Senior Acquisition and Assistance Specialist (USAID/Morocco)
Department: USAID MENA
Office: USAID Office in Morocco
Location: Rabat, N/A, Morocco
Function: Professional Services
Job ID: 718
Work Mode: On Site
Position Title: Senior Acquisition and Assistance Specialist
Requesting Office: USAID/Morocco
Position Type: Onsite, Rabat, Morocco
Clearance: Facility Access
Level of Effort: 10 hours per week for 6 months
Position Duration: 6 months starting in September
TDYs: 1 trip to Frankfurt, Germany for 6 days
Morocco and MESenior A&A Specialist / Program Management Specialist
Position Description: Senior Specialist capabilities and roles The Senior Specialist is fully capable of providing professional level A&A support to Mission Technical Offices, DO Teams, and any designated regional clients. The Senior Specialist is fully capable of providing Program Management, and Program and Activity Design Support functions for Mission and regional tasks, activities, and awards. The Senior Specialist coordinates the development of A&A objectives for assigned portfolios, taking primary responsibility for all phases of the A&A process for complex actions. The Senior Specialist performs complete A&A transactions for complex activities. The Senior Specialist provides guidance and mentoring to junior level staff, trainees, procurement technicians, and assistants on basic principles of USG and USAID acquisition, assistance, general A&A management, A&A policy direction, new/changed procurement policies, etc., as required. The Senior Specialist is available for temporary duty (TDY) travel to the US, or to other Missions in the region. The Senior Specialist fully understands USG laws, regulations, policies and procedures governing each type of A&A mechanism, and is able to apply these requirements to make recommendations regarding the appropriate instrument type for the situation. The Senior Specialist is able to work independently in the selection of the appropriate A&A instrument types to meet the Mission’s needs, and accurately applies United States Government (USG) A&A laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing each type of instrument. The Senior Specialist has an advanced knowledge of the procedures for acquisition of goods, for managing non-personal services contracting actions, and managing and awarding assistance agreements. The Senior Specialist is fully capable of performing his/her assignments independently, seeking the guidance of the Contracting/Agreement Officer (CO/AO) for the most complex issues. The Senior Specialist works directly with technical specialists/activity managers in DO Teams throughout the Mission and/or the Region, assisting in the preparation of annual A&A plans, clear and concise statements of work/statements of objectives/program descriptions, etc., and supporting documentation. The Senior Specialist provides well supported guidance to technical specialists/activity managers pertaining to their A&A-related responsibilities and procedures.
A. A&A Specialist functions
1. Senior A&A Specialist functions:
Responsible for providing and advising on all acquisition and assistance to Missions to ensure successful obtainment of the Mission's strategic objectives; Supports as the Mission’s A&A advisor on cradle to grave including requests for proposal/application, negotiation, award and administration of a large variety of acquisition and assistance instruments; Serves as an integral and active member of the Mission's Strategic Objective (SO) and/or Development Objective (DO) Teams, assists in on-site training sessions of Mission's technical personnel and advise/mentor grantees and contractors regarding contract/grant administration and implementation issues; Supports the lead Specialist resolving complex acquisition and assistance issues; Advises on the most advantageous and appropriate method and instruments for acquisition and assistance requirements; Disseminates acquisition and assistance policy changes to technical personnel; Advises host country on procurement policy and providing ad hoc training to host country contracting personnel; Reviews host country contracts to determine conformance with acceptable procurement standards and applicable ADS requirements; Participates in technical office's discussions during the development stages of new activities; Advises technical offices and other support staff on the phases of acquisition and assistance.
2. Pre-Award
Assists the Technical/DO Teams with A&A planning and advises on the selection of the appropriate A&A mechanisms to achieve program objectives; Collects and analyzes data, and prepares and updates tracking tools in order to monitor pending actions; works with clients to assist in the preparation of justifications, waivers, deviations, and other necessary approvals, as needed; and, reviews GLAAS Requisitions (REQs) for completeness and clarity before endorsing them to the CO/AO; Conducts pre-award activities for highly complex competitive solicitations, assisting technical personnel in the preparation of required descriptions of proposed activities, including SOWs, specifications, and program descriptions; Applies a high degree of judgment and analysis when deciding among and between competing and often conflicting regulations and objectives, where the activities involved include multi-million dollar issues, often with significant political and/or legal implications; Works with the requiring office to develop evaluation criteria and determine the extent of advertising required; Prepares Requests for Proposal and Notices of Funding Opportunities for review by the CO/AO, ensuring compliance with FAR and AIDAR advertisement requirements, including publication of synopses and solicitations. The Specialist responds to offeror/applicant questions during the proposal submission phase; and, determines the need for, and prepares, clarifying amendments as required for solicitation documents. As necessary, the Specialist holds pre-bid or consultative meetings with potential partners to fully explain the Agency’s needs, and discusses solicitation documents; Evaluates applications and offers for responsiveness to particular solicitations, guides DO Teams in the review of the applications or proposals, and obtains reports and references, ensuring that any past performance of the offeror is relevant and of a high quality; Develops pre-negotiation cost objectives for approval by the CO/AO; performs analysis of cost issues, considering economic conditions and factors of material, labor, and transportation costs; examines cost and pricing data submitted by offerors, to substantiate direct and indirect costs and profit; determines reasonableness of costs submitted; ensures data provided is consistent with USAID requirements on eligible geographic sources, and that salary structures are consistent with Agency policy; and, identifies circumstances that may require a waiver/deviation; Analyzes cost proposals and technical scores from technical evaluation committees; and, based on the analysis, makes a recommendation to the Contracting Officer to establish the competitive range; Negotiates with potential awardees; documents negotiations in writing; recommends the selected contractor/recipient; and, prepares contract files to include making required certifications and determinations necessary for each A&A action; Leads pre-award assessment surveys of potential contractors or recipients, ensuring that offerors have adequate management, accounting, personnel, and procurement systems, and appropriate corporate leadership, resources, and quality control systems to satisfactorily carry out contracts, in order to ensure eligibility prior to an award being made;* Prepares award documents that accurately reflect all discussions and provisions relevant to the
