Supervisory Contract Specialist (Branch Chief)

Salary: $125,776.00 to $190,627.00 Per Year

The purpose of this position is to serve as a Supervisory 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

Major duties

Major duties and responsibilities include: Supervises employees at the GS-07 through GS-13 levels. Directs the operations and activities of assigned team/staff providing contract support for pre-award and post-award functions. Operates with full managerial authority to plan, schedule, and implement the administration of administrative programs to promote and facilitate the execution of technology and functions under general direction and guidelines. Assigns work to subordinates and delegates authority as necessary. Evaluates performance, provides advice, counsel, and guidance to subordinates. Interviews candidates for positions and recommends and/ or approves appointments, promotions, and reassignment of staff. Hears and resolves complaints and grievances in accordance with applicable personnel procedures. Takes personnel actions such as disciplinary and adverse actions. Identifies and makes provisions for training and development of subordinates. Procures difficult products and services. Uses a variety of contract types to procure items and/or services. Locates sources for the products and services procured. Contract actions cover scarce materials or advanced design services peculiar to the project, program, or subsystem. Serves as an advisor to Resources Planning and Project Managers for annual procurement plans. Researches trends and patterns to effectively implement new and improved program management methods and procedures. 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#: Supervisory Contract Specialist (Branch Chief)/PD62148A 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, 10/15/2026. 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-14 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-13. 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. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: 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 would typically include, but are not limited to: Experience preparing detailed price negotiation memoranda, outlining in writing the details of negotiations with contractors in competitive and noncompetitive negotiations Experience conducting public bid openings, reviews bids and determines responsiveness and responsibility of low bidder. For negotiated procurements, ability to determine the selected offeror(s) that represent the best value (price and other factors considered) and meets regulatory requirements to be considered a responsible contractor. Experience serving as the Source Selection Authority (SSA) and establishing Technical Evaluation Board (TEB) to determine acceptability and ranking of technical proposals. Experience identifying developmental and training needs of employees, providing for and arranging for need developmental and training. Experience managing a full range of pre-award and post-award contracting functions involving multiple complex contracts including knowledge of Federal and VA Acquisition Regulations, rules, guidelines, policies, procedures, and directives. 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/.