Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V - Procurement, Assistance, Compliance, & Training

Hawaii State Department of Education; Waipahu (HI); On-site; USD 69,000 - 84,000; Full time

Job summary

Hawaii State Department of Education seeks a Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V to oversee complex purchasing, revise policies, and ensure compliance with applicable rules and regulations. You will audit practices, respond to complaints, and guide revisions to contracts and change orders.

Requires a Bachelor’s degree and 3+ years of related procurement/contracting experience; a valid driver’s license is required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; substitutions possible for extensive, relevant experience.
• 3+ years of procurement/contracting experience related to formal purchasing processes.
• Current, valid driver’s license required.

Responsibilities

• Revises, clarifies, or develops purchasing policies, procedures, practices and guidelines for staff use.
• Reviews outgoing correspondence drafted by staff.
• Serves as technical resource to Procurement Officer and staff to ensure compliance with Procurement Code and related rules.
• Conducts periodic reviews of procurement practices and recommends policy revisions.
• Audits schools and offices to evaluate compliance with Procurement Code and policies.
• Investigates complaints from requisitioners and vendors and reports findings.
• Resolves complex contract compliance issues including change orders and time/cost considerations.
• May train, guide or mentor lower level specialists.

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

Salary Range:

Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V, SR-24: $6,221.00 - $7,568.00

1. Revises, clarifies, or develops purchasing policies, procedures, practices and guidelines for the use of staff as required.
2. Reviews outgoing correspondence drafted by staff.
3. Serves as technical resource to the Procurement Officer, administrators, and bidders to ensure compliance with Procurement Code, applicable state and federal administrative rules and regulations applicable to purchasing mandates and guidelines, other policies or procedures governing state agencies and organizations, and departmental policies or procedures.
4. Conducts periodic reviews of departmental procurement practices, including recommending appropriate revisions to procurement policies and procedures.
5. Conducts periodic audits of schools and offices in all areas of procurement and contracting to evaluate compliance with Procurement Code and departmental policies and procedures, including the preparation of reports and briefing of senior management officials on the findings and recommendations to correct procurement and contracting deficiencies.
6. Investigates complaints or controversies from department requisitioners and/or vendors or contractors.
7. Reports findings of fact and recommends appropriate or corrective action.
8. Resolves the most complex contract compliance issues (e.g. contract modifications, change orders, interpretations, time delays, cost overruns, transfer or assignments of contracts and other unforeseen circumstances).
9. May train, guide or mentor lower level specialists. In addition, performs work described at the lower level in relation to most complex, specialized and technical work assignments.

Basic Education/Experience Requirements

Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with a Bachelor’s degree. Excess experience of the type and quality described below or any administrative, professional, technical or other responsible work, which required a high degree of analytical skill, may be substituted for education on a year-for-year basis. To be acceptable, the experience must have been of such scope, level and quality as to assure the possession of comparable knowledge, skills and abilities.

Experience Requirements

Except for the substitutions provided below, applicants must have had the type of experience described in the statements immediately following and in the amounts shown in the table below:

Class Title: Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V. General Exper: 1/2. Specialzd Exper: 3*. Supvry Exper: **. Total (years): 3-1/2.

General Experience

Work involving progressively responsible professional or other responsible analytical work which involved gathering, evaluating and analyzing facts and other pertinent information required to resolve problems and/or to determine and recommend appropriate courses of action. Such experience must have demonstrated the ability to elicit information orally and in writing, apply problem-solving methods and techniques, identify alternatives, use judgment in determining appropriate alternatives, and prepare clear and concise written reports and recommendations for action.

Specialized Experience

Professional experience in an area related to procurement and/or contracts administration requiring the knowledge and application of formal procurement and/or contracting methods (i.e. development or processing of formal bid specifications and/or contract development), principles, and standards for the purpose of developing, reviewing, analyzing, and auditing procurement and contracts activities, ensuring compliance with applicable laws, policies, procedures, rules, and related requirements.

For Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V and VI, at least one year of the required Specialized Experience must have been at a level comparable to the Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist IV level in the Hawaii State government; viz. experience that indicates that the applicant has acquired and successfully applied practical and theoretical knowledge of the principles of economics related to supply and demand, procurement and contracting and specification development with the level of difficulty as described in the class specification.

For the Procurement and Contracts Support Specialist V level, supervisory aptitude rather than actual supervisory experience may be accepted. Supervisory aptitude is the demonstration of aptitude or potential for the performance of supervisory duties through successful completion of regular or special assignments which involve some supervisory responsibilities or aspects; by serving as a group or team leader or in similar work in which opportunities for demonstrating supervisory capabilities exist; by completion of training courses in supervision accompanied by application of supervisory skills in work assignments or by favorable appraisals by a supervisor indicating the possession of supervisory potential.

Qualifying Experience

Qualifying experience is not limited to that acquired in positions allocable to this series or in positions otherwise designated as “professional.” It may have been obtained in any position, e.g. purchasing technician or agent, substantially engaged in formal purchasing, which involved the activities and knowledge specified above.

Non-Qualifying Experience

The following types of work experience are not qualifying:

1. Experience limited to purchasing through informal means;
2. Experience involving responding to general questions regarding procedures for formal purchasing or involving the consolidation or development of written requests for small purchase quotes;
3. Experience which involved primarily serving as the liaison between the user and those conducting the informal purchasing;
4. Experience which involved consolidating and transmitting specifications prepared by the user to those conducting the formal purchase without concomitant responsibility for review of said specifications for clarity, descriptiveness and appropriateness or which did not require intensive discussion with the users to ensure the appropriateness of the specifications; and
5. Experience limited to assisting others in development of contracts (e.g. comparing contract terms and conditions for conformance with standard formats and language, assembling contract documentation, proofing agreements for grammar and punctuation, arranging for advertising, handing out copies of specifications, etc.)

Substitutions Allowed

1. Excess Specialized Experience of the type and quality described above may be substituted for General Experience on a year-for-year basis.
2. Possession of a Bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited college or university in public or business administration may be substituted for one-half year of the required General Experience.
3. Satisfactory completion of all academic requirements for a degree in law (JD or equivalent) from an accredited school of law may be substituted for two and one-half years of the required General and Specialized Experience.

Quality of Experience

Possession of the required number of years of experience will not in itself be accepted as proof of qualification for a position. The applicant's overall experience must have been of such scope and level of responsibility as to conclusively demonstrate that applicant has the ability to perform the duties of the position for which applicant is being considered.

Driver's License Requirement

Applicants must possess a current, valid driver's license.

Salary:

The advertised salary is based on full-time employment and includes shortage and school year differentials, if applicable.

Requirements:

Applicants must meet all the requirements for the position they are seeking as of the date of the application, unless otherwise specified. Unless specifically indicated, the required education and experience may not be gained concurrently. Calculation of experience is based on full-time, 40-hour workweeks. Part-time experience is pro-rated. Example: Twelve months of experience at 20 hours/week is equivalent to six months of experience, not one year. Also, hours worked in excess of 40 hours/week will not be credited. Example: Twelve months of experience at 60 hours/week is equivalent to one year of experience, not one and a half years.

Temporary Assignment:

1. A copy of the applicant’s TA History Report or equivalent system-generated report;
2. A signed letter from the applicant’s supervisor that includes the applicant’s name, his/her TA job title, the TA start and end dates (from mm/yy to mm/yy), his/her specific TA duties performed, and either the TA hours worked per week or total TA hours worked; or,
3. Copies of the applicant’s signed SF-10 Forms.

Documents:

Attach all relevant supporting documents to your application. Documents that were attached to applications submitted before November 16, 2023 do not automatically attach or transfer to applications submitted on and after December 16, 2023. All submitted documents become the property of the Hawaii State Department of Education.

Information about Temporary Positions:

Temporary positions may be extended year to year, dependent upon funding and departmental needs. Making yourself available for temporary positions increases your employment possibilities and may lead to permanent opportunities. A person hired for a temporary position may also become a temporary employee upon satisfactory completion of the initial probation period of at least six months. Once a temporary employee, you would be eligible to apply for promotion and transfer opportunities to permanent as well as other temporary positions. You may also enjoy other rights and benefits as afforded to an employee in a permanent position, with the exception of return rights and placement rights associated with a reduction-in-force.