Mara Strobel

Mara Strobel serves as a key procurement professional within the FA2518 USSF SPOC/SAIO, a specialized unit under the Department of the Air Force dedicated to advancing space domain capabilities. She manages the acquisition of mission-critical engineering, telecommunications, and research services essential to sustaining and modernizing space-based surveillance, satellite communications, and electromagnetic warfare systems. Her work directly supports the agency’s strategic imperatives in space domain awareness and resilient satellite architectures, focusing on complex, technical contracts requiring deep domain expertise and rapid innovation cycles. She handles both full and open competitions and set-aside procurements aligned with national security objectives. Strobel maintains consistent partnerships with leading defense and aerospace contractors including Keystone Mission Solutions Corp, Riverside Research Institute, and Bowhead Information Technology Service LLC. These relationships reflect a preference for established vendors with proven capabilities in space systems engineering, signal intelligence, and secure communications infrastructure. Her contracting patterns indicate a reliance on firms with high technical maturity and past performance in classified and sensitive space operations, fostering long-term, performance-based collaborations that prioritize mission continuity and system interoperability. Her procurement strategy exhibits an even split between full and open competitions and Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, demonstrating a balanced commitment to both enterprise-scale capabilities and small business innovation. She actively promotes participation from small businesses without favoring specific socioeconomic categories, ensuring broad access while maintaining technical rigor in source selection. Strobel’s primary NAICS focus areas are 511210 (Software Publishers) and 611430 (Professional and Management Development Training), underscoring her emphasis on software-defined space systems, mission-critical application development, and workforce upskilling in advanced space operations. She procures custom software solutions, cybersecurity tools, and specialized training programs to sustain a technically agile workforce capable of operating in contested and congested space environments.