Barbara L. Kopec

Barbara L. Kopec serves as a Contract Specialist responsible for managing the full lifecycle of complex procurement actions, ensuring compliance with federal acquisition regulations and advancing mission-critical technology initiatives. She specializes in soliciting, evaluating, and awarding contracts for advanced technical systems, with a focus on aerospace, defense, and scientific research domains. Her role is central to the agency’s procurement mission, ensuring timely delivery of high-precision instrumentation and R&D services that support national security and scientific innovation. Kopec routinely handles competitive sealed bidding, negotiated acquisitions, and FAR-based contract modifications, emphasizing transparency, risk mitigation, and performance-based outcomes. Kopec collaborates with a diverse pool of contractors, primarily engineering firms and technology developers specializing in navigation, guidance, and sensor systems, as well as physical and engineering research organizations. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with mid-tier and small businesses capable of delivering technically sophisticated solutions under tight performance timelines. Her contracting approach emphasizes vendor capability assessments, technical proposal evaluations, and post-award performance monitoring to ensure mission readiness and accountability. Her procurement patterns reflect a strong preference for unrestricted competition, with 88.9% of awards issued under the “No Set-Aside” category. However, she actively supports small business participation through HUBZone set-asides, which account for 11.1% of her awards, demonstrating a measured but intentional commitment to socioeconomic contracting goals. She does not routinely utilize 8(a), SDVOSB, or WOSB set-asides, instead prioritizing technical merit and capability alignment within the broader small business ecosystem. Kopec’s primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 334511, encompassing the acquisition of aeronautical and nautical systems, including radar, avionics, and inertial navigation equipment. She also frequently procures research and development services under NAICS 541712, supporting applied physics, systems engineering, and experimental technology development. Her expertise centers on high-reliability instrumentation and scientific R&D, requiring deep technical understanding of test protocols, certification standards, and systems integration requirements.