Why This Contract Specialist Job Matters
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Contract Specialist Job Overview
To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 11/10/2026. 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-12 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-11. 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/or education as described below: Basic Requirements: Applicants must meet the basic requirement for this position. To meet the basic requirement for Contract Specialist GS-12, applicants must have: A 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with a major in any field; OR 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. Employees who occupy GS-1102 positions at grades 5 through 12 will be considered to meet the basic requirements for other GS-1102 positions up to and including those classified at GS-12. This includes positions at other agencies and promotions up through grade 12. However, employees must meet specialized experience requirements when seeking another position. 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-12: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-11 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 applying Federal Acquisition Regulations (or similar), VA Acquisition Regulations (or similar), contract law, and procedures applicable to acquisition and contract administration including change orders, supplemental agreements, terminations, claims, and close out of contracts; experience working with various types of contracts, including firm-fixed price, firm-fixed price with economic price adjustments, and cost reimbursement, and contract methods to include simplified acquisitions, sealed bidding, negotiations, cost sharing, multiple awards, commercial items, and special provisions; experience performing cost/price analysis techniques used in evaluation of contractor proposals, change order proposals and to conduct negotiations; experience using negotiation techniques sufficient to negotiate prices, terms and conditions, contract modifications and settlements; experience applying commercial and industrial business practices to identify sources, analyze cost and pricing data; experience applying program objectives, technical terminology, and uses of equipment, architect engineering services, or construction services to be procured to plan, negotiate and administer the contract; experience applying contract administration principles and practices sufficient to monitor contractor performance and compliance with all terms and conditions of the contract. 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/.