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Summary This position is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Acquisition Division (AD), Office of Mission Support (OMS), Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA). The incumbent serves as a Contract Specialist within the AD and reports to a Supervisory Contract Specialist and serves as a member of an operational contracting team. The Contract Specialist is responsible for pre-award and post-award acquisition in support of VBA's mission. Responsibilities 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. Work Schedule: Full time, Monday through Friday, 8 am - 4:30 pm Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Not applicable, this is a remote position Virtual: Not applicable, this is a remote position Position Description/PD#: Contract Specialist; GS-1102-13 PD# 37361-A Financial Disclosure Report: Required. Requirements Conditions of Employment Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement:11/08/2024. 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. BASIC INDIVIDUAL REQUIREMENTS: You must meet one of the following basic requirements: Individual Occupational Requirements Contracting Series, 1102 (opm.gov) 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: 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 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. 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. 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. MINIMUM QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENT: You may qualify based on your experience as described below: GS-13 Grade Level: 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/. Volunteer Experience: 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; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Full vs. Part-Time Employment: Full-time employment is considered to be at least 35 hours per week. Part-time experience will be credited on a pro-rated basis; when including part-time employment in your resume you must specify the average hours worked per week. Physical Requirements: Position is sedentary. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at http://://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Education Additional Information VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified (have a final rating of 85 or more) for this vacancy. Click here for more information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility. Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members. For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document. Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer (TJO). Please visit the Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP), https://www.va.gov/EMPLOYEE/docs/The-Fair-Chance-to-Compete-Act.pdf If you are unable to apply online or need an alternate method to submit documents, please reach out to the Agency Contact listed in this Job Opportunity Announcement. This is a bargaining unit position.