National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Hiring for Contracts Branch Chief (OIM-00104-2022) at Bethesda, MD Full Time

Contracts Branch Chief

This management position is located within the Office of Intramural Management (OIM), Division of Intramural Research (DIR), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

About You

• You’re passionate about solving purchasing puzzles to facilitate the amazing science that occurs within the intramural and extramural programs of NHLBI.
• You’re a great leader and mentor of people. You are good at setting expectations and checking-in with staff to keep work moving forward.
• You take ownership over your work to deliver creative, high-quality solutions.
• You enjoy building relationships to get work done within and across teams.
• You are excited by the NIH Intramural environment – i.e. engaging directly with scientific and administrative partners, opportunities to see your work tangibly effect research outcomes, operating in an environment that values experimentation and process improvement.
• You have a flexible, growth-oriented mindset and feel comfortable asking questions to create efficiencies.

About the Position

As the branch chief for the Delegated Acquisitions Branch, you will manage, coordinate, and monitor acquisitions and procurement services for NHLBI. You will have responsibility for providing supervision and direction to staff in coordinating and monitoring the programs and services provided by NHLBI. The branch consists of 5 full-time contracting professionals. The branch handles acquisitions between $10,000 – $25,000 open market, and up to $250,000 on pre-negotiated government contracts. The branch chief works very closely with the NHLBI Consolidated Office of Acquisitions Center (COAC) on all acquisitions that exceed these thresholds. You will also serve as a member of the OIM management team that is responsible for setting policies, procedures, strategic planning and establishment of the culture of OIM. You will be responsible for shared leadership of OIM in concert with five other managers, including the Administrative Director, for ensuring innovative business support of the scientific staff within the DIR. You will also work closely with the branch chief for the Purchasing and Asset Management Branch.

Core duties include:

• Supervising and coaching a staff of 5 individuals to include hiring, performance rating, and developing high performing employees.
• A high degree of analytical and managerial skills, as well as the ability to formulate new strategies and approaches to deal with complex issues and problems, and continually seeks ways to enhance and streamline work processes.
• Knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and other regulations, policies, and procedures governing acquisitions and procurement.
• Prepares performance metrics for staff and provides regular reports to staff and leadership on a recurring basis to ensure timely completion of work products.
• Provides customer liaison services to include resolving issues, ensuring customer satisfaction, and improving customer service.
• Ability to impact acquisition policies at the Institute and NIH levels by serving on various committees (i.e. POTS user committee, NBS workgroups).
• Establishes and maintains internal management controls to ensure functions achieve the intended results, and that resources are used consistent with goals and objectives and are protected from waste, fraud, and misuse.

Preferred Skills/Background

• Bachelor’s degree
• 5+ years of experience leading and managing employees at various stages of their career
• 3-5 years’ experience in acquisitions and purchasing
• Experience with project management tools/techniques to evaluate processes and to track contract portfolio
• Experience with writing statements of work, acquisition plans, independent government cost estimates, and other acquisition-related documents for training purposes
• Excellent communication skills; written, verbal and visual
• Dynamic personality possessing a high level of interpersonal skills to effectively collaborate across all levels of the National Institutes of Health
• Strong negotiation skills, comfortable advocating for positions, policy application, and the value of decentralized purchasing structures
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage and prioritize a multitude of interdependent and complex tasks

Additional Details:

This full-time, contract position is located on the main NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland and is bus/bicycle/metro accessible. Some additional details are:

• Employment type: contract (indefinite), full-time
• Job functions: management, contracts
• Salary range: $112,000-$150,000 commensurate with education/experience
• A selection of health and wellness benefits will be provided
• Position is hybrid (can work from home most days)

We strongly encourage applications from Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), people who identify as LGBTQIA+ and non-binary, people living with disabilities, and people from historically underrepresented communities. We are happy to talk further about steps we’ve taken to integrate Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility values into our workplace.