Ashley Grimes

Ashley Grimes serves as a key procurement professional at the Naval Research Laboratory, supporting the agency’s mission to advance cutting-edge scientific and technological capabilities for naval and national security. Responsible for managing complex R&D acquisitions, she specializes in sourcing advanced instrumentation, electronic warfare components, and signal processing systems critical to next-generation maritime platforms. Her work directly enables foundational research in physical sciences and engineering, ensuring timely delivery of high-precision hardware and software solutions that meet stringent defense performance standards. Grimes handles a mix of competitive and sole-source contracts under FAR Part 15, with a focus on technical evaluations and performance-based acquisition strategies. She maintains consistent partnerships with leading defense technology contractors including ASSURANCE TECHNOLOGY CORP, L3HARRIS NEXGEN COMMUNICATIONS LLC, and INTEGRATION INNOVATION INC, among others. These relationships are characterized by long-term collaboration on specialized R&D projects requiring deep technical expertise in sensor integration, embedded systems, and autonomous navigation technologies. Grimes prioritizes vendors with proven capabilities in high-reliability electronics and government-qualified manufacturing environments, fostering partnerships that bridge laboratory innovation with field-deployable solutions. Her contracting patterns reflect a strong preference for open competition, with 86.5% of awards issued without set-asides, indicating a focus on technical merit over socioeconomic criteria. However, she consistently allocates 13.5% of opportunities to total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, demonstrating a measured commitment to small business participation without compromising mission-critical performance requirements. Grimes’ procurement focus centers on NAICS 334516 (analytical laboratory instrumentation), 811210 (electronic equipment repair), and 334413 (semiconductor manufacturing), reflecting her expertise in procuring precision sensors, diagnostic tools, and advanced microelectronics. She frequently acquires custom software solutions under 513210 and specialized gas handling systems under 333912, underscoring her technical fluency across multidisciplinary domains essential to naval R&D.