The ES Gov't contractor thread

[SkinsHokieFan]

Because it is oh so exciting our world, but more so I am curious who works in government contracting (whether federal, state, local) and what you do, and also use this for a networking chance, possible job opportunities, etc. We can also discuss any trends we see, whether in project management, proposals, contracts.

I know a few already on ES who either own their own shop, work in proposals, are PMs, contracts or do some other function. Also if you work on the fed side feel free to chime in as it will make all of our jobs easier.

I am a senior pricing analyst and have been doing it for the last 5 years, have bounced around some and gained some good experience. So if you do have general price questions/discussions I would love to discuss

[Forehead]

I was a government contractor in various roles post college, first for the Treasury Department and then for Customs and Border Protection, under the Department of Homeland Security banner. Various roles ranging from law enforcement research requiring clearances, helpdesk work, computer tech, and junior associate for a major project.

After 5-6 years of doing that, I wound up flipping to the Feds, as much for the stability as anything else. In the 5-6 years I was a contractor, one contract renewal was outbid by a rival company leaving me temporarily unemployed until my company found a position for me at a different site. Though I was not working at the company headquarters on projects, I also saw the cutthroat nature of the business, especially things like bringing on subcontractors who would then attempt to steal the contract away from the primary contractor at the next round of bidding.

I much prefer the Federal side of things. Sure, the potential to make as much money isn't there, contractor PM's can make a boatload of cash that even a GS-15 might not see. But I like the stability, I appreciate the benefits (though my contracting company was excellent in that regard) and for someone who is young and raising a family, it works best for us. And yeah, you get the stigma of laziness that everyone defaults to, but my general impression is that there are as many lazy people on the contracting side....on the government side of things, it's usually the people who have gotten to a GS-12 level or so, are near retirement, never had the drive or determination to get any higher, know they have no shot at promotion now, and have basically checked out. The younger and mid-career folks are usually just as hungry as contractors and work their asses off, at least that seems to be the case where I work.

I've already explained what I do in a few threads (FOIA work, blacking out released sensitive documents, information control, etc.) but can explain again if anyone cares.

[LadySkinsFan]

I've already posted elsewhere that I'm a proposal management consultant and I work through several agencies but also directly with corporations. I've worked at most of the major primes, several small businesses and internationally. I've been employed as a proposal director with direct reports, managing the entire proposal shop including consultants, so I've seen both sides. I've been doing this work for over 30 years. I'm a great writer also, have won several contracts without a lot of business development activities so I know how to position the company to win.

I haven't used this forum to formally network, yet. I figure if someone needs a proposal consultant and they think of me, they'll contact me. I keep pretty busy for about half of the year and get to enjoy lots of time off for my hobbies and traveling to visit my family in Austin.

[chipwhich]

I am a senior pricing analyst and have been doing it for the last 5 years, have bounced around some and gained some good experience. So if you do have general price questions/discussions I would love to discuss

What exactly does a senior pricing analyst do? Price the whole prop? Come up with T&M rates per labor cat? Just curious.

[SkinsHokieFan]

What exactly does a senior pricing analyst do? Price the whole prop? Come up with T&M rates per labor cat? Just curious.

It really depends on the company.

I am used to doing the whole cost/price volume, from when the RFP is released to final submission.

A general order of things I do

1) Read the RFP, flag it, write questions, assess any price risk (very obvious)

2) Develop cost proposal compliance matrix/deliverable list

3) Develop an excel pricing model tailored to government pricing requirements and B table formats

4) Develop basis of estimates with the technical team, i.e FTE count, salaries for labor categories and then apply burdens as dictated by our company

5) Lead price strategy sessions, where to cut fat, where to adjust FTE counts, what fee to apply, what cost pools to utilize

6) Depending on company, lead executive pricing review with senior management, and the thresholds again depend on company

7) Once final price is approved, put together final cost prop, narrative, spreadsheets required and forward to our production group

8) Assemble audit file

Thats in a nut shell, but I have also done this at a few different companies so there are some tweaks here and there. In the end though I own that cost prop and what we send to the gov't

[chipwhich]

I've already posted elsewhere that I'm a proposal management consultant and I work through several agencies but also directly with corporations. I've worked at most of the major primes, several small businesses and internationally. I've been employed as a proposal director with direct reports, managing the entire proposal shop including consultants, so I've seen both sides. I've been doing this work for over 30 years. I'm a great writer also, have won several contracts without a lot of business development activities so I know how to position the company to win.

I haven't used this forum to formally network, yet. I figure if someone needs a proposal consultant and they think of me, they'll contact me. I keep pretty busy for about half of the year and get to enjoy lots of time off for my hobbies and traveling to visit my family in Austin.

Is this all "IT" work? What primary agencies do you write props for?

---------- Post added February-6th-2012 at 11:35 PM ----------

3) Develop an excel pricing model tailored to government pricing requirements and B table formats

Are most of your contracts T&M? Low cost technically acceptable? Cost plus? FFPLOE?

Just curious how you come up with your pricing strategy, and how you can be sure your labor costs will allow you to hire people at the market rate. What happens if you price it too low that you can't staff it?

What agencies do you support, and is this all IT work?

Do you work for a large prime or a "smaller" beltway bandit.

Sorry for all of the questions.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Are most of your contracts T&M? Low cost technically acceptable? Cost plus? FFPLOE?

Just curious how you come up with your pricing strategy, and how you can be sure your labor costs will allow you to hire people at the market rate. What happens if you price it too low that you can't staff it?

What agencies do you support, and is this all IT work?

Do you work for a large prime or a "smaller" beltway bandit.

Sorry for all of the questions.

No worries, I could probably talk about this all day and get into the real geekiness of it

1) Contract types are across the spectrum, I have priced T&M (easiest in my opinion), CPFF, CPAF, FPLOE (which honestly makes no sense to me why a contractor would do this), FFP and have gotten real used to in the last year operating in the lowest priced technically acceptable don't do unbalanced pricing environment.

2) You never can be sure to be honest, that really requires excellent intelligence and use of whatever sources possible. At my first pricing job we had DCAA approved labor bid rates, i.e I would price levels (Level 1 equated to a salary of 33k, level 2=41k, etc etc). I always check outside sources such as salary.com, utilize our HR departments, compare actual salaries we are paying people in the company, and look at web listings of other companies.

I have never (that I know of at least) had a case of pricing labor too low that it cannot be staffed. With all the market data available now to me that is unacceptable. I know it happens but it really shouldn't happen, in particular with IT work which has lots of data, and knowing that many RFP's define labor category experience+degrees and technical requirements, program teams should have a very good idea of a labor range

Price strategy really is an art. You can try and FOIA contract data, try and find out from open sources what previous awards were and what budgets might be, but in the end there is a lot of subjective analysis involved. What I try and present to my management is several fee scenarios and overhead scenarios which can help us win the bid and still provides a compliant proposal.

3) I have worked all sorts of agencies and work depending on the company. IT work, enviornmental consultant work and overseas "contingency operations." Each has had its own requirements

4) Have worked at 2 companies with revenues in excess of 4 billion dollars and 1 company with about 800 million in revenue

[chipwhich]

No worries, I could probably talk about this all day and get into the real geekiness of it

Most of your contracts you bid, how many FTE's are on the contract?

Are these small efforts or large efforts?

What agencies are you bidding now with your current company? DOE, DOT, DOJ, etc?

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I'm now a PM but have been in the government IT world since I graduated college 12 years ago. I've been mostly on either O&M or SDLC projects. I don't exactly love anything about my job, but it pays the bills.

[SkinsHokieFan]

Most of your contracts you bid, how many FTE's are on the contract?

Are these small efforts or large efforts?

What agencies are you bidding now with your current company? DOE, DOT, DOJ, etc?

Its been a good mix with FTE count. 95% of them though are under 100 FTEs total, I have bid as high as 1180 FTEs per year which was a billion dollar plus proposal, and as small as .5 an FTE for a month long follow on project which was 8k.

The agencies now are mostly DoD, USAid, NSA for OConus work in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, and Kosovo.

[ffxdrummer]

I'm the Contract Specialist at a small govn't contractor in Stafford. Just completed my first year as I learn on the job.

[skins_fan1982]

I'm a contract specialist for the National Park Service. I've got a little over 8 years of gov't contracting experience. I did 4 years active duty AF as a contract specialist, 2 years local gov't, 2 years Dept of Energy, and now about 8 months with NPS. All as a contract specialist.

I work on the busiest team in my office, we deal mostly with I.T. consulting, management facilitation, internal reviews, project management, license renewals, all kinds of crap really. But the mission we support which is Headquarters in DC, Yellowstone, and Rocky Mountain National Park...its kind of like my dream job.

I deal with a lot of IDIQs, BPAs, Interagency Agreements, as well as open market purchase orders and of course GSA stuff.

I'm actually a contractor right now, but management has already told me behind closed doors that they're going to hire me for a GS-12 position that I interview for in 3 weeks. Doesn't hurt that our Bureau Chief is retired Air Force.

Going fed is gonna be a MEAN paycut, but with today's economy, I'll take the stability.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Nice to see all of those who are responsible for run away gov't spending gathered all into one place.

[Skinz4Life12]

i used to for over 3 years and it sucked. corporate culture was terrible. glad i switched jobs

[TheGoodBits]

Nice to see all of those who are responsible for run away gov't spending gathered all into one place.

Hey, not fair! I work at a company that saves the govt money!

Of course, they just take the savings and spend it on something else instead, but that's beside the point.

[Corcaigh]

Nice to see all of those who are responsible for run away gov't spending gathered all into one place.

I know you're trolling, but we should be using more contractors in many parts of government, not less.

Pensions and healthcare cost of government employees is a significant part of the increasing size of the Federal budget. On a political whim (or for good reasons), contracts can be ended. We're far less likely to shut down programs employing many Federal staff.

[TheLongshot]

I'm a Software Engineer and have been working in the government contracting thing for years. Things were relatively stable until a little over a year ago, when I bounced between a lot of contracts and ultimately got let go from my company. Now I'm working for a body shop and I expect I'll move on at some point since the benefits aren't great.

Nice to see all of those who are responsible for run away gov't spending gathered all into one place.

Ha! While I do think that contractors can be stupid sometimes (being on a couple proposal teams, it is a wonder at times how much waste goes into the process.), most of us grunts on the ground do try to give the government their money's worth. Like all management structures, there is always politics and there are people doing things that aren't always helpful to the mission. I think that's particularly true when the government is being penny smart, but pound foolish.

Also, Software Development seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of government contracting. I've seen both government and contractors not give us much respect and try to replace us with COTS or GOTS products. The problem is, much of what the government does requires our skillset.

[pjfootballer]

Like I said in the other thread, just started as a Contract Analyst for Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in the Human Services Finance Division. I write/procure contracts for goods and services that the various county entities want from outside vendors. We write and amend contacts for DSS, Area Mental Health, Community Support Services and the Health Department. We also write Letters of Agreement and Memorandum of Understandings.

For example, if the county needs transportation services for disabled people on Medicaid that need to get to the doctor, we write up the contract between DSS and the Cab Company (who win the bid) for that service.

[chess]

luckily i am a govt contractor technical network engineer guy....

ive thought about trying to go govt, but the pay is what keeps me... id have to be a gs-13/14 and i have only been out of college since 03..... plenty of certs...

so if any of you govies wanna give me a nice job let me know

My dad is a retired gs-15 and is on the old retirement plan, lucky **** he is

[pjfootballer]

Nice to see all of those who are responsible for run away gov't spending gathered all into one place.

Funny, but most of the gov't waste is by the gov't and not the contractors. Most contractors only get a certain amount per their contract. I'm county gov't and they waste money paying me for this job. haha!

[Bliz]

Taking "contractor" literally, I have a tangential relationship.

I'm a construction attorney, and have represented contractors and subs in a number of states in actions on government jobs. Bid protests, change order disputes, Miller Act claims, etc.

[wantarace17]

Most people already know this but I am a technical recruiter for Government contractors. Although I am in the process of interviewing with Palantir Technologies for a Senior Technical Recruiter gig. They are flying me out to Palo Alto the end of this month for the final interview.

[LadySkinsFan]

Is this all "IT" work? What primary agencies do you write props for?

---------- Post added February-6th-2012 at 11:35 PM ----------

Hi chipwhich! Here's some data from my resume:

Proposal Development Roles: Proposal Operations Manager, Bid & Proposal Process Engineer, Proposal Manager, Volume Manager, Red Team Captain, Capture Manager, Compliance Manager, Proposal Writer/Editor.

Management Specialties: PBSC, Management Plans, Transition Plans, Compliance Verification, Red Teams, Risk Management Plans, Disaster Recovery Plans, Problem Management Plans, Subcontract Management Plans, Quality Management such as ISO 9001:2008 and SEI CMM, PBSC Quality Control Plans and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans, Business Process Re-engineering, Policies and Procedures.

Industries: IT and Telecommunications. Consulting services (Eagle), systems engineering, systems integration, network integration (NETCENTS 2), operations and maintenance, software development, cellular equipment design and placement, voice and data services, LEO satellite services. Chemical Protective Industries: chemical and flame-retardant technologies for apparel for troop/aircrew protection, and Aqueous-Froth Air Filter the first fundamental breakthrough in air filtration. Science and Medical Research Services: consulting services for scientific and medical research for the US Army, US Navy, CDC and other Federal government agencies with emphasis on supporting Warfighters, civilians and dependents. Federal, state and local government including but not limited to: Veterans Affairs, NASA, DHS, DISA, DoD, Army, Navy, Air Force, State, HHS, ATF, CDC, FBI & Arizona. International: United Kingdom and worldwide with British Telecom, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, & Venezuela.

Clients and Employers: General Dynamics, Hewlett Packard, Lockheed Martin, LGS Innovations (formerly Lucent Technologies), AT&T, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Concert Communications (subsidary of British Telecom), Houston Associates, Inc., Access Systems, Inc., BAE Systems, Inc., Metters Industries, Orbcomm, Peletex, Inc., Pyramid Systems Inc., Tex-Shield, Inc., Lucent Technologies Caribbean and Latin America Division, Digital Equipment Corporation, and numerous small and 8a businesses.

Hope this helps people!

[8181]

How much do PMs and TOMs make? Is it worth it to stick with a government contractor?

I'm a mid-level guy who is a top performer but seeing that other thread kind of spooked me, and that's not the only story I've heard of people getting laid off.

Also is anyone but me having a weird ass time with ES? If I'm logged out, it works fine, but once I try to log in I have to refresh everything 10 times because it either times out or gives me a "server is busy" message. In IE and FF! Wtf!

[TD_washingtonredskins]

How much do PMs and TOMs make? Is it worth it to stick with a government contractor?

I'm a mid-level guy who is a top performer but seeing that other thread kind of spooked me, and that's not the only story I've heard of people getting laid off.

Also is anyone but me having a weird ass time with ES? If I'm logged out, it works fine, but once I try to log in I have to refresh everything 10 times because it either times out or gives me a "server is busy" message. In IE and FF! Wtf!

PM me and I can discuss salaries with you (at least in my experience). It would be helpful to know what you do and make now at your company to figure out the scale.