Contract Specialist

This Contract Specialist position is with Veterans Health Administration (Department of Veterans Affairs) in Phoenix, AZ. 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 Key duties: • Major duties and responsibilities include: The Contract Specialist (GS-13) will be assigned complex and sensitive contracts for the Agency and will assist team supervisors in coordinating contracting activities and training. Duties of the Contract Specialist (GS-13) include: Recommend the appropriate contract type or contract method for the product or service being procured. Develop acquisition plans for applicable requirements. Review statements of work to ensure they adequately describe requirements. Educate and guide customers through their procurement process to ensure they understand how their needs will be met. Interpret and apply laws, regulations, policies, standards, or procedures to address acquisition issues. Negotiate with vendors to acquire products or services or to address technical requirements, cost/pricing, or other terms and conditions. Review vendor submissions to determine acceptability and compliance with solicitation requirements. Establish and monitor acquisition milestones to ensure progress toward award. Prepare award documents, including clearances, compliance checks, and notifications. Serve as contract administrator on awarded contracts, monitor contractor's performance to determine if requirements are being met. Provide guidance to customers and stakeholders on contracting requirements. Draft solicitation documents in compliance with regulations, laws, and policies. Perform contract closeout actions (e.g., approval of final payments, archival of records), and identifies training needs and provides training. Work Schedule: Tour of Duty is 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. 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. 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. Definition of Virtual Work: Employee works outside of original hiring duty station at a VA-owned or leased space. Position Description/PD#: Contract Specialist/PD14007A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure: Required This recruitment is for several positions with the Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction, Office of Procurement Operations, Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC). Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/02/2026. 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-13 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-12. 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 education as described below: Basic Requirements: Applicants must meet the basic requirement for this position. To meet the basic requirement for Contract Specialist GS-13 and above positions, applicants must have: 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. 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. 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-13: Applicants must also meet the specialized experience for the GS-13 grade. You may qualify based on your experience described below for the GS-13 Contract Specialist position: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade (GS-13) in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience includes experience with: Serving as senior or lead Contract Specialist for an agency/department, recommending the appropriate contract type or contract method for the product or service being procured; Providing guidance regarding complex contracts to other Contract Specialist in a contracting office to include: firm-fixed price, firm-fixed price with economic price adjustments and cost reimbursement; Providing guidance and training to other Contract Specialist on contract methods to include: simplified acquisitions, sealed bidding, negotiations, cost sharing, multiple awards, commercial items and special provisions; Reviewing statements of work to ensure they adequately describe requirements; Negotiating with vendors to acquire products or services or to address technical requirements, cost/pricing, or other terms and conditions; Interpreting and applying Federal laws, acquisition regulations, policies, contract law and procedures applicable to acquisition and contract administration which includes: change orders, supplemental agreements, terminations, claims and close out of contracts; Serving as contract administrator on awarded contracts and conducts post-award conferences to negotiate required changes to contract conditions to protect the agency/department; Ensuring that customers are informed and understand the procurement process and all aspects of the contracts to meet agency/department customer service expectations. For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/. Note: Resume must include job title and employer name, number of hours worked per week, start and end dates (including month and year), list of duties and responsibilities for each position held. In addition, if the experience was a federal position, you must list series and grade for each position held. Failure to include this information may result in an ineligible rating. A full year of work is considered to be 40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment. View the full announcement and apply on USAJOBS.gov.