Contract Specialist

Summary

The purpose of this position is to serve as a Contract Specialist for the US Department of Veterans Affairs with the responsibility for performing professional work involving procurement of supplies and services using procedures outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, VA Acquisition Regulations, Public Laws, and agency policy. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package: Contracting Specialist - Total Rewards

Duties

Major duties and responsibilities include: Performs professional work involving the procurement of supplies and services using procedures outlined in the Federal Acquisition Regulations, VA Acquisition Regulations, Public Laws, and Agency policy. Assists the Acquisition Team Supervisors in coordinating contracting activities, performs contract reviews and provides guidance regarding complex contracts administered by other contract specialists, identifies special training needs, and conducts mentoring and contract training. Aids requiring activities in performing market research, reviewing specifications and statements of work, and approving acquisition milestone plans. Performs a complete review of recommended sole-source requirements and conducts necessary market analyses to test the noncompetitive assumptions of requisitions. Conducts public bid openings, reviews bids and determines responsiveness and responsibility of low bidder in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements when using sealed bidding. Conducts negotiations for competitive and noncompetitive procurements. Conducts cost and/or price analysis of offerors' proposals, reviews auditors' reports for adequacy of analysis and conclusions, and considers all information in developing an overall pricing negotiation strategy. Prepares detailed price negotiation memoranda, outlining in writing the details of negotiations with contractors in competitive and noncompetitive negotiations. Provides signatory authority and executes contract awards within warrant authority, as requested by supervisor. Conducts post-award conferences with Contractor and Government personnel to provide information and to clarify standard and special contractual provisions of the contract. Negotiates required changes to contract conditions to protect the agency. Performs cost/price analysis on change order proposals and analysis of delivery requirements. Negotiates prices and/or additional time required for performance and consideration on behalf of the Government. Utilizes contract writing system (i.e., Electronic Contract Management System (eCMS)), contract reporting system (i.e., Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)), financial management system (i.e., Integrated Funds Distribution, Control Point Activity, Accounting, and Procurement (IFCAP)) and prosthetics application suite (i.e., Graphical User Interface (GUI)), in accordance with Agency policies. Work Schedule: 8:00AM - 4:30PM Monday through Friday Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: This position may be authorized for ad hoc telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Ad hoc is defined as occasional, non-recurring telework. Virtual: This position may be authorized for Virtual Work. Virtual Work eligibility is for current VA Employees that are already subject to the return to in-person work mandate in their current position. Applicants without an existing assigned VA Staff Office must be located within 50 miles of a VA-owned or leased space. This is not a remote position. Definition of Virtual Work: Employee works outside of original hiring duty station at a VA-owned or leased space. Return to Office (RTO): RTO mandates are in effect and selectees will be required to report to in-person work unless they are approved for an exception or an exemption. Any approval for an RTO exception, exemption, or extension will happen after a tentative job offer, but before a final job offer. Position Description/PD#: Contract Specialist/PD14006A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/10/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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. 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 provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Basic Requirements: Applicants must meet the basic requirement for this position. To meet the basic requirement for Contract Specialist GS-12, applicants must have: A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with a major in any field; OR 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. Employees who occupy GS-1102 positions at grades 5 through 12 will be considered to meet the basic requirements for other GS-1102 positions up to and including those classified at GS-12. This includes positions at other agencies and promotions up through grade 12. However, employees must meet specialized experience requirements when seeking another position. Note: The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) does not grant Academic degrees; therefore courses completed at the DAU are not creditable towards meeting the 24 semester hour requirement, in the fields identified above, unless the coursework has been evaluated by an accredited institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, and appears on a college or university transcript. Specialized Experience, GS-12: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: experience applying Federal Acquisition Regulations (or similar), VA Acquisition Regulations (or similar), contract law, and procedures applicable to acquisition and contract administration including change orders, supplemental agreements, terminations, claims, and close out of contracts; experience working with various types of contracts, including firm-fixed price, firm-fixed price with economic price adjustments, and cost reimbursement, and contract methods to include simplified acquisitions, sealed bidding, negotiations, cost sharing, multiple awards, commercial items, and special provisions; experience performing cost/price analysis techniques used in evaluation of contractor proposals, change order proposals and to conduct negotiations; experience using negotiation techniques sufficient to negotiate prices, terms and conditions, contract modifications and settlements; experience applying commercial and industrial business practices to identify sources, analyze cost and pricing data; experience applying program objectives, technical termin