Lead Contract Specialist

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO) is hiring highly motivated and skilled procurement professionals. Join us in supporting one of the most important missions of the U.S. government - the administration of justice - and work with a team of professionals at the forefront of procurement, leveraging cutting edge technology, continuous process improvement, and robotic process automation to provide best-in-class customer service to the judicial branch.

Duties

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AO), Department of Administrative Services, Acquisition Management Office (AMO) is seeking a talented Lead Contract Specialist to join its team. AMO provides acquisition program management and oversight, policy guidance and support, and conducts procurement activities on behalf of the AO and federal Judiciary organizations nationwide.

The Lead Contract Specialist works with a high-degree of independence while performing the full range of acquisition-related activities. The incumbent leads a team supporting information technology and major enterprise operations acquisitions. Our contract specialists and contracting officers rely on a combination of the Judiciary's unique procurement authorities and policies, and on FAR-based procedures to conduct procurements for a wide-range of supplies and services, including complex information technology, digital, and cloud-based services to support the administration of justice. This position reports directly to the Contracting Branch Chief in the AMO.

If you have a passion for procurement, a commitment to providing excellent customer service, and the ability to think creatively, we are interested in you joining our team. If you hold a Digital IT Acquisition Professional Certification and a Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting or a comparable certification, we are especially interested. Don' t miss out on this exciting opportunity to make a real impact by empowering the administration of justice through procurement.

The duties of this position include, but are not limited to:

1. Serving as a contracting officer and lead contract specialist.
2. Performing pre-award, post-award, and contract closeout activities for a variety of contract types, including, firm fixed price, cost, labor hour, time and materials, and indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts.
3. Preparing pre- and post-award documents, including solicitations, market research reports, pre- and post-negotiation memoranda, responsibility determinations, waivers, justifications, approvals for other than full and open competition, determinations and findings, protest responses, debriefings, cure notices, and terminations, etc.
4. Performing contracting functions for important and complex agency acquisitions involving diverse supplies and services, including IT-related services, hardware, software, telecommunications, cloud-based services, and other electronic systems and subsystems, including negotiating complex modifications to contract vehicles.
5. Performing collaborative acquisition planning with customers and team members while using innovative techniques and ideas to streamline the acquisition process.
6. Using in-depth price and cost analysis techniques to support the development of pre-negotiation and award price determination documents.
7. Monitoring contractors' performance, evaluating and negotiating change orders and contract modifications, and resolving post-award performance or payment problems.
8. Leading a team of one or more contract specialists of varying skill levels responsible for the completion of acquisition related actions, projects, and issues for your team's assigned customers.
9. Identifying, distributing, and balancing the team's tasks and workload based on established priorities, workflow, skill level, and occupational specialization to ensure timely accomplishment of the team's tasks based on identified priorities.
10. Communicating the team's assignments, projects, problems to be solved, actionable events, milestones, deadlines, and timeframes for completion.
11. Reporting on the team's progress in meeting established milestones and deadlines, and ensuring all team members are aware and participating in achieving team goals and objectives.
12. Overseeing and reviewing the team's work products, ensuring priorities, methods, deadlines, and quality standards have been met and they conform with policies and regulations.
13. Preparing reports and records on work accomplishments and administrative information and coordinating work-related communications through established methods.
14. Advising AO and court customers on contracting issues.
15. Staying current with training, certifications, and changes in policy, regulations, and industry that may impact acquisitions.

Salary

• $101,402 - $190,061/year

Conditions of Employment

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

1. All information is subject to verification. Applicants are advised that false answers or omissions of information on application materials or inability to meet the following conditions may be grounds for non-selection, withdrawal of an offer of employment, or dismissal after being employed.
2. Selection for this position is contingent upon completion of OF-306, Declaration of Federal Employment during the pre-employment process and proof of U.S. citizenship for competitive status positions or conversion to a competitive status position with the AO. If non-citizens are considered for hire into a temporary or any other position with non-competitive status or when it is confirmed by the AO Human Resources Office there are no qualified U.S. citizens for a competitive status position (unless prohibited by a law or statue), non-citizens must provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. and proof of entitlement to receive compensation. Additional information on the employment of non-citizens can be found at USAJOBS Help Center | Employment of non-citizens/. For a list of documents that may be used to provide proof of citizenship or authorization to work in the United States, please refer to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification.
3. All new AO employees will be required to complete an FBI fingerprint-based national criminal database and records check and pass a public trust suitability check.
4. New employees to the AO will be required to successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights/responsibilities, visit https://www.e-verify.gov/.
5. All new AO employees are required to identify a financial institution for direct deposit of pay before appointment.
6. You will be required to serve a trial period if selected for a first-time appointment to the Federal government, transferring from another Federal agency, or serving as a first-time supervisor. Failure to successfully complete the trial period may result in termination of employment.
7. If appointed to a temporary position, management may have the discretion of converting the position to permanent depending upon funding and staffing allocation.

Qualifications Applicants must have demonstrated experience as listed below. This requirement is according to the AO Classification, Compensation, and Recruitment Systems which include interpretive guidance and reference to the OPM Operating Manual for Qualification Standards for General Schedule Positions.

Specialized Experience: Applicants must have at least one full year (52 weeks) of specialized experience which is in or directly related to the line of work of this position. Specialized experience is demonstrated experience applying contracting principles and procedures to the planning, award, and management of contracting actions for a wide range of services and supplies.

In addition to the Basic Education Requirements for this position, your resume must also demonstrate experience in the private OR public sector performing the following:
Certification: Applicants' Federal Acquisition Certification-Contracting (FAC-C) Professional or Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) in Contracting Certificate is required, and applicants who completed all training and experience requirements to achieve FAC-C Level III prior to January 31, 2023, or Department of Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) certification Level III will be most competitive for this position. To validate that you meet the preferred training, experience, and certification requirements for this position, please submit a copy of your FAC-C Professional (include your previous FAC-C Level III) and/or DAWIA certifications. The Digital Services Credential (Digital IT Acquisition Professional Program (DITAP)) is highly desired, but not required. Education In addition to meeting the specialized experience described above, applicants must meet the following educational requirements to be placed in this job series at this level. Basic Requirement: 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. NOTE: To validate that you meet the educational requirement for this job series, please submit a copy of your transcript. Your transcript must reflect that you are seeking and/or possess a 4-year degree along with the 24 successfully achieved credit hours in the fields mentioned above. Failure to submit your transcript will make you ineligible for this position. Exceptions: Federal employees classified within the 1100 family as of January 1, 2000 are deemed to have met the basic qualification requirements for all 1102 Contract Specialist positions. Other Information

The AO is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Required Documents

For this job announcement the following documents and/or information are required:

• Resume - Any written format you choose to describe your job-related qualifications.
• Citizenship - Include country of citizenship on resume.
• Notification of Personnel Action (SF-50) - All applicants outside of the AO must submit a copy of your latest SF-50 to verify current or former Federal employment status.
• Veterans Preference documentation - Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty (DD Form 214), if applicable Application for 10-Point Veteran Preference (SF-15) and an official statement, dated 1991 or later, from the Department of Veterans Affairs or from a branch of the Armed Forces, certifying to the veteran's present receipt of compensation.
• Transcripts - To validate any education qualifications you claim.
  

How to Apply

To apply for this position, you must complete the online application and submit the documentation specified in the Required Documents section below.

The complete application package must be submitted by 03/28/2025 to receive consideration.
To begin, click

• Apply Online to access an online application. Follow the prompts to select your USAJOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. You will need to be logged into your USAJOBS account or you may need to create a new account.
• You will be taken to an online application. Complete the online application, verify the required documentation, and submit the application.
• You will receive an email notification when your application has been received for the announcement.
• To verify the status of your application, log into your USAJOBS account, https://my.usajobs.gov/Account/Login, select the Application Status link and then select the More Information link for this position. The Application Status page will display the status of your application, the documentation received and processed, and your responses submitted to the online application. Your uploaded documents may take several hours to clear the virus scan process.
• Click the following link to view and print the occupational questionnaire https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12669877.

Benefits

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