Dr. Craig Shoemaker

Dr. Craig Shoemaker serves as a key procurement lead within the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Office of Acquisition and Procurement, overseeing the acquisition of mission-critical scientific infrastructure and specialized maintenance services essential to sustaining national agricultural research operations. His work directly supports the agency’s mandate to enable cutting-edge, data-driven science by securing advanced laboratory instrumentation, precision environmental control systems, and facility maintenance solutions for experimental stations and field sites. He manages the full lifecycle of contracts—from needs assessment through performance evaluation—with a focus on ensuring operational resilience and technical compliance across federally funded research facilities. Dr. Shoemaker maintains longstanding partnerships with a select group of contractors including McKenzie Construction & Site Development LLC, Aerospace & Commercial Technologies, LLC, and L1 Enterprises Incorporated. These vendors are consistently engaged for complex, technical services involving facility upgrades, environmental system integration, and specialized maintenance of research-grade infrastructure. His contracting approach emphasizes reliability, technical proficiency, and long-term service performance, fostering collaborative relationships with contractors who demonstrate deep domain expertise in agricultural science environments. Dr. Shoemaker’s procurement portfolio reflects a strong preference for open competition, with 100% of awards issued under no set-aside classifications. This indicates a strategic focus on selecting the most technically qualified vendors regardless of socioeconomic designation, prioritizing capability and mission alignment over categorical preferences. While small business participation is not formally incentivized in his portfolio, the nature of the work often attracts mid-sized and specialized firms with niche technical credentials. His primary procurement activity centers on NAICS 811219—Other Personal and Household Goods Repairs and Maintenance—which encompasses specialized facility upkeep, calibration services, and infrastructure remediation critical to maintaining high-precision research environments. He routinely procures services involving HVAC system optimization, laboratory ventilation retrofits, and controlled-environment system maintenance, demonstrating deep familiarity with the technical demands of USDA’s experimental and field research infrastructure.