Rural Texas Strong - Procurement Specialist

About the role

The Rural Texas Strong Contract Specialist V serves as a highly advanced (senior level) for the Texas Rural Health Transformation Program (RHT), managing all stages of the contract lifecycle. Under the direction of the Contract Administration Manager, duties include managing the full contract lifecycle, including solicitation development, negotiations, financial oversight, risk analysis, and vendor performance monitoring. This position performs highly advanced (expert-level) contract administration work under minimum supervision and works under a high degree of autonomy. The Contract Specialist V must exercise sound judgment and independently initiate appropriate contract administration actions. This position facilitates cross-functional collaboration with leadership, staff, and stakeholders across multiple divisions and governmental agencies. This position will serve as a subject matter expert in all contract management activities related to the RHT Program.

Responsibilities

• Attends work on a regular and predictable schedule in accordance with agency leave policies.
• Contract Development and Management (25%)
• Conducts market research to determine the availability of services and/or technology during the procurement planning phase.
• Determines internal stakeholder procurement needs through conducting requirement gathering sessions.
• Works with stakeholders to develop negotiation strategies and leads negotiations as needed.
• Serves as a contract manager and subject matter expert on interagency agreements, contracts, grants, licensing agreements, and subscriptions.
• Initiates, monitors, tracks, and reconciles activities related to purchase requisitions, budget projections, contract expenditures, cost variances, milestones, deliverables, vendor performance, invoices, and other contract management activities.
• Facilitates and attends meetings as needed with internal and external stakeholders as related to contract administration.
• Performs quality assurance and audit to ensure compliance with state laws and/or regulations, best practices, as well as HHSC policies, regulations, and contract provisions.
• Processes all required contract documentation and checklists within 10 business days of the contract’s effective date.
• Maintains contract documentation and checklists in SCOR to ensure contract records are up-to-date and comply with HHS and agency policies.
• Responds to audit inquiries and ensures documentation supports contract decisions and actions.
• Participates and contributes to continuous process improvements activities including developing internal contract policies and procedures.
• Performs all SCOR related contract closeout activities upon contract expiration and within required agency timeframes.
• Contract Record Management (25%)
• Ensures all contract documentation is maintained and uploaded in the system of record (SCOR) for all contracts.
• Maintains contract documentation and checklists in SCOR to ensure contract records are up-to-date and compliant with state law and/or regulations, best practices, as well as HHSC policies and contract provisions.
• Retains accurate contract documentation to ensure compliance with state law and/or regulations, best practices, as well as HHSC policies and contract provisions.
• Communicates to department leadership and agency staff contract management results and recommends appropriate contract actions.
• Vendor Monitoring (25%)
• Makes sure contract performance is monitored by examining billings, fiscal data, and eligibility determinations for compliance with terms of contract and policies.
• Reviews the supporting documentation related to contract billing for eligibility.
• Tracks, manages, and documents contract budgets, deliverable statuses, milestone completions, contract expenditures, performance data, invoicing, and other contract events throughout the contract lifecycle.
• Makes sure contractor performance is monitored by reviewing contractor expenditures data, contract documentation, performance reports, technical assistance, training documentation, and other pertinent documentation relating to contractor performance.
• Communicates contract management results to department leadership and agency staff and recommends appropriate contract actions.
• Stakeholder Engagement (15%)
• Provides excellent customer service through written and oral communication with contractors and internal stakeholders.
• Assists contractors and HHSC staff on contract issues, contract management guidelines, and interprets HHS procurement and contract policies and procedures.
• Serves as a liaison for the CFO division with various divisions within HHS to include, but not limited to: HHS Contract Management Support, HHS Legal, HHS Information Technology (IT), and HHS Procurement and Contracting Services (PCS).
• Maintains CFO-Procurements and Contracts internal policies and procedures and recommends changes to align with best practices, Comptroller guidelines, and agency policies and procedures.
• Risk Assessments (10%)
• Coordinates the risk assessment process for contract monitoring and planning.
• Facilitates collaborative meetings with other department contract managers to determine monitoring events schedule and finalize monitoring plan.
• Makes sure reviews encompass both financial and programmatic compliance.
• Performs SCOR audit and works with all pertinent parties to resolve identified issues outlining criteria/requirements/processes and recommending appropriate dispositions.

Qualifications

Intermediate knowledge of:

• Contract management practices, tools, strategies, and cost monitoring for large scope or high-dollar contracts;
• System and procedures used to evaluate a third-party vendor’s performance;
• Local, state, and federal laws and regulations relevant to the administration of federal funds.

Proficient Skill in:

• Leading and conducting meetings within internal and external stakeholders using Teams/Go-To-Meetings/Go-to-Webinars or related products;
• Synthesizing, analyzing, and evaluating extremely complicated and technical information and translating that information into clear and concise documents or presentations;
• Making effective presentations and preparing reports; excellent written and oral communications skills;
• Establishing quality assurance and performance measurement tools;
• Preparing written analyses and administrative reports and special projects as assigned;
• Analyzing and solving problems and making recommendations affecting overall contracting activities; and comprehensively and accurately evaluating different types of administrative reports.

Demonstrated Ability to:

• Gather, assemble, correlate, and analyze facts;
• To devise solutions to problems;
• To prepare reports;
• To communicate effectively;
• To train others.

Work independently and efficiently in an autonomous environment and takes ownership of procurement projects from conception to completion.

Adapt to rapid changes as needed to address workload and priorities.

Rapidly resolve complex problems using critical thinking.

Manage and track contracts in compliance with HHS policies.

Work in a professional setting with diverse groups, stakeholders, agency departments, leadership, and contractors.

Establish and maintain positive, effective working relationships with others.

Registered Texas Contract Manager (CTCM) and Certified Texas Contract Developer (CTCD) required.

Minimum of three (3) consecutive years of demonstrated experience in managing and monitoring complex contracts for state governments.

Five (5) years of experience in contract and financial monitoring preferred.