Chad Pickett

Chad Pickett serves as a Contract Specialist within the CDC Office of Acquisition Services, supporting the agency’s mission to safeguard public health through strategic procurement of scientific, technical, and data-driven services. He manages the full lifecycle of complex acquisitions spanning biomedical research support, laboratory diagnostics, and public health informatics, ensuring compliance with federal regulations and alignment with CDC’s operational priorities. His work directly enables critical capabilities in infectious disease surveillance, epidemiological data systems, and rapid-response infrastructure, often coordinating with scientific and technical stakeholders to define requirements and evaluate vendor proposals. Pickett maintains consistent contracting relationships with leading providers in public health and life sciences, including General Dynamics Information Technology, GlaxoSmithKline, MRIGLOBAL, Cepheid, and the New York City Health & Hospitals Corp. These partnerships reflect a focus on high-capacity, mission-critical vendors capable of delivering specialized diagnostics, laboratory automation, and large-scale data processing solutions. His procurement approach emphasizes performance-based contracting, technical rigor, and long-term service reliability over transactional vendor engagement. Pickett’s portfolio reflects a strong preference for full and open competition, with 100% of awards issued under no set-aside categories. While he does not prioritize socioeconomic set-asides such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB programs, his contracting decisions are driven by technical capability and mission alignment rather than socioeconomic criteria, consistent with CDC’s need for scalable, high-performance solutions in time-sensitive public health emergencies. His primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 541690 (Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services), accounting for half of his portfolio, followed by 518210 (Computing Infrastructure and Data Services) and 541613 (Marketing Consulting Services). He routinely procures bioinformatics platforms, laboratory information management systems, epidemiological modeling tools, and technical advisory services that underpin CDC’s data-driven public health operations.