Clarification from the agency

Open to current and former Federal employees with competitive or excepted status; and all U.S. Citizens. Former members of the Peace Corps may be considered for ODNI employment only if five full years have elapsed since separation from the Peace Corps.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) Directorate for the Policy & Capabilities Directorate (PC) ensures the IC is best postured for the threats and challenges of an uncertain future, through strategy, policy, and capabilities development.

IARPA is an activity within ODNI's Directorate for PC. IARPA invests in high-risk/high-payoff research programs that have the potential to provide our nation with an overwhelming intelligence advantage over future adversaries. IARPA addresses cross-agency challenges, leverages expertise from across the IC, and transitions advanced capabilities to IC partners.

The IARPA Acquisition Team is expanding beyond its traditional acquisition model and is in need of strong COTRs with the ability to lead and work in both traditional and nontraditional acquisition environments. This includes working with nontraditional defense contractors, utilizing nontraditional acquisition models (e.g., Other Transactions, consortiums, etc.), and traditional FAR-based contracts.

Position Background:

IARPA seeks a highly motivated Senior Acquisition Business Manager with superior acquisition, business, resource management, and program/project management experience who thrives in a high pace, ambiguous, and innovative Research and Development (R&D) environment.

On this team, you will have the opportunity to apply acquisition knowledge and expertise with business management skills to collaborate with a number of different R&D efforts that support the Intelligence Community (IC). IARPA's advanced R&D mission covers a diverse technical portfolio that aligns to the ODNI's technical priorities, including advanced sensing and processing to connect identity to operations; applied artificial intelligence; microelectronics; commercial space; and open-source intelligence.

The position works alongside IARPA's technical Program Managers (PMs) to provide the acquisitions and business acumen to effectively execute high priority R&D programs.

In addition, the position is responsible for working and collaborating with IARPA's other business units, including plans, budget, and execution; contracts and intra-agency agreements team; security; information technology; records and property management; and external communications to support and manage organizational activities and priorities that enable IARPA to successfully execute its mission.

The position requires completion of internal Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) training to serve as a liaison between the Contracting Officer (CO) and vendors.

In this role, you are responsible for the business management oversight of the contracts, as well as pre-award and closeout activities for contracts and nontraditional acquisitions, including Other Transactions (OTs), as well as Economy Act orders. IARPA is seeking to strengthen and expand the acquisition knowledge within its acquisition team and may select more than one applicant from this announcement.

Position Details:

Serve as a SME COR/COTR for IARPA's R&D acquisitions including contracts, OTs and cooperative agreements.

Conduct advanced acquisition planning and programming to produce the acquisition and investment strategy and program plan and coordinate the acquisition through the contracting process (e.g., contracting milestones, solicitation, source selection, award, negotiation, and administration).

Actively collaborate with PMs and COs on acquisition and requirements planning to effectively define, plan and translate requirements into viable Statements of Work (SOWs) and/or acquisition work-products, including matters related to intellectual property, security, test & evaluation and technology transition.

Lead, plan, organize, staff, and monitor specific acquisition programs to ensure they meet cost, schedule, and performance requirements throughout the life cycle and maintain accountability for accurate and credible cost, schedule, and performance reporting.

Actively communicate and collaborate with PMs and other business units to conduct analysis of financial and programmatic progress to monitor and assess contractor performance and expenditures; assess funding needs over multiple contracts and requirements over a multi-year period and develop an executable spend plan; track financial execution from award through contract closeout; track contract cost & associated schedule variance; oversee and execute the payment of invoices for work performed.

Collaborate with Other Government Agencies and mission partners to ensure Interagency Agreements and intergovernmental financial transactions are executed appropriately.

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. Citizen residing in the United States
• Appointment is subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance based on an SBI with eligibility for sensitive compartmented information (SCI)
• Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration.
• A two-year trial period is required for all new permanent appointments to the ODNI.

Qualifications

FREE RESPONSE ESSAY QUESTIONS

All applicants must answer the following four short, free response essay questions. The responses cannot exceed 200 words per question. By submitting your responses to the following questions, you certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM]).

1. How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.
2. In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes.
3. How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you and explain how you would help implement them if hired.
4. How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.

Mandatory Requirements:

Experience managing complex acquisition programs.

Minimum of 5 years of demonstrated experience in business operations or business management overseeing acquisition and contract management activities.

Bachelor's degree in business administration, Management, or technical discipline such as Engineering or Information Technology.

Superior skills and experience with acquisition and contracting principles and procedures sufficient to monitor and oversee a diverse range of acquisitions supporting R&D.

Expert ability to identify, interpret, comply, and with and stay current on relevant regulations, guidelines, laws, and directives.

Expert understanding of the organization's financial processes. Prepares, justifies, and administers the project/program budget. Superior ability to oversee procurement and contracting to achieve desired results; monitor expenditures and analyze cost-benefits to set priorities

Superior ability to develop collaborative information and expert knowledge of sharing networks and building alliances with colleagues and counterparts within and/or across the organization, the IC, other government/private organizations, or professional/technical disciplines to achieve organizational outcomes.

3+ years of experience as a Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and/or Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR), or Industry equivalent, over contracts with increasing complexity. This should be in accordance with Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA), the Intelligence Community, other Government agencies, or Industry equivalent standards.

Superior ability to identify and use principles, rules, and relationships to construct arguments or interpret facts, data, or other information. Superior ability to dissect problems into meaningful parts and uses logic and judgment to determine accuracy and relevance of data.

Superior ability to identify and reconcile gaps, uncertainties, and key assumptions of data. Superior ability to integrate evidence/information, evaluates and prioritizes alternatives, and assesses similarities
and differences in data to develop findings and conclusions. Expert understanding of potential implications of these findings or conclusions.

Superior ability to develop collaborative information and expert knowledge of sharing networks and building alliances with colleagues and counterparts within and/or across the organization, the IC, other government/private organizations, or professional/technical disciplines to achieve organizational outcomes.

Superior ability to persuade others, builds consensus through give and take, and gains cooperation from others to obtain information and accomplish goals.

Superior ability managing complex projects/programs comprised of multidisciplinary teams to collaborate on work products, share knowledge and build networks and alliances with colleagues and counterparts within and/or across the organization, the IC, other government and private organizations, and/or professional and technical disciplines to achieve organizational outcomes.

Desired Requirements:

5+ years of experience as a COR /COTR Level II or higher, or Industry equivalent in accordance with DAWIA, IC or other Government agencies.

10+ years of expert understanding in business operations or business management overseeing acquisition and contract management activities and plans, including financials and spend plan analyses.

Acquisition experience with Broad Agency Announcements (BAAs), Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Information (RFIs), Grants, Cooperative Agreements, and Other Transactions (OTs).

Experience with source selections, including drafting solicitation and requirements documents.

Experience working or supporting research and development activity.

Certifications/Licenses: Project/Program Management, Advanced/Expert Level certification or equivalent.

For additional information about this position, please reach out to Jermaine Coleman (jermaine.coleman@iarpa.gov).

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

You must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement. We will review your resume and supporting documentation to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you are among the best qualified, you may be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.

A complete application package must include:

a. RESUME: Resumes must be no longer than two (2) pages in length. Resumes longer than two (2) pages will be removed from consideration. Applicants are encouraged to carefully review the vacancy announcement, particularly the MDRs, and construct their resume to highlight their most significant experience and qualifications relevant to this job opportunity. You must ensure the resume contains all of the required information and you organize it so we can associate the following information for each experience/position: job title; name of employer; beginning and ending dates of employment (month/day/year format), and hours worked per week. We will assume full-time unless otherwise stated. Additionally, include a detailed description of job duties, accomplishments, related skills and responsibilities, to include any supervisory/managerial responsibilities and number of staff supervised (if applicable), and series and grade or equivalent (if a federal position).

b. ESSAY QUESTION RESPONSES: The responses cannot exceed 200 words per question (please see questions in the Requirements section above). By submitting your responses to these questions, you certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model [LLM]).

c. COVER LETTER: Applicants must submit a professional narrative as a supplement to the resume to elaborate on their qualifications and previous work performed.

d. CURRENT SF-50: Federal Government employees must provide your official most recent SF-50 (i.e., dated within the last 52 weeks from the closing date of this vacancy announcement). An SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action, is used to verify current federal status, position, title, grade, and organization of record. If your SF-50(s) does not provide the information needed to make a final determination for qualification, you will be found ineligible for the position.

e. POSITION NUMBER: Reference the announcement number in the subject line on each document submitted.

Failure to submit any of the above-mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted.

Next steps