Senior Contract Specialist

Position Overview

Office of Fiscal Strategy

The Office of Fiscal Strategy (OFS) is a catalyst for ensuring excellence, equity, and efficiency to ensure DCPS achieves our goals for our students.

We want employees who recognize and embrace the importance of a strong partnership between schools and Central Services.

When Central Services runs efficiently, and provides high-quality customer service, our school-based employees can concentrate on educating our children and leading our schools.

By combining financial planning with strategic planning, this office supports DCPS with actively identifying resources, costs and budget and aligning them with our mission and goals.

The Office of Fiscal Strategy is organized into three divisions :

Finance : Ensures school and central office finances are allocated and expended in alignment with the agency’s strategic plan, in a manner that fosters transparency, maximizes funds, promotes equity, and ensures compliance with requirements.

School Funding : Oversees the annual budget formulation process for DCPS schools, including the allocation of resources, engaging and collaborating with internal and external budget stakeholders, and publishing school budget reports and information.

The team ensures that the allocation of resources is aligned to the agency's vision and strategic priorities. School Finance also works closely with school leaders and school finance professionals to support schools with managing and spending funds efficiently.

Budget Strategy : Oversees annual development and implementation of agency budget, including coordination of new policies and programs as directed by DCPS leadership.

Budget Strategy works to solve long-term budget challenges, improve budget processes across the agency, and serves as key relationship holder with OCFO Grant Administration : Oversees and manages all direct federal, intradistrict, and private grants.

The team ensures that DCPS is following all relevant federal grant regulations, and that all grants are expended in accordance with the approved grant application.

Monitoring and Program Support : Exists to ensure implementation, guidance, and compliance of federal government mandates that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) must provide to schools.

The team works with school leaders and service providers to understand best practices for operating a successful federal program in public and private schools, and oversees fiduciary responsibilities as outlined in ESSA, Titles I-IV.

Contracts & Acquisitions : Provides procurement services to schools and Central Services programs through contract and purchase order processes in alignment with District and Federal procurement laws and regulations.

Manages and facilitates the procurement of goods and services for all DCPS schools and central services, that fosters transparency, maximizes buying power, promotes equity of spending with local vendors, and ensures compliance with contractual requirements.

Procurement Operations : Oversees the DCPS purchase card program which allows for the quick procurement of small amounts of goods and services.

Addresses anti-deficient or improper procurements through the ratification process. Work closely with schools and Central Services programs to assist with day-to-day procurement questions and issues to ensure efficient procurement practices.

Complex Contracts Unit : Ensures all contracting and procurement activity valued at $100,000 and above is consistently executed in accordance with the District of Columbia and Federal laws and regulations.

Directs the development, coordination, facilitation, management, and milestone planning for the acquisition of goods and services required by DCPS.

Liaises with program and school points of contact, serving as the primary point-of-contact on large and / or complex procurements.

Small Purchasing Unit : Ensures all contracting and procurement activity valued under $100,000 is consistently executed in accordance with the District of Columbia laws and regulations.

Facilitates the processing and fulfillment of small purchases in coordination with the needs of schools and Central Office program customers.

Core Team : Works to improve organizational effectiveness and to ensure daily fiscal operations are managed efficiently across DCPS Central Services.

The Core Team advocates for DCPS Programs by shepherding cross-team collaboration with procurement, budget, and HR teams.

Core Team provides oversight to ensure equitable, transparent, and compliant personnel and non-personnel spending through quality customer service.

Supports schools and Central Office in purchasing goods in alignment with procurement law and regulation.

The Senior Contract Specialist ensures all contracting and procurement activity is consistently executed in accordance with the District of Columbia laws and regulations while working independently in managing all procurement assignments.

As the senior member of a specialist group, the Senior Contract Specialist provides leadership and guidance to contract specialists and junior contract specialists, liaises with program and school points of contact, and serves as the primary specialist on large and / or complex procurements, especially those valued at $100,000 and above.

The Senior Contract Specialist will report to the Director, Contracts & Acquisitions.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The below statements are intended to describe the general nature and scope of work being performed by this position. This is not a complete listing of all responsibilities, duties, and / or skills required.

Other duties may be assigned.

• Serves as a group lead for a small group of contract specialists dedicated to a caseload of schools and programs, including regular communication with school / program points of contact and reporting to senior management.
• Advises program and school officials in procurement planning meetings, advises program and school officials of the procurement objectives to be used, and assists in the preparation of statements of work.
• Monitors and helps manage acquisition plans, appropriate milestone charts, and related procurement tasks until contract award.
• Develops procurement strategies including overall goals and metrics, identifies the level and type of services to be provided, particular groups, or individuals to be contacted, acceptable results, and alternative courses of action.
• Develops procurement acquisition plans and objectives in conjunction with school and key program stakeholders via multiple procurement methods and contract types for $100,000 and above price ranges;

and constructs the appropriate contractual vehicle to facilitate the procurement.

• Develops pre-negotiation positions, determines the types of contracts and negotiation authority to be used, prepares applicable justification, and ensures that the negotiation plans are implemented to facilitate savings for DCPS.
• Prepares applicable determination and findings, sole source, and competitive solicitation documents that agree with the procurement methods and requirements, such as Requests for Proposal, Invitations for Bid, and Cooperative Agreements.
• Performs detailed analyses of all elements of cost in contractor proposals, and recommends competitive range determinations.
• Conducts pre-proposal / pre-bid conference(s) with prospective contractor(s) and program staff to arrive at a clear understanding of what is required under the proposed competitive solicitations and resulting contracts;

and issues necessary amendments to clarify questions concerning such topics as specification changes, language ambiguities, or clarification of contact clauses.

• Explores new and innovative contracting approaches to arrive at an equitable contract arrangement which supports schools, programs, and C&A operations.
• Serves as lead negotiator for sole source and competitive procurements while planning the negotiation strategy, coordinates strategy with negotiation team, and leads the negotiations that are conducted with contractors to address the contract prices and terms.
• Conducts Post Award Conferences upon contract award and provides contract administration guidance to the school or program, key stakeholders, and the contractors.
• Prepares rate adjustments, cost adjustments, and coordination of time extensions; issues modifications; develops change orders;

recommends stop work orders; and documents recommendation cure notices or show causes letters, as applicable.

• Recommends termination of contracts for convenience or contractor default on behalf of DCPS, as applicable and necessary.
• Consistently analyzes and reviews the procurement process to ensure that proper procedures are followed; and recommends changes in the process to improve procurement activities in DCPS.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and five to seven years of related work experience.
• Master's degree preferred.
• Previous exposure to or experience in the education sector a plus.
• Advanced knowledge of contracting methods, contract types, acquisition planning, and implementation of contracts.
• Knowledge of the District of Columbia procurement laws and regulations strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated strong writing, analyzing, and research skills.

DCPS Values

• STUDENTS FIRST : We recognize students as whole children and put their needs first in everything we do.
• COURAGE : We have the audacity to learn from our successes and failures, to try new things, and to lead the nation as a proof point of PK-12 success.
• EQUITY : We work proactively to eliminate opportunity gaps by interrupting institutional bias and investing in effective strategies to ensure every student succeeds.
• EXCELLENCE : We work with integrity and hold ourselves accountable for exemplary outcomes, service, and interactions.
• TEAMWORK : We recognize that our greatest asset is our collective vision and ability to work collaboratively and authentically.
• JOY : We enjoy our collective work and will enthusiastically celebrate our success and each other.
29 days ago