Jessica Shields

Jessica Shields serves as a Contracting Officer at Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport, where she plays a pivotal role in advancing the Department of the Navy’s mission to develop and field cutting-edge maritime warfare systems. She manages the full lifecycle of complex acquisitions for research, development, testing, and evaluation (RDT&E) of advanced naval technologies, with a primary focus on sensor systems, electronic warfare components, and integrated communication architectures for undersea, surface, and aerial domains. Her portfolio is strategically aligned with the agency’s mission to maintain technological superiority through innovation-driven procurement, ensuring rapid delivery of mission-critical capabilities to the fleet. Shields maintains consistent partnerships with leading defense and aerospace contractors including Science Applications International Corporation, Aerospace & Commercial Technologies, LLC, Astronics Test Systems Inc, Serco Inc, and Mikel Inc. These relationships are built on technical collaboration and performance excellence in delivering high-assurance systems for naval applications. She works closely with vendors possessing deep domain expertise in signal processing, electro-optical systems, and autonomous platform integration, fostering long-term vendor engagement through transparent solicitation practices and rigorous technical evaluation. A staunch advocate for small business participation, Shields exclusively utilizes Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, ensuring that all solicitations are reserved for small businesses meeting socioeconomic criteria. Her contracting patterns reflect a deliberate and sustained commitment to empowering small firms with the technical capacity to support naval RDT&E, creating equitable access to high-impact defense contracts. Her procurement activities are exclusively scoped under NAICS 541712—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—focusing on advanced engineering services for naval systems. She specializes in procuring RDT&E services for sonar arrays, navigation sensors, electronic countermeasures, and integrated testbed systems, demonstrating deep expertise in the technical and regulatory demands of naval innovation procurement.