education and training to complete the examination to obtain the certification within 12 months of starting the position.

Failure to meet the selective placement factor(s) will result in you not receiving further consideration.

Minimum Qualification Requirements:

You may meet the minimum qualifications for the GS-15, if you possess the specialize experience, education, or a combination of the two.

Specialized Experience for the GS-15:

One year of experience in either federal or non-federal service that is equivalent to at least a GS-14 performing two (2) out of three (3) of the following duties or work assignments:

1. Experience in the federal service, or equivalent in the private sector, administering a broad range of federal contract methods and techniques, including fixed-price, cost-reimbursable arrangements (e.g., firm-fixed price, cost sharing, cost-plus-incentive-fee, etc.), and special purpose contracts and agreements (e.g., basic agreements, small business innovative research contracts, indefinite delivery contracts, etc.).
2. Experience in the federal service, or equivalent in the private sector, leading, managing, and having complete authority for multi-million dollar contract actions (pre- and post-award procurements).
3. Experience in interpreting high level contracting policies and directives, identifying and resolving problems and mitigating risks with changing program requirements, and providing guidance to assist business units and staff with applying new and or unique approaches to solving acquisition related issues and concerns.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) The quality of your experience will be measured by the extent to which you possess the following knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). You do not need to provide separate narrative responses to these KSAs, as they will be measured by your responses to the occupational questionnaire (you may preview the occupational questionnaire by clicking the link at the end of the Evaluations section of this vacancy announcement).

1. Knowledge of the principles of acquisition planning and technical or program requirements to plan, manage, make decisions, or recommendations significantly affecting the content, interpretation, or development of complex programs concerning the management of procurement matters.
2. Knowledge of the principles of contract management sufficient to develop and implement a plan to procure multiyear program systems involving successive program stages and mission program stages and mission critical performance objectives and measures.
3. Skill in contract negotiation, contract administration, and contraction termination methods and techniques to initiate, conduct, assess or revise, and/or close-out contractual activities and to meet and deal with high level business, industry, and/or government officials.
4. Skill in applying professional knowledge of the theories and principles of contracting, to manage, direct, and develop critical and complex contracting functions supporting a business unit.
5. Ability to direct and/or oversee federal professional staff, technical employees and directs the work of professional contractors supporting complex contract and procurement administration, quality assurance, and the development, implementation, management and maintenance of acquisition policy and guidelines for FSA.

Education

This position has a positive education requirement.

Contract Specialist - 1102

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.


Foreign Education:

Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet education requirements if you can show that the foreign education is comparable to that received in an accredited educational institution in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence when applying. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must submit a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, please click Foreign Education.

Additional information

Veterans' Career Counseling: If you are a veteran interested in receiving tips on preparing a Federal resume and/or how to prepare for an interview, you may email careers@ed.gov to schedule a session with a career counselor ("Veterans Counseling Session" should be placed in the subject line of the email).

Student Loan Default: If selected for this position, we will verify that you have not defaulted on any loan funded or guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Education. If you are found to be in default, we will contact you to make arrangements for repayment prior to making an official offer of employment.

Suitability and Investigation: If selected for this position, you will be required to complete the Declaration for Federal Employment (OF-306) to determine your suitability for federal employment and successfully complete a pre-appointment investigation/background check.

Essential/Non-Essential: This position is considered non-essential for purposes of reporting to work during federal government closures.

Financial Disclosure: This position (requires/does not require) financial disclosure.

Bargaining Unit: This position is not included in the bargaining unit.

Selections: Agencies have broad authority under law to hire from any appropriate source of eligibles and may fill a vacancy in the competitive service by any method authorized. We may make additional selections from this vacancy announcement within 90 days from the date the selection certificates are issued, should vacancies occur. We may also share selection certificates amongst program offices across the agency.





Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

How you will be evaluated

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

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:
1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications
Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your submitted resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if you are outside of the area of consideration (i.e., who may apply) or your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements.
2. Rating and Ranking
If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required KSAs by comparing your submitted resume and supporting documentation. You will be evaluated based on how well you meet the qualifications and competencies listed in this vacancy announcement (if applicable). Your qualifications will be evaluated based on your application materials (e.g., resume, supporting documents), and the result of the USA Hire Assessment(s) (if applicable) required for this position. You will be assessed on the following competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics):

Supervisory: Oral Communications, Interpersonal Skills, Problem Solving, Decision Making, Customer Service, Leadership, Planning and Evaluating, Influencing/Negotiating, Strategic Thinking and Human Capital Management

Based on the outcome of this evaluation, your application data may be further assessed by a Subject Matter Expert (SME) panel. If your qualifications are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration.

3. Referral and Selection
If you are found to be amongst the most highly qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request that you submit a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this position.

Department of Education Headquarters

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) is looking for the best and brightest to ensure equal access and to promote educational excellence throughout the nation. If you are a highly motivated individual who would like to work for an agency that establishes policies on federal financial aid for education, distributes as well as monitors those funds; collects data on America's schools and disseminates research and focuses national attention on key educational issues, ED is the place for you! Provides national leadership on key educational issues. Awards more than $47 billion annually in grants, mainly to state education agencies, local educational agencies, and institutions of higher education.

Federal Student Aid (FSA) directs, coordinates, and recommends policies for programs that are designed to provide financial assistance to eligible students enrolled in postsecondary educational institutions. This assistance includes grants, loans, and work-study assistance to nearly 12.9 million students through approximately 6,100 postsecondary institutions. Additionally, FSA manages the administrative and oversight functions supporting programs authorized under Title I and Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

Agency contact information

Tyra Hunter
Phone
(202) 219-1528
Email
tyra.hunter@ed.gov
Address
Federal Student Aid - Office of Acquisitions Management
77 K St, NE
Washington, DC 20002
US

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