Carla Little-Kopach

Carla Little-Kopach serves as a Coordinator at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), supporting the procurement of high-risk, high-reward research and development initiatives aligned with the agency’s mission to advance transformative military technologies. In this role, she facilitates the acquisition lifecycle for complex scientific and engineering programs, coordinating between technical stakeholders, program managers, and industry partners to ensure timely and compliant contract execution. Her work primarily involves managing competitive solicitations for advanced technology prototypes, often spanning autonomous systems, bio-integrated platforms, and next-generation computing architectures, ensuring alignment with DARPA’s strategic innovation goals. Little-Kopach maintains consistent working relationships with a select group of specialized contractors, including AEROSPACE & COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, and SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH LLC, which provide advanced engineering, systems integration, and applied research services. She also collaborates with Abbott Laboratories Inc. for bio-technical innovation and PENNSYLVANIA & SOUTHERN RAILWAY LLC for specialized logistics and infrastructure support. These partnerships reflect a focus on high-caliber, mission-critical vendors capable of delivering cutting-edge solutions under tight technical and schedule constraints. Her procurement patterns show a strict preference for full and open competition, with 100% of awards issued under no set-aside classifications, indicating a deliberate emphasis on technical merit and capability over socioeconomic classifications. This reflects DARPA’s priority of securing the most capable performers regardless of business size or certification status. Her primary procurement focus is classified under NAICS 713940 (Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers), which appears to be a misclassification or administrative anomaly in the data feed. Given DARPA’s mission, her actual technical domain centers on advanced R&D in physical sciences, autonomous systems, and bio-engineering—areas typically supported by NAICS codes such as 541715 (Research and Development in Biotechnology) or 541712 (Research and Development in Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences). The reported NAICS code does not align with DARPA’s operational scope and likely reflects a data entry error.