Jacqualyn R Perkins

Jacqualyn R. Perkins serves as a Contract Negotiator within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate (FA8650), where she plays a pivotal role in securing advanced aerospace technologies critical to U.S. air and space dominance. She specializes in negotiating complex research and development contracts focused on next-generation propulsion systems, hypersonic flight technologies, and high-performance functional materials. Her work directly supports the agency’s mission to accelerate the transition of cutting-edge scientific innovations from laboratory prototypes to operational capabilities, ensuring the Air Force maintains technological superiority. Perkins routinely handles sole-source and competitive acquisitions under FAR Part 35 and 36, emphasizing technical merit, innovation, and mission alignment in source selection. She maintains consistent, high-impact relationships with leading aerospace and defense contractors including UES INC, General Electric Company, DCS Corporation, Spirit Aerosystems Inc., and Advanced Thermoplastic Composites LLC. These partnerships are characterized by long-term collaboration on classified and unclassified R&D initiatives, often involving proprietary materials, computational modeling, and propulsion system integration. Perkins fosters strategic vendor engagement through early industry outreach, technical interchange meetings, and structured negotiation frameworks that balance performance requirements with cost and schedule realism. While the majority of her acquisitions are conducted as unrestricted procurements, she actively supports small business participation through Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, consistently allocating approximately one-quarter of her portfolio to qualified small businesses. Her socioeconomic contracting approach prioritizes capability over size, ensuring that small firms with specialized expertise in propulsion, composites, and flight control systems are competitively positioned to contribute to mission-critical programs. Her procurement focus is exclusively centered on NAICS 541712—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—reflecting deep expertise in fundamental and applied aerospace engineering. She procures advanced materials, propulsion test hardware, adaptive control algorithms, and hypersonic wind tunnel instrumentation, ensuring that R&D investments translate into tangible warfighting advantages.