Senior Contract Specialist

District-of-Columbia; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency in Washington, DC seeks a Senior Contract Specialist to execute and manage complex, full‑lifecycle acquisition strategies for goods and professional services. The role directs the solicitation process, resolves contractor claims, and negotiates terms to ensure competitive pricing and compliant contracts, reporting to Agency leadership and the Board as needed.

Strong knowledge of contracting laws, government procurement regulations, and experience with

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in purchasing or contracting.
• 7-10 years in purchasing and procurement, preferably in government.
• Mastery of contracting laws and regulations.
• Experience with bids, pricing, and performance measurement.

Responsibilities

• Executes a variety of contract actions using a full range of acquisition techniques and develops recommendations for policies.
• Directs contract modifications, changes, and exercise of options; resolves deadlocked negotiations.
• Develops innovative solutions for contracting challenges and investigates contractor claims as needed.
• Prepares acquisition plans, milestones, and schedules; defines competition and price ranges.
• Leads bid solicitation: SOW, terms, conditions, and requirements for complex procurements.
• Conducts pre-proposal meetings to ensure clear understanding of requirements.
• Performs administration duties for warrants, procurement methods, and cost competitiveness.
• Constructs contractual vehicles and subcontracts policy considerations.
• Prepares briefings for Senior Leadership and Board; justifies contractor selections.

Skills

Contract management

Procurement strategy

Negotiation skills

Vendor management

Project management

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Purchasing, Contract Management, Business Administration, or another related field or equivalent professional experience

Job description

Senior Contract Specialist

District of Columbia Housing Finance Agency Washington, District of Columbia, United States

About this position

Description:

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior Contract Specialist executes and manages complex, full-lifecycle acquisition strategies and innovative procurement techniques to secure goods and professional services for the Agency. This role directs the solicitation process, resolves critical contractor claims, and manages negotiations to ensure highly competitive pricing arrangements.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Executes a variety of contract actions using a full range of acquisition techniques. Develops recommendations for a variety of policies and programmatic issues for use by procurement
• Directs the issuance of necessary contract modifications, negotiation of changes, and exercise or options. Resolves deadlocked negotiations
• Develops innovative solutions for unique contracting challenges. Directs investigations of contractor claims including advising on critical contracts/agreements. Identifies and takes steps to eliminate bottlenecks impeding procurement actions from proceeding
• Prepares and maintains current acquisition plans, appropriate milestone charts, and related schedules. Develops procurement objectives in terms of competition and price range
• Develops the bid solicitation which include directing the working teams to establish the statement of work, terms and conditions, and other requirements of complex and or highly specialized procurements
• Conducts pre-proposal meetings with perspective contractor(s) to ensure a clear understanding of what is required under the proposed contract
• Performs and executes all duties and responsibilities associated with assigned warrants granted to senior level position, determining the most appropriate method of procurement and the competitiveness of the cost range
• Conducts marketplace analyses to construct pricing arrangement, subcontracting policy, and similar considerations
• Prepares and maintains current acquisition plans, milestone charts, and related schedules, using assigned systems and tools to input, track and report on work items
• Performs administration activities such as contract modifications and development of change orders; issuing stop work orders reviews settlement proposals, monitoring vendor/ contractor adherence to all contractual and performance related guidelines and terms; and terminating contracts as required
• Constructs the contractual vehicle including use of pricing arrangements. Subcontracts policy, and similar considerations
• Prepares briefings and presents information on procurement related matters to Senior Leadership and the Agency’s Board of Directors. Prepares Board Memo, justifying the selection of a contractor and
• present the same at the Agency’s Board of Directors meeting to include responding to questions both verbally and in writing to obtain Board approval of the proposed award
• Performs other duties as required

KNOWLEDGE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Purchasing, Contract Management, Business Administration, or another related field or equivalent professional experience
• Certification in Contract Management a plus
• 7-10 years’ experience of purchasing and procurement, preferably in a government environment
• Mastery knowledge of contracting laws, principles, regulations and contracting strategies
• Extensive knowledge and proven experience with all aspects of bids including responsiveness ranges, contractor responsibility and contractor performance measurements
• Expert knowledge of project management, with demonstrated success in application of customer servicing and problem resolution skills including conducting root cause analyses
• Extensive knowledge of automated procurement support systems and Microsoft Office
• Extensive experience in vendor management and contract administration
• Knowledge of preparing, reading and analyzing budgets
• Ability to establish and manage effective relationships
• Ability to pay strong attention to details
• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written.