This vacancy is for a GS-1102-13, Contract Specialist located in the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Coast Guard, SILC Chief of the Contracting Office Division with the position located in Baltimore, MD Basic Requirements: This position has a positive Education Requirement in addition to at least one year of Specialized Experience or substitution of education for experience or combination (if applicable) in order to be found minimally qualified. Transcripts must be submitted with your application package. You MUST meet the following requirements: EDUCATION: You must meet all three requirements listed below; unless you are covered by an exception: 1) Completion of a 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree with a major in any field, 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. Official transcripts must be submitted at time of selection. 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. AND 2) Completion of at least 4-years of experience in a contracting or related position, 1 year of which was directly related experience equivalent to the GS-12 level in the Federal service. Directly related experience must have involved performing cost and price analyses in connection with the request for approval of awards, leases, claims, price adjustments, termination, price determination, escalation, change orders, etc.; evaluating prospective contractor's financial capability as part of pre- and post-award surveys and responsibility determination when appropriate; serving as Business Advisor to program officials in providing guidance/advice in all facets of the procurement process to include the development of the statement of work, requirements for competition, market research and request for information, past performance, preparation of evaluation criteria and safeguarding the interest of the United States in its contractual relationships, utilizing negotiation techniques to ensure contractors receive impartial, fair, and equitable treatment, and the preparation of documentation in these areas. EXCEPTIONS TO QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS : Applicants who have been in a GS-1102 position, at or above the GS-13 level, since January 1, 2000 without a break in service only need to meet the 1-year of directly related experience in order to qualify. The educational, training and additional years of contracting experience requirements do not apply to these individuals. AND 3). SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: To qualify at the GS-13 grade level, applicants must have at least one (1) full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the federal sector. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work. NOTE: All experience statements (i.e., duties, specialized experience, or occupational assessment questionnaire) copied from this announcement and pasted into your resume will not be considered as a demonstration of your qualifications for this position. Specialized experience must include the following: Executing projects for the environmental needs, design, construction, maintenance, and repair of facilities Leading and developing negotiation positions, executing negotiations, and ensuring compliance with regulations. Execution of contracts of variety contract types, acquisition strategies, and source selection methods. Specialized experience is experience that has equipped you with the particular ability, skill, and knowledge to successfully perform the duties of this position and is typically in or related to this line of work. FAC Professional certificate is required at time of appointment. Applicants will need to submit the FAC-C (Professional) or DoD Contracting Professional certifications or the hiring organization will need to request a waiver for that applicant. Certification requirements may be viewed at click here. NOTE: The agency may obtain a waiver for any individual not meeting the certification requirements. The Coast Guard Head of the Contracting Activity must obtain the waiver from the DHS Chief Procurement Officer prior to the extension of an employment offer. National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.This position does have a positive education requirement. If you are including education on your resume, report only attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. See Required Documents section for detail. Are you qualifying based on education? Submit a copy of your college transcript (unofficial is acceptable) from an accredited institution. Once selected & prior to appointment, applicants must provide an official college transcript. Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the U.S. (see FOREIGN EDUCATION below). College Transcript: If this position requires specific educational course work to qualify, or you are qualifying based in whole or part on education, you are required to provide all unofficial transcripts (undergraduate, graduate, etc.) by the closing date of this announcement or you will be disqualified from further consideration. Transcripts should be legible and detailed, showing course number and department (i.e., bio 101, math 210, etc.), course title, number of credit hours, and grade earned. If course content cannot be easily identified from the title of the course as listed on your transcript, you must submit an official course description from the college/university that reflects the content at the time the course was taken. FOREIGN EDUCATION : Education completed in foreign colleges or universities may be used to meet Federal qualification requirements if you can show that your foreign education is comparable to education received in accredited educational institutions in the United States. It is your responsibility to provide such evidence with your application. See Recognition of Foreign Qualifications click here Only experience and education obtained by the closing date of this announcement will be considered. Student Loan - Selectee(s) for this position who are newly appointed to a permanent or term position may be eligible for student loan repayment up to $10,000 (pre-tax) for one calendar year. More than one loan may be repaid if the combined repayments do not exceed $10,000. Receipt of this incentive will require a three-year service agreement.