Marlaina Kehrer

Marlaina Kehrer serves as a key procurement professional within the IT Contracting Division – PL83 of the Defense Information Systems Agency, where she supports the acquisition of mission-critical IT services essential to sustaining and modernizing DoD-wide information systems. Her responsibilities center on managing the full lifecycle of contracts for secure, interoperable computing environments, with a focus on cybersecurity enhancements, legacy infrastructure modernization, and scalable software solutions. She routinely handles complex service-based acquisitions under FAR Part 12 and Part 37, ensuring alignment with DoD cybersecurity standards such as NIST SP 800-53 and CMMC requirements. Kehrer’s work directly enables the agency’s mission to deliver resilient, secure communication and data processing capabilities across defense networks. While specific contractor relationships are not publicly enumerated, Kehrer engages with a broad spectrum of IT service providers, including firms specializing in cloud infrastructure, systems integration, and mission-critical software development. Her contracting patterns reflect a balanced approach between large primes and small business innovators, fostering partnerships that combine enterprise-scale capacity with agile, niche technical capabilities. She prioritizes vendors with proven experience in defense IT environments and demonstrated compliance with federal information security frameworks. Kehrer demonstrates a strong commitment to socioeconomic contracting, with approximately half of her acquisitions set aside for small businesses under FAR 19.5, and the other half open to full and open competition. This balanced strategy ensures broad market participation while actively promoting opportunities for small disadvantaged, woman-owned, and service-disabled veteran-owned firms. Her procurement approach reflects the agency’s mandate to cultivate a diverse, resilient supplier base capable of meeting evolving defense IT demands. Her primary focus lies in NAICS 541519 (Other Computer Related Services), encompassing cybersecurity services, software development, systems engineering, and IT operations support. She procures tailored solutions for secure network management, application modernization, and mission-specific software platforms, demonstrating deep expertise in the technical domains critical to DoD’s digital transformation.