Description
The Office of Acquisition and Assistance (OAA) plays a pivotal role in the successful execution of USAID/Tanzania’s Strategic Goals and Objectives through the planning, solicitation, award and administration of contracts and agreements. OAA staff includes experienced Contracting/Agreement Officers (CO/AO), US Personal Services Contractors and Foreign Service Nationals (FSN), all of whom work with the technical teams to develop, award, and administer programs. The incumbent works independently on activity design and implementation of A&A assignments and is responsible for a wide range of A&A actions of all types. The incumbent must be able to apply procurement skills for any sector or program. The incumbent is also required to work with multiple entities in a cross-cultural environment. The Contract Specialist is an assistant to the Contracting/Agreement Officer for specific A&A actions within the Office of Acquisition and Assistance. The incumbent can apply contracting experience (either directly or via private industry experience in managing or administering US Government contracts at the prime and/or subcontract level) to a full range of Acquisition and Assistance challenges. The incumbent does this by applying Acquisition and Assistance knowledge, skills and abilities while working as independently as possible on activity design and implementation related to Acquisition and Assistance assignments. Responsibilities involve a wide range of Acquisition and Assistance actions, including a preponderance of complex actions, e.g., term, award fee or completion cost type contracts, task orders, international and interagency agreements, grants and cooperative agreements. The incumbent is responsible for pre-award and post-award functions involving complex negotiated procurements of importance to the Agency. Requirements of the contracts, grants, cooperative agreements, and inter-agency agreements are typically specialized and involve complex systems or sensitive international programs. USAID/Tanzania has a varied and complex country program with several multimillion-dollar Acquisition and Assistance actions, very complex multi-sector programs with numerous activities, high funding levels, and significant work related to Global Health, including PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief). Besides being able to apply professional procurement skills through all manner of Acquisition and Assistance instruments, the incumbent is expected to deal with multiple entities, not to mention the complications of cross-cultural business dealings.