Contract Specialist, GS-1102-13

Position Overview

The incumbent serves as a senior contract specialist responsible for pre-award and post-award functions involving complex, highly specialized, centrally managed programs of significant importance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Duties include managing all aspects of the functional area of contract management, including contract formation, solicitation, negotiations, cost and price analysis, award, contract administration, termination and close-out for a variety of contracts which frequently require special handling or other specialized terms and conditions.

Incumbent acts as an independent contracting officer with potentially up to unlimited authority to obligate the government. Incumbent has full authority and responsibility to execute any or all procurement phases of the projects to which assigned, from complete procurement planning to final award and post-award administration of the resultant contracts.

The national scope and effect of the program involved require incumbent to interface with senior leadership within the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and as well as within other federal agencies. Faced with difficult contractual questions for which there will be no clearly applicable precedents, incumbent must possess professional knowledge of procurement concepts, principles and practices sufficient to exercise sound judgment in order to be able to coordinate with technical and professional staffs both within the government and with private industry. Decisions made by the incumbent have considerable impact on the successful execution of programs of a national nature.

Major Duties

Pre-Award Responsibilities

• Performs procurement planning. Identifies within assigned programs those services to be acquired by contract. Plans, develops and establishes long and short range procurement plans, strategies and approaches for the overall acquisition program. Provides expert advice and input for procurement elements of program planning documents. Prepares and coordinates acquisition planning documents. Develops procurement objectives for the program in terms of competition and price range, and constructs the contractual vehicle, including use of pricing arrangements, subcontracting policy, socioeconomic policies and other conditions set forth by statute. Coordinates the preparation of solicitations with the technical staff to ensure that resultant contracts are technically sufficient and will provide the requested services to meet U.S. Army Corps of Engineers program requirements.
• Advises program officials in procurement planning meetings of the procurement objectives to be used and explores new or innovative contracting approaches to arrive at an equitable contract management. Assists in the preparation of statements of work, acquisition plans, source selection plans and prepares necessary determinations and findings and all solicitation documents. Conducts necessary site visits and pre-proposal conferences with industry to arrive at a clear understanding of the requirement.
• Serves as lead negotiator, planning the negotiation strategy, coordinating strategy with the negotiation team and leading the negotiations conducted with contractors to reach a fair and reasonable position for all parties involved. Performs detailed analyses of all elements of cost in contractor proposals, and participates in source selection processes for complex requirements. Makes competitive range determinations and selection recommendations to the source selection authority.
• Prepares the contract for award in accordance with all applicable regulations and statutes. When necessary, prepares initial Corps position on protests for unsuccessful offers and renders or recommends a decision on claims arising under the contract. (65%)

Post-Award Responsibilities

• Responsible for contract administration functions following contract award throughout the life of the contract. Develops and maintains systems to evaluate and monitor contractual performance, including cost adjustments, redirection of effort, coordination of time extensions, incorporation of change orders, issuance of stop work orders, issuance of the notices or show cause matters, monitoring of government property reporting, approval of payments, and close-out of contracts.
• Monitors and ensures contractor performance in accordance with all terms and conditions of the contract.
• Negotiates and issues contract modifications driven by technological advances, upgraded operational requirements and other changes characteristic of the type of contract/program involved. (35%)

Performs other duties as assigned.

Knowledge Requirements

• Expert knowledge of Army, DOD, and Federal Government contract and procurement principles, policies and procedures such as to enable the incumbent to plan, develop, implement and administer all contractual actions required to procure and support complex multi-million dollar, centrally managed programs; to develop innovative contractual language, terms and conditions. Serves as an authority on the acceptability and applicability of related contractual matter.
• Expert knowledge of negotiation techniques in order to develop pre-negotiation strategy and approach; to serve as the lead negotiator in complex acquisition negotiations; to prepare other senior program civilian and military for their part in the process; and to perform post award negotiations involving contract changes or modifications.
• Expert knowledge of contract administration principles, policies, regulations, and procedures in order to administer various contracting actions occurring concurrently, some of which are complex and long term.
• Knowledge of business and industry practices sufficient to monitor and control contractor performance and to provide direction and leadership as the senior contracting officer with authority to require corrective actions, negotiate modifications, and/or terminate contacts.
• Knowledge acquisition project goals, objectives, and activities in order to assist the Program Managers in developing procurement/contracting elements of program planning documents.

Supervisory Controls

The incumbent reports to the Supervisor who delegates full and unlimited contractual authority to the incumbent for planning and carrying out contractual activities required to acquire and provide continuing support to the designated programs. The supervisor is available for consultation as the incumbent desires. However, the incumbent is fully responsible for interpreting, amending, originating or devising new contract provisions, structures, terms and conditions, as required to meet the unique needs and conditions of the assigned acquisition program. The incumbent is considered an expert in the field of contract and procurement management, and work is evaluated only in terms of successful accomplishment of assigned duties and progress toward meeting acquisition project objectives.

As a warranted Contracting Officer, incumbent is the only Government official who has responsibility for Government actions prior to contract award and under the contract. It should be noted that, as a Procuring Contracting Officer, the incumbent may have personal civil and criminal liability for actions and decisions. For these reasons, the incumbent is largely responsible for supervising his/her own actions and decisions and for ensuring their appropriateness and legality.

Guidelines

Guidelines such as the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), DOD FAR Supplement (DIFARS), Army FAR Supplement (AFARS), Engineer FAR Supplement (EFARS) and Army Contract Directives, and Federal Laws are available. These sources provide only outlines and general methods to be used in procurement and do not provide specific instructions for handling the great variety of situations encountered in long-term complex acquisition programs such as the incumbent's assignment. In addition, the programs involved generate unusual, unique and often unprecedented contractual problems. The incumbent applies experienced judgment and initiative to interpret and apply available guidelines, and to develop new procedures, proposed policies and solutions when existing guidelines are not applicable. In such cases, the incumbent is responsible for developing new or modified approaches and techniques to cover unusual requirements.

Complexity

The incumbent's assignment involves the planning, performance, direction, and coordination of all broad and specific contractual actions required to accomplish the acquisition of and provide continuing support for major program. The project assignment is characterized by such complexities as national scope and effect of the programs, long-term contract efforts (up to five years), high dollar value, changes and modifications in technical and procurement plans, and other elements characteristic of dynamic acquisition programs. The program characteristics present complexities in contracting, including the necessity to develop and employ many unique contract terms and conditions to accommodate unique program contractual requirements. In addition, the incumbent must be aware that precedent-setting decisions and new procedures and policies developed for the assigned acquisition program will have an impact on the overall long-range contracts and procurement program. The incumbent serves as the expert advisor and senior contracting specialist assigned to centrally managed programs and is responsible for managing all contractual phases and actions throughout the life of the contracts. Decisions made relate to innovations in such areas as special provisions, advanced pricing techniques, evaluation and adequacy of specifications, Government furnished material, allowable costs, subcontracting provisions and other contract administration clauses and techniques which must be adapted to the needs of the particular procurement.

Scope and Effect

The incumbent serves as a senior contract specialist assigned to centrally managed programs with continuing authority to execute any procurement phases of the program from complete procurement planning to final award and post-award administration of the resultant contracts. The incumbent plans and negotiates numerous contracts which have periods of performance that extend one to five years. The incumbent has final authority for obligation of funds in all transactions. Contract negotiation and management functions performed by the incumbent are critical to meeting technical program objectives. The incumbent has unlimited Contracting Officer authority. The incumbent's decisions and recommendations have direct impact on contract activities within the District and other Army installations across the United States within U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Personal Contacts

The incumbent is the District representative for all contractual matters associated with several large and aggressive construction projects Corps-wide. Contacts occur in a moderately unstructured setting with contractors, operating and senior level technical, legal and logistics personnel within the Corps as well as equivalent personnel within other agencies.

Purpose of Contacts

The purpose and extent of each contact is usually different, and the role and authority of each part is identified and developed during the course of contact. The incumbent presents authoritative contractual decisions and policy recommendations. The incumbent presents and defends the programs overall procurement strategy, its schedules and costs; provides expert advice on contractual matters to program managers, technical personnel and other contracting officers.

This response is AI-generated, for reference only.