Acquisition & Utilization Specialist

Acquisition & Utilization Specialist

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): West Haven, Connecticut

Salary Range: $88005 - $114413 Per Year

Job Summary: The Acquisitions & Utilization Specialist ( AUS) serves as the Medical Center liaison and advisor on contract related services focusing on critical clinical and healthcare services, product acquisition and support services required by project managers, program managers, upper management and stakeholders. The AUS is considered the subject matter expert on all aspects of procurement for a wide variety of items to include specialized services required by the Medical Center.

Major Duties:

• The duties of this occupation include but are not limited to the following: Serves as the medical center liaison and advisor on contract related services focusing on critical clinical and healthcare services, product acquisition and support services required by project managers, program managers, upper management and stakeholders on all aspects of procurement for a wide variety of items to include specialized services. Develops procedures, policies, and supporting artifacts to ensure procurement activities are consistent with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), VA Acquisitions Regulations (VAAR) and other federal procurement laws and regulations. Develops and implements processes and procedures as changes are made to the VHA Procurement Manual. Provides expertise as the contract analyst responsible for furnishing advice, reviews and services concerning a wide variety of service procurements requiring in-depth analysis and resolution. Develops performance work statements and objectives, cost benefit analysis, gap analysis, sole source justifications, past performance, quality assurance surveillance plans (QASP), market research, independent government estimates, evaluation criteria, options, funding, delivery schedules, lead times and reporting requirements. Reviews procurement documents for accuracy, adequacy and completeness, and assists service line managers as needed to ensure the final documents are acceptable. Develops sole source justifications in relation to cost, limited availability or unusual nature based on health care resource needs. Reviews contracts, work directives, and other ordering instruments to extract schedules of deliverable items and services, and maintains records of performance and delivery against those schedules. Assists in the development of procurement documents to ensure conformity to requirements including sole source justifications, government estimates, evaluation criteria, options, funding, delivery schedules, and lead times. Oversees and ensures compliance with the terms of contracts to determine modifications. Monitors contract expenditures requiring funds control (e.g. monitoring labor hour contracts to ensure funding levels are not exceeded). Reports on deviations from contract terms and manages a record system that includes contractor information and key contractual due dates to ensure the contractual actions are completed timely. Ensures that all contracted services provided by licensed independent practitioners and professionals are operating within the scope of their privileges, training, or credentials. Coordinates with leadership, clinical service customers, Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs), logistics staff, and other stakeholders to develop and execute acquisition strategies. Advises professional and technical personnel on the conditions of the contract, payments, changes, and other administrative issues which affect the financial position of the government and contractors. Coordinates with legal counsel to resolve unique situations that may impact procurement actions. Negotiates performance requirements among multiple sites and service lines in order to obtain agreement, standardize enterprise equipment, supply, and/or service requirements in support of VISN strategic acquisition plans. Advises on all phases of negotiation with the contract specialist and/or contracting officer for contract modifications, change orders, supplemental agreements, and delivery order processes including requirements, definition, justification, and approval for service contract extension. Provides advice regarding procurement regulations for negotiations and resolves problems. Conducts analyses and recommends courses of actions to ensure that various clinical and administrative service requirements have addressed considerations such as construction, budgeting, supporting manpower and other factors. Develops and analyzes reports and makes recommendations to senior management officials regarding the contracting support of the facility. Monitors quality assurance surveillance plans to ensure that contracted services meet the expectations and needs of the facility. Researches and analyzes guidelines to develop, recommend, and implement solutions. Promotion Potential: This vacancy is at the full performance level GS-11. Work Schedule: 8:00am-4:30pm Monday - Friday Compressed/Flexible: Not Authorized Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Acquisition & Utilization Specialist/PD99810S Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Bargaining Unit: This position is a AFGE Bargaining Unit position.

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 05/04/2026. Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement. For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09.The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment. Grade Determination: Specialized Experience for GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Specialized experience includes: handling contract related services, product acquisition, and procurement of items in a healthcare environment; overseeing contracts including pre-award and post-award; preparing procurement packages with unique, emergent and complex requirements including development of requirement documents (e.g. performance work statements and objectives, cost benefit analysis, gap analysis, sole source justifications, past performance, market research, etc.); developing sole source justifications; developing and analyzing reports to make recommendations on acquisition and contracting issues; participating in negotiations with other officials throughout all phases of contract administration; and monitoring expenditures and reporting on deviations from contract terms. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Ph.D. or equivalent doctorial degree or 3 full years of progressively higher level education leading to such degree or LL.M., if related. (Transcripts required). OR, Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond graduate education in excess of 18 semester hours. (Transcripts required). You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Technical Competence Contracting/Procurement Control of Funds Communication Negotiation Reasoning For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12939892. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 05/04/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit

Application Deadline: 2026-05-04