Margaret Santos

Margaret Santos serves as a Contracting Officer for the Department of the Air Force under FA7014, where she manages complex professional services acquisitions critical to sustaining Air Force operational readiness. Her portfolio centers on systems engineering and technical assistance (SETA), enterprise IT modernization, cybersecurity infrastructure, and mission-critical analytics. She executes full lifecycle procurement actions under FAR and DFARS guidelines, ensuring compliance with national security requirements while aligning contract outcomes with the Air Force’s strategic modernization goals. Her acquisitions predominantly support mission-enabling services rather than hardware, emphasizing performance-based outcomes and agile delivery models. Santos maintains longstanding relationships with key contractors including SIGMATECH, INC. and Purdue University, reflecting a balanced approach between industry experts and academic research partners. She frequently engages firms with deep expertise in government-specific technical environments, particularly those capable of delivering secure, scalable IT solutions and analytical frameworks tailored to defense operations. Her contracting patterns indicate a preference for partners with proven experience in classified and sensitive environments, fostering collaborative, long-term engagements over transactional vendor relationships. Her procurement strategy reflects a strong commitment to socioeconomic diversity, with nearly half of her contracts set aside for small businesses under FAR 19.5. This consistent use of total small business set-asides underscores her dedication to expanding opportunities for small and emerging vendors in the national security space. While no-set-aside contracts remain equally prevalent, her pattern demonstrates intentional inclusion of small businesses in high-impact service categories, aligning with DoD’s broader small business utilization mandates. Santos specializes in procuring services under NAICS 541611 (administrative and management consulting), 541511 (custom computer programming), and 541519 (other computer-related services), with additional focus on legal and data analytics support. Her domain expertise lies in mission-critical IT modernization, cybersecurity compliance, and enterprise systems integration, ensuring that contracted services directly enhance the Air Force’s operational agility and digital resilience.