MacKenzie Rivera

MacKenzie Rivera serves as a secondary contracting professional within the W4LD USA Hecsa (W912HQ), a research and development arm of the Department of the Army focused on advancing scientific innovation for military readiness and environmental resilience. While not the primary contracting officer, Rivera supports the acquisition lifecycle for high-priority R&D initiatives, particularly in physical, engineering, and life sciences. Their role involves coordinating proposal evaluations, ensuring compliance with federal acquisition regulations, and facilitating interagency collaboration to align procurement with strategic defense priorities in climate-resilient infrastructure and energy security. Rivera maintains consistent working relationships with a select group of technical contractors, including AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, AEROSPACE & COMMERCIAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC, and CLEARVOYANT CONSULTING, LLC, as well as academic partners such as the University of Hawaii and Northern Arizona University. These partnerships reflect a preference for specialized firms capable of delivering applied research, systems analysis, and technical consulting services. The working pattern emphasizes long-term, performance-based engagements over transactional procurements, fostering deep technical alignment with mission-critical defense challenges. Set-aside preferences are heavily skewed toward open competition, with 89.5% of acquisitions conducted without socioeconomic set-asides, reflecting the specialized nature of the technical requirements. Nevertheless, a consistent 10.5% of awards are structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, indicating targeted support for qualified small entities capable of meeting rigorous R&D demands. The procurement portfolio is dominated by NAICS 541715—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—accounting for 84.2% of activity, with additional focus on professional scientific services under NAICS 541990 and biotechnology research under 541714. Rivera’s expertise centers on acquiring advanced engineering analyses, environmental modeling, energy systems testing, and field-ready scientific instrumentation to support Army installations’ operational sustainability and adaptive infrastructure needs.