Section Chief, Contracts and Acquisition Management (O-6 Billet) Supervisory

Summary

ICE Health Service Corps seeks a supervisory Contracts and Acquisition Management Section Chief to lead acquisition planning, cybersecurity and privacy compliance coordination, and contract governance for health care technology. The role supervises three office leads, manages risk and performance, drives process improvement, and advises leadership on priorities. This position is only open to current USPHS officers. USPHS Call to Active Duty (CAD) candidates are not eligible for this position.

Duties

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Leads the Contracts and Acquisition Management Section and is accountable to HITU leadership for the overall performance, capacity, quality, risk posture, and mission support of the Section. Supervises three Supervisory Leads responsible for the Acquisition Planning Office, Cybersecurity Compliance Office, and Contract Governance Office. Establishes objectives, assigns work, evaluates performance, provides coaching and developmental feedback, and develops subordinate supervisors for increasing responsibility. Establishes the strategic direction, annual priorities, performance expectations, and operating plans for CAMS. Translates HITU, IHSC, and agency direction into executable work for the three CAMS offices. Integrates the work of the Acquisition Planning Office, Cybersecurity Compliance Office, and Contract Governance Office so acquisition planning, cybersecurity and privacy compliance coordination, contract award support, post-award governance, and closeout activities operate as a unified acquisition lifecycle. Establishes and enforces Section-wide standards for documentation, quality review, risk identification, escalation, recordkeeping, information protection, acquisition integrity, and performance reporting. Ensures standards are applied consistently across all CAMS offices. Represents CAMS to HITU leadership, IHSC executive leadership, contracting leadership, program officials, technical personnel, privacy and cybersecurity officials, and other agency stakeholders. Communicates Section performance, capacity, commitments, constraints, emerging risks, and recommended actions. Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with contracting leadership and other acquisition partners. Ensures acquisition-planning work is complete, actionable, and ready for appropriate contracting action and that post-award performance information is available to support authorized contract-administration activities. Provides executive leadership with timely and accurate information on Section performance, workload, staffing capacity, acquisition and contract risks, dependencies, compliance posture, and resource requirements. Develops recommendations supporting prioritization, resourcing, and executive decision-making. Coordinates with the Portfolio Management Office to ensure CAMS commitments, acquisition milestones, compliance dependencies, contract-performance constraints, and portfolio risks are accurately reflected in enterprise planning and schedules. Represents CAMS in governance forums and decision-making bodies affecting HITU acquisitions, technology contracts, privacy, cybersecurity, and portfolio activities. Ensures decisions, priorities, and required actions are communicated to the CAMS offices responsible for implementation. Evaluates Section-wide organizational performance, identifies systemic weaknesses, and directs process improvements to improve quality, efficiency, accountability, continuity, and mission outcomes. Ensures recurring issues are addressed through sustainable process, staffing, training, or governance improvements. Establishes workforce-development priorities for the Section. Ensures subordinate Supervisory Leads provide appropriate training, mentoring, performance management, and developmental opportunities for assigned staff. Ensures sensitive procurement, proprietary, financial, privacy, cybersecurity, source-selection, and system information is appropriately protected. Establishes controls to maintain complete, retrievable, and defensible records supporting acquisition and contract-governance decisions. Performs other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: Sit and/or stand for extended periods of time, generally six to eight hours. Perform repeated bending motions. Use average manual dexterity for computer operation. Use a telephone for extended periods. If the incumbent is a clinician, the incumbent may be required to perform temporary duty assignments in support of field operations for a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of 30 days annually.

Education

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES: Ability to lead a complex organization and supervise subordinate supervisors responsible for distinct but interdependent functions. Working knowledge of the full Federal acquisition lifecycle, including pre-award planning, acquisition support, cybersecurity and privacy compliance coordination, post-award governance, performance monitoring, and closeout. Ability to establish organizational direction, prioritize work under constrained capacity, allocate resources, and hold leaders accountable for outcomes. Ability to integrate acquisition planning, cybersecurity and privacy compliance coordination, and contract governance activities into a coherent lifecycle-management approach. Ability to evaluate organizational performance, identify systemic weaknesses, manage risk, and implement sustainable process improvements. Ability to establish productive working relationships with executive leadership, contracting officials, program officials, technical personnel, cybersecurity and privacy specialists, financial personnel, and external partners. Ability to represent an organization credibly to executive leadership and provide concise, accurate, decision-ready information on performance, capacity, commitments, risks, and recommendations. Ability to communicate adverse organizational, operational, acquisition, compliance, staffing, and performance information together with a recommended course of action. Ability to recognize and maintain appropriate authority boundaries, including the distinction between coordinating activities and exercising authorities reserved to Contracting Officers, privacy officials, cybersecurity officials, budget officials, human-resources officials, and executive leadership. Ability to establish and enforce documentation, recordkeeping, information-protection, and acquisition-integrity standards across multiple offices. Ability to exercise sound, independent judgment in managing sensitive, complex, and mission-critical organizational issues. Ability to adapt to changing mission requirements, acquisition priorities, schedules, staffing constraints, and organizational needs. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Applicants must meet the education and professional requirements applicable to their USPHS professional category. No specific academic discipline is required for this position. Applicants must demonstrate progressively responsible leadership experience, including experience supervising staff, establishing organizational direction, managing organizational performance, and reporting to executive leadership on performance, capacity, risk, and resource needs. Applicants should demonstrate meaningful experience in one or more of the following areas: Federal acquisition leadership, including pre-award acquisition planning, acquisition support, and post-award contract governance; Cybersecurity, privacy, information technology governance, or compliance management at an organizational level; Program or portfolio management at an enterprise scale, including health information technology, health care technology, or comparable complex mission environments; Organizational leadership, workforce development, process improvement, or establishing and leading a new organizational function; or Comparable complex, regulated, or mission-driven work requiring coordination across organizatio