Your steps to apply
Contract Specialist Team Lead
U.S. Coast Guard · Norfolk, Virginia · Closes in 6 days
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1 Check you can apply You are here
Who can apply: The public.
Open to all U.S. citizens, nationals, and people who owe allegiance to the U.S. The job is filled through direct hire authority, so the usual rating and veterans' preference rules do not apply.
Experience: You need at least 4 years of contracting or related experience. At least 1 year must be specialized experience at the next lower level (GS-12) or equivalent, with documented knowledge, skills, and abilities for this work. Current federal employees applying for promotion need 52 weeks of specialized experience at GS-12.
Education: A 4-year bachelor's degree that includes or is supplemented by at least 24 semester hours in accounting, business, finance, law, contracts, purchasing, economics, industrial management, marketing, quantitative methods, or organization and management. Foreign degrees can count if you show they are comparable to U.S. accredited education.
Licenses and certifications:
- Valid and current FAC-C (Professional) certification, or an equivalent DOD Contracting Professional Certification
Experience can be paid or unpaid, volunteer work included: if it matches the duties, it counts. The full rules are in the announcement.
2 Resume and documents
Write a federal resume for this job. For each job you held, give the month and year you started and ended, your hours per week and what you did, using the words of the experience the announcement asks for. Many announcements accept resumes of up to 2 pages: check this one.
3 Apply on USAJOBS
Closes in 6 days (November 9, until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time).
This job closes when 100 applications are received, which may be before the closing date of 11:59 PM EST on 11/09/2026.
You sign in to USAJOBS with a Login.gov account, answer the questionnaire and upload your documents, then you submit. Answer the questionnaire honestly: your resume must show what you claim.
How they rate you: Applicants who meet the basic qualifications are sent to the selecting official, and no numeric scores or rankings are given. You must complete the USA Hire assessments on competencies such as attention to detail, influencing and negotiating, and decision making, and meet the cut score or you will not be considered.
4 After you apply
In USAJOBS, under Applications, you can see where your application stands: received, reviewed, referred to the hiring manager or not, then selected or not. It can take a few weeks.
For the interview, prepare three examples with the STAR method: the Situation, the Task, what you did (Action) and the Result.
If they choose you: a tentative offer, then a background check, a security clearance (Q Access Authorization), then the final offer with your start date.
Tips for this job:
- Your resume must show your contracting experience, its complexity level, start and end dates in mm/yy format, and hours per week.
- If you qualify through education, submit unofficial transcripts with course numbers, titles, credit hours, and grades by the closing date or you will be disqualified.
- Apply early, because the job can close once 100 applications are received.
Kandidatu is an independent website: only the official posting counts. Read it before you apply.