Day: January 2, 2019

Veterans – Do you understand the fundamentals needed to succeed in a DoD contracting job? AKA DoD Contracting Basics Part I

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As you explore a career in becoming a DoD contractor there are a few things you should know that can make your life easier and make you a better job candidate. To begin, as with any career field, there are several terms you will need to learn. The most basic are the definitions of a government contractor and the classifications of prime contractor and subcontractor.

A government contractor is a company (privately owned or publicly traded that produces goods or services under contract for the government.

Prime contractor

A Prime contractor works directly with the government. They manage any subcontractors, and are responsible for ensuring that the work is completed as defined in the contract.

To become a prime contractor, businesses must first register their business with the System for Award Management (SAM).  Once registered, businesses search for federal contracting opportunities through Fed Biz Opps (FBO), and GSA Schedules. 1

Sub-contractor

Unlike prime contractors, subcontractors do not work directly with the government, but instead work for prime contractors.  Some government contracts require large companies to subcontract with a small business. This creates more opportunities for small businesses to get involved in federal contracting. 1

In layman’s terms the Prime contractor and its staff work directly with the Government customer and they are responsible for meeting the requirements of the contract.  Sub contractors are responsible to the prime for the work defined in their subcontract. Also, subcontractors must coordinate all their activities and commutations to the primes’ customers though the prime before speaking directly with the government customer or abide by the Prime’s rules for customer interaction.

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

The principal laws applied to government contracting are found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) which is part of the CFR.  As a new government contractor employee you may hear references to the FAR as part of your daily work.   Also, you will likely have to perform specific FAR compliance training within the first 90 days of becoming a government contractor.  This training is to ensure you are aware of and perform your work in compliance with the CFR and FAR.

Contracts

Prior to landing your first DoD contracting interview there are a few more concepts you will want to know about.   The first are the types of contracts, durations and options. Most government contracts are broken down into a base period and option periods.   The base period is defined as the main time duration the government expects the contractor to complete the work awarded in the contract. The option period(s) are just that options for the government to extend the contract performance period if the contractor is doing a good job.   A typical DoD contract can have a base period of 5 years with two 1 year options. This would be referred to as a five plus two contract.

Job Stability

So what does this mean for someone new to DoD and just staring his or her first job.   It means that unless you were hired for a corporate job (HR, Finance, IT, Management, etc.) paid for by company overhead versus direct contract funds your job may end at the end of the period of the contract.    

However, most likely the company you join will bid for the follow on contract and if they are doing a good job they will win and you will continue your job for the next contract period.   If your company should lose, but you are doing a good job, you have kept up on your professional development and are respected by your peers, most likely the winning company will interview and hire your and you can continue working but for another company.   

If your company loses and the company is big enough, you will be given an opportunity to move to another one of their contracts, but you will have to interview and be accepted.   It is kind of like starting over, but since you have a track record with the company you are usually given preference over non company personnel. This may seem strange or risky to someone who is used to working for the military for their entire career, but it is normal and not something to fear.   Over the course of my DoD contracting career I have changed companies five times. Moving companies to follow the work or new opportunities is common in DoD contracting.

Interview Questions

Now that you are armed with this information, when you get your first DoD contract interview you will want to ask the interviewer if the position you are interviewing for is a corporate job or a direct contract job.  If it is a direct contract job you will want to ask them is the company performing in a prime contractor role for the contract or as a sub-contractor? Likewise, you will want to ask them what is length of the base period of the contract and how many option years are there.   Also, what year of the contract are they in and how well are they positioned for the re-complete?

This concludes part one of this series stay tuned for future articles.  If you have any questions or comments feel free to message me.

1Author, United States Small Business Administration.  Prime and Subcontracting. Retrieved from https://www.sba.gov/federal-contracting/contracting-guide/prime-subcontracting

Transitioning Veterans: Are you prepared for your first DoD contracting interview? Read on and find out.

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Hello and welcome to our company Acme Defense Contracting Inc.  We are pleased you could join us for this interview today for our XYZ job opening.  Before we get to know you let us tell you a little about our company.  We have a rich history as a DoD contractor going back 20 years when we responded to our first development contract RFP.  Our company is real innovative with a strong R&D background and we cut our teeth fielding one of the first SATCOM Radio systems.  Being a prime contractor for our first major DoD contract was quite the eye opener for us.  Our team and our subs endured quite the learning curve and had to keep the FAR close at hand during those early days.

It all started with our BD manager identifying an opportunity on FBO that aligned with our company’s core competencies. From there he sent out the RFP, SOW and WBS for our management team to review.  We had to pay close attention to Section L and M to ensure we fully understood the work and could be competitive so we would stand out to the SSA lead. We were so relived to learn this first opportunity would not require EVM.

Once we determined it was a fit, we assembled our BD team and created our RFP response team and War room. Our proposal PM held a kick off and assigned book bosses and set up our schedule for our blue, pink, red, green, gold, and white reviews.  After we submitted our proposal we had to respond to several EN’s and then update and submit our FPR.  Waiting to find out if we won was a very nervous time for our company given the time and money it took to build our proposal.  Fortunately for us we were notified of our award of a five plus two sole source IDIQ contract and we immediately began to execute our TP.  

After our program kick off with the Government PM, DPM, CO and the government team we immediately began assessing the updated IDIQ contract, DD254, PWS, WBS, SRD, ORD and all CDRLS and associated DIDs to ensure we understood and could begin executing the requirements.

While a portion of our first contract was FFP, the majority was CPAF with a few CPIF and T&M TOs planned. Accordingly, the CO did not give us a lot of slack when it came to ensuring we addressed all the IDIQ Ts & Cs and TO directives.  Fortunately we were assigned a very good COTR and the program had several senior A&AS and SETA contractors to help us understand the programs operating environment.

Early on the CO advised us we may have to use a UCA for one of our first TOs as the government needed for us to get started ASAP. Our Finance lead immediately began coordinating with our contracting shop to prepare WADs and charge number matrices and asked if the first TOs would be 3400, 3080 or 3600 funds. While this was happening our PMO began refining our IMS to address the initial TO requirements.  Likewise we set up multiple IPTs and set about implementing our SE processes and aligning them to the standard V-Model.  Our first major TO required the full SE lifecycle to include IBR, SFR, SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FAT and SAT.  

It was tough those first few months as our Engineering Manager refined our SEMP and our Logistics manager refined the ILSP.  Likewise, we had to stand up DoDAF designs and processes to capture all our designs.  Our CM manager was busy setting up our CM standards and establishing our ECP process as well as inquiring with our Engineering manager on how many CIs we would be tracking. While that was happening our QA manager reviewed the QASP and refined our QCP.  Also, during this time our KM was busy setting up our IDE and our Cybersecurity Lead was assessing all IS boundaries and all operating SOPs. While all this was going on our PM and DPM were busy reviewing the AF Plan and updating the PMP and ensuring all requirements were flowed down to our subs.  It would be 90 days before our first QPMR and we knew time would fly so as they say in the Navy “it was all hands on deck.”

I am pleased to say we hit all our critical milestones that first year and successfully achieved IOC on our major TO delivery and supported the government team as they fielded the system and achieved FOC. We learned a lot in those early years and I am pleased to say we capitalized on all our early lessons learned and have grown into a formidable company and competitor in the DoD SATCOM niche.

So that is a little about us, tell us a little about you and what you know about working on a DoD contract and how you can help us succeed….

If you read through this and it all made sense to you then congratulations you must have had a lot of experience working with DoD contracts and contractors during your military career.  If you only understand a portion of this narrative or none at all and want to explore getting a job as a DoD contractor after you leave active duty then I encourage you to return to this website.

The goal of this website is to be a premier resource to assist veterans find and excel in an exciting career as a DoD Contractor.  Over the near term I will be posting a series of articles that breaks down the basics of DoD contracting and the key industry jargon presented in this article and more.  Also, if you are a recent veteran then I encourage you to explore the website and the resources I have compiled to assist you with your transition.

Thank you for your service and I look forward to assisting you find and excel in a DoD contracting job and career. – Ben