Candice T. Trupiano

Candice T. Trupiano serves as a Contract Specialist within the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), where she plays a pivotal role in executing complex acquisitions for advanced missile defense systems. Her responsibilities encompass the full lifecycle of contract management—from requirements definition and source selection to award and performance oversight—ensuring alignment with MDA’s mission to develop and field integrated, layered defense architectures. She specializes in procuring high-technology systems involving sensor modernization, guidance and control technologies, and midcourse/terminal-phase interception capabilities, often supporting research and development initiatives critical to national security. Trupiano maintains sustained contracting relationships with leading defense prime contractors, including Lockheed Martin Corporation and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation, as well as Jacobs Technology Inc. These partnerships are characterized by long-term, mission-critical engagements involving systems engineering, integration, and testing of ballistic missile defense components. Her procurement approach emphasizes technical rigor, risk mitigation, and performance accountability, fostering collaborative relationships with industry partners to deliver cutting-edge capabilities under stringent operational timelines. Her contracting portfolio reflects a strong preference for full and open competition, with no set-aside programs utilized in her award activity. This underscores a strategic focus on maximizing technical capability and industrial base readiness over socioeconomic set-asides, aligning with MDA’s priority to rapidly field proven, high-performance systems without constraints on vendor eligibility. Trupiano’s procurement focus is concentrated in NAICS 334511 for search, detection, navigation, and guidance systems, and NAICS 541712 for physical and engineering research and development. She routinely acquires advanced radar and electro-optical sensors, command and control software, interceptor hardware, and simulation platforms, demonstrating deep expertise in aerospace defense technologies and systems engineering disciplines essential to missile defense innovation.