Erin Contreras

Erin Contreras serves as a key procurement professional at NASA Ames Research Center, supporting the agency’s mission to advance aerospace innovation through strategic acquisition of facilities support services. In this role, she manages the full lifecycle of contracts essential to maintaining and operating mission-critical research infrastructure, including laboratory operations, technical staffing, facility maintenance, and mission support services. Her work directly enables NASA’s scientific and engineering teams by ensuring reliable, compliant, and efficient operational environments for cutting-edge aeronautics and space exploration programs. Contreras specializes in performance-based acquisitions that align with NASA’s stringent technical and safety standards, emphasizing outcomes over inputs to drive mission success. Her primary contractor relationship is with Aerospace & Commercial Technologies, LLC, a trusted partner in delivering integrated facilities management solutions for federal research centers. Contreras fosters long-term, performance-driven partnerships with this vendor, leveraging their expertise in supporting complex technical environments under NASA’s unique operational requirements. These relationships are characterized by consistent recompete awards and a focus on sustained service quality, indicating a high degree of contractor reliability and alignment with agency objectives. Contreras’s procurement portfolio reflects a strict focus on open competition, with 100% of awards issued under non-set-aside conditions. This indicates a preference for selecting the most capable and cost-effective providers regardless of socioeconomic status, prioritizing mission readiness and technical capability over socioeconomic set-asides. While small business participation is not formally prioritized in her acquisition strategy, all procurements remain fully compliant with federal contracting regulations. Her expertise centers on NAICS 561210 (Facilities Support Services), encompassing a broad range of mission-enabling services such as facility operations, custodial support, grounds maintenance, technical staffing, and infrastructure management. Contreras’s acquisitions directly sustain the physical and operational backbone of NASA Ames, ensuring that research facilities remain fully functional for high-risk, high-reward aerospace and computational science programs.