About this role
Contract Specialist
Summary: Performs a range of divisionwide contract administration and procurement services required to support procurement administration, with some delegation authority to purchase a variety of goods and services for Fairfax County Public Schools in accordance with the School Board and federal, state, and county rules and regulations.
Qualifications: Required
• Bachelor's degree. • One (1) year of experience in public sector proposal analysis and procurement. • Advanced degree(s) beyond the minimum degree requirement in a relevant field may be considered for some experience.
• Knowledge of federal, state, and local jurisdiction contract and procurement regulations (such as the Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA), and guidelines, specifically in governmental purchasing. • Knowledge of the principles, practices, and methods of procurement. • Ability to prepare technical specifications and review and evaluate bids and proposals. • Ability to maintain effective working relationships. • Proficiency in the use of technology, data compilation, analysis, and reporting. • Ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. • Ability to exercise tact, good judgment, and initiative. • Ability to work effectively under pressure. Preferred
• Certification by a nationally recognized public procurement or contracting certification (e.g. CPPB, CPPO, CPCM).
Major Duties/Essential Functions: • Participates in pre-bid discussions, pre-proposal conferences, and evaluation teams ensuring conformity with bid documents. • Facilitates, processes, and confirms specifications, requirements, terms & conditions for competitive invitation for bid (IFB) solicitations and competitive requests for proposal (RFP) documents. • Ensures that contract revisions and negotiated content language are incorporated into various documents, which include license agreements, warranty, lease/purchase agreements. • Identifies contact risk factors and proposes potential solutions to management. • Ensures compliance with sole-source contract value and alignment with sole source approvals. • Provides research and data analysis reporting on appropriate project specifications, performance standards, and cost reasonableness based on the market comparison. • Reviews and confirms available project funding sources. • Documents recommendations and contract awards for management. • Tracks and maintains annual contracts and maintenance agreements. • Participates in discussions among groups and individuals to reach consensus, resolve conflicts, or influence outcomes on matters of significance. • Debriefs unsuccessful vendors on the strengths and weaknesses of their proposal. • Monitors products and services needs to provide the best-in-class service. • Suggests and implements improvement to the procurement process. • Advises school-based administrators, central office staff and vendors, on contract administration functions and status: contract kick-off, modification, monitoring, and close-out. • Performs related duties as required or assigned.
Work Environment/Physical Requirements: This job operates in a professional office environment and has a noise level of mostly low to moderate. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.