Aaron Blackshire

Aaron Blackshire serves as a Contracting Officer within the Office of Acquisition and Grants Management at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, where he leads the procurement of professional and technical services critical to modernizing Medicare and Medicaid systems. He manages complex acquisitions under FAR Part 15, primarily focused on IT modernization, data infrastructure, and digital transformation initiatives that enhance program efficiency and beneficiary experience. His portfolio centers on consulting, systems design, and software development contracts that support secure, scalable, and interoperable health IT environments aligned with CMS’s strategic objectives. Blackshire maintains a consistent working relationship with Rocket Media Group, LLC, as a primary contractor for technical and marketing services. His procurement patterns reflect a preference for established vendors with proven expertise in health IT delivery, while also engaging a range of mid-tier and small business providers to ensure competitive responsiveness. He fosters collaborative, performance-based vendor partnerships grounded in clear statement of work definitions and outcome-oriented contract management practices. His set-aside preferences are heavily skewed toward open competition, with 82.3% of awards issued without socioeconomic set-asides. However, he actively supports small business participation through Total Small Business Set-Asides (11.8%) and 8(a) competed contracts (5.9%), demonstrating a balanced approach that prioritizes market competition while fulfilling statutory small business goals under FAR Part 19. Blackshire’s procurement focus is concentrated in NAICS 541512 (Computer Systems Design Services) and 541511 (Custom Computer Programming Services), reflecting his specialization in enterprise software development, system integration, and digital platform modernization. He also procures marketing consulting services (541613) and computing infrastructure solutions (518210), underscoring his expertise in end-to-end digital transformation projects that support CMS’s mission to deliver secure, data-driven health programs.