Rebecca Pastorella

Rebecca Pastorella serves as a Contract Specialist within the Science and Technology Acquisition Division of the Department of Homeland Security, where she plays a pivotal role in executing complex procurements that advance national security through cutting-edge scientific and technical capabilities. She manages the full lifecycle of contracts for engineering, physical sciences, and cybersecurity-related solutions, ensuring compliance with federal acquisition regulations while aligning acquisitions with the agency’s mission to develop next-generation detection systems and protect critical infrastructure. Her work spans high-technology domains requiring rigorous technical evaluation and risk mitigation, often involving multi-year, performance-based agreements with stringent deliverable requirements. Pastorella maintains a strategic working relationship with MICROSOFT CORPORATION, leveraging their enterprise-scale cloud, cybersecurity, and AI platforms to support DHS’s digital modernization and threat detection initiatives. Her contracting approach emphasizes long-term vendor partnerships grounded in technical interoperability, data integrity, and scalable infrastructure solutions. While she frequently engages large prime contractors for integrated systems, she also ensures competitive pathways for innovative small businesses through competed 8(a) set-asides, fostering a balanced supplier ecosystem that combines institutional capability with agile innovation. Her socioeconomic contracting patterns reflect a deliberate emphasis on 8(a) competed set-asides, accounting for 25% of her portfolio, demonstrating a strong commitment to expanding opportunities for disadvantaged small businesses without compromising mission-critical requirements. The majority of her acquisitions—75%—are conducted as full and open competitions, prioritizing technical merit and value over socioeconomic preferences, while still integrating small business participation where feasible and compliant. Pastorella’s primary procurement focus lies in NAICS categories including facilities support services, nonresidential building leasing, commercial machinery leasing, and parking operations—areas that underpin the operational readiness of DHS research and testing facilities. These categories reflect her role in procuring the physical and logistical infrastructure necessary to sustain advanced R&D environments, from laboratory space and equipment leasing to facility management services that enable secure, mission-critical scientific operations.