Junior PSC Contract Specialist

Job Description

Macfadden is seeking a Junior PSC Contract Specialist to support the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) in Washington, DC. The Jr. Contract Specialist provides support to USAID offices in the procurement of humanitarian response personnel worldwide. The PSC hiring mechanism allows OFDA to establish contracts with disaster response subject-matter experts in a fast and flexible manner. The Jr. Contract Specialist on the PSC Team primary focus is on the pre-award component of the procurement workflow. The Jr. Contract Specialist will interface extensively with the government, contractors, and selectees for contract award. Because there is a human resources component to the position, the Jr. Contract Specialist must be comfortable with employee in-take procedures, such as facilitating salary negotiations, verifying contract pre-requisites, providing guidance on clearance processes, etc. The Jr. Contract Specialist reports directly to the PSC Deputy Team Lead, and assist with a variety of tasks across the team’s portfolio (see specific job duties, below).

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Basic Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree (equivalent work experience may be considered)
• Ability to obtain an interim and final Secret security clearance

Experience:

• Three (3) to five (5) years related experience
• Government contracting experience, including demonstrated understanding of and experience with applicable laws, rules, regulations and procedures governing contracting operations

Skills:

Successful candidates must be reliable, highly organized, motivated, and able to excel in a deadline-oriented work environment. S/he will have:

• Analytical. Strong ability to identify problems and solve them with demonstrable mathematical and reasoning ability.
• Communications. Excellent communication skills, both written and oral. Must communicate with clients, team members, and other stakeholders in the contracting process.
• Organization. Process-oriented, efficient, and highly organized with high attention to detail. Ability to balance priorities and manage multiple work streams.
• Professionalism. Customer service oriented with the ability to build strong relationships.
• Reliability. The ability to maintain focus, complete tasks independently as assigned, and execute recurring tasks (maintain trackers, distributions, etc.) with minimal prompting.
• Self-motivated. The ability to complete tasks independently and in a timely manner.
• Technology. Superior computer skills and the willingness/ability to learn new software and databases management tools quickly. (Microsoft Office in a network environment, Google Suite, etc.)

U.S. Citizenship is required; selected candidate must be able to qualify for a government sponsored clearance.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Providing necessary onboarding documentation and information to selected candidates.
• Facilitating salary negotiations in compliance with USG regulations and procedures.
• Reviewing, proofreading, and processing pre-award contract documents in order to expedite the Contracting Officer’s review/approval process.
• Monitoring actions and deadlines to ensure all assigned tasks are completed in a timely manner.
• Serving as the primary point of contact for OFDA, the Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA), and the selected candidates on all aspects for assigned actions.
• Liaising with various DCHA offices and with OAA Contracting Officer(s) as required.
• Responding to OFDA and OAA inquiries on selected candidates status, progress, and issues; responding to basic inquiries from current contractors.
• Providing ad-hoc and regular reports to OAA and/or OFDA, as required.
• Ensuring assigned actions and work products are in compliance with USAID, USG and OFDA regulations, laws, standards, and procedures.
• Maintaining electronic, hard copy files and systems in compliance with USG, USAID and OFDA standards.
• Providing administrative support duties including scanning, copying, filing and other administrative support.
• Proposing ways in which the team can improve and/or processes can be streamlined.
• Participating in trainings and other opportunities as relevant to the position and role.

This position will back-stop the PSC Contracts Coordinator, as needed, but not limited to:

• Monitoring email traffic and maintaining a high level of responsiveness.
• Maintaining files, databases and trackers via prompt updates and ad-hoc quality control reviews/spot-checks.
• Preparing administrative Memos.
• Distribution of executed contract related documents.
• Assisting and preparing materials for Personal Services Contractors onboarding meeting.
• Other duties as assigned.

PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

Quality of Work

• Prepares pre-award documents independently with appropriate content and minimal errors.

Pre-award documentation must be prepared in accordance with the appropriate policies, regulations and procedures. The Jr. Contract Specialist must demonstrate good judgement and an understanding of when to seek additional information. The Jr. Contract Specialist must demonstrate knowledge of his or her assigned portfolio, using personal tools (checklists, spreadsheets, etc.) as necessary to accomplish this. The Jr. Contract Specialist must thoroughly review all related materials when preparing pre-award documents, ensuring all details are accurately captured. The Jr. Contract Specialist must be able to work with minimal oversight.

• Is able to work at a fast pace and consistently meets deadlines.

The Jr. Contract Specialist must demonstrate effective time-management skills, as well the ability to respond to a high volume of daily email and verbal requests.The Jr. Contract Specialist should also demonstrate an understanding of requests or an ability to work with the team on unclear requests, and should consistently identify and respond to all aspects of multi-part tasks. In addition, the Jr. Contract Specialist should also maintain and update statuses of assigned actions in the designated trackers.

Job Skills

• Demonstrates strong attention to detail and ability to manage multiple work streams and balance priorities.

The Jr. Contract Specialist must produce pre-award documents that are clear and concise. Able to multitask and perform a variety of tasks and functions concurrently while maintaining attention to detail, in high stress environments, completing tasks within limited timeframes and with limited direction.

Professional Qualities

• Understands Client relationship and handles communications effectively and appropriately.

Have excellent written and verbal communications skills. The Jr. Contract Specialist should be knowledgeable, be able to convey current and accurate information when facilitating onboarding efforts and conducting PSC orientations for new hires.

• Meets client needs, acts professionally, shows initiative and represents the team positively.

The Jr. Contract Specialist must produce accurate, high quality work rapidly, while contributing to a team in a collegial manner.

Physical Requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, and use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls.The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms.Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision.The employee must occasionally lift or move up to 25 pounds.

This position description reflects Macfadden’s assignment of essential functions; nothing in this job description restricts the Company’s latitude to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.

PAE is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our hiring practices provide equal opportunity for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, gender, national origin, age, United States military veteran’s status, ancestry, sexual orientation, marital status, family structure, medical condition including genetic characteristics or information, veteran status, or mental or physical disability so long as the essential functions of the job can be performed with or without reasonable accommodation, or any other protected category under federal, state, or local law.

About the Organization

PAE is a leading provider of enduring support for the essential missions of the U.S. Government, its allied partners and international organizations. As it enters its 60th year of business, PAE’s current portfolio includes capabilities in critical facility infrastructure, aviation, logistics, training, range operations and national security solutions, to support some of the most meaningful and exciting missions in the world.

Today, the approximately 20,000 members of our global workforce perform with excellence and dedication in roughly 60 countries, on all seven continents, in some of the world's most challenging regions. We attribute our success to the quality of our work and the integrity and high ethical standards that define our business operations. PAE is headquartered in Arlington, Va.