Acquisition & Program Management Best Practices & Training Lead / SME

Acquisition & Program Management Best Practices & Training Lead / SME

OCT Consulting LLC is a boutique management and strategy consulting company that provides support to Federal Government clients. We provide consulting services in the areas of Strategy, Process Improvement, Change Management, Program and Project Management, Acquisition/Procurement, and Information Technology.

Responsibilities and Duties

OCT Consulting has grown significantly within the last 3 years and continues to grow. We are looking to bring onboard a senior acquisition and program management subject matter expert (SME) to lead the best practices and training function related to a government client’s high-level acquisition and program management review board. This review process is led from within the procurement line of business; the “review team” directly supports the high-level “Committee” (i.e., the acquisition and program management review board) ahead of a formal 2-hour Committee session where a given program is reviewed. The Committee reviews procurements / programs with a lifecycle value of $500 million or more. You will be expected to develop a best practices repository of document templates and examples; develop training materials related to acquisition and program management best practices; and lead group training, 1:1 coaching, and other learning and development (L&D) sessions for programs, the review team, the Committee, and other stakeholders around the Department.

This review process and best practices / training function is new to the given Federal government agency. In addition to your duties regarding best practices and training, you will also be expected to directly participate as a member of the review team / SME, as needed. Additionally, you will be expected to support the continued development of existing review strategy, evaluation frameworks, processes, and procedures. Serving as a best practices / training SME, you will work side-by-side with the programs that you evaluate to share best practices, iterate on their submissions to the review Committee, and serve as the key point of contact (POC) to help programs to understand what stellar acquisition and program planning “looks like”. The goal of the review team and the high-level Committee that you serve is to evaluate very large government procurements to ensure optimal program management best practices. This role requires leadership skills, empathy, extroversion, proactivity, and deep program management and Federal acquisition expertise to ensure that programs, the review team, and the Committee are set up for success throughout the review process and beyond as programs manage critical acquisition and program functions.

Responsibilities and duties include:

• Develop a robust repository of “in-house” (i.e., agency-specific) best practice templates and examples of relevant acquisition and program management documents (e.g., Acquisition Plans, SOWs, Program Management Plans, LCCEs or Program Budgets, Program Milestone Schedules, Risk Registers, Market Research, Analyses of Alternatives, etc.) that can be used to guide both programs and the review team in submitting and reviewing documents. The purpose of this task is to ensure that all stakeholders have examples of what “good” looks like. This task supports the implementation of a key Committee-level goal – advising programs on planning and program management best practices. As part of this exercise, conduct an analysis of the current best practice templates / submission documents repository to determine the “As Is” state and identify areas of potential improvement. Using this assessment, develop the in-house set of agency-specific templates and examples needed to complete the best practices repository, tailoring documents to the unique needs of various bureaus (e.g., the needs of IT vs. construction / building operations). The best practices repository should, at minimum, include at least one agency-specific template and one example of each required and optional submission document, as well as other helpful acquisition and program templates and examples. The individual should also source external best practice templates and examples, as needed.
• Ensure that programs coming before the Committee are well-trained on best practices. The individual will work with programs to refine their documentation prior to the start of their EBRC cycle, providing advice and guidance in regularly scheduled meetings. The Lead will additionally provide training to the review team so that they are knowledgeable about what quality documents look like. The individual will conduct a study of leading training practices employed by similar organizations to determine how to best implement a training and education program with respect to this unique acquisition and program review process. Using these results, the individual wi