Rebecca Powers

Rebecca Powers serves as a Contract Specialist within the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate (FA8650), where she manages complex acquisitions supporting cutting-edge aerospace propulsion, hypersonics, and advanced materials research. Her role is central to the agency’s mission of accelerating next-generation flight technologies through timely, compliant, and technically sound contracting. She specializes in procuring research and development services under FAR Part 35 and other authority-specific mechanisms, ensuring alignment with DoD innovation priorities and technical requirements for high-performance systems. Her portfolio includes fundamental and applied R&D contracts that bridge laboratory breakthroughs with operational capability. Powers maintains strategic relationships with leading defense and aerospace contractors including UES Inc., General Electric Company, DCS Corporation, Spirit Aerosystems Inc., and Advanced Thermoplastic Composites LLC. These partnerships are characterized by long-term, technically intensive collaborations focused on propulsion system design, adaptive flight control algorithms, and high-temperature composite materials. She frequently engages vendors with deep domain expertise in hypersonic aerodynamics, thermodynamic modeling, and advanced manufacturing, fostering collaborative contract execution through performance-based incentives and technical oversight frameworks. Powers’ contracting activity is exclusively classified as “No Set-Aside,” reflecting the specialized, mission-critical nature of the R&D work she manages. While small business participation is not formally prioritized through socioeconomic set-asides, her acquisitions often involve small firms as subcontractors within larger prime contracts, enabling technical agility without compromising program security or performance standards. Her procurement focus is entirely concentrated under NAICS 541712—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology). She procures services involving computational fluid dynamics, materials characterization, propulsion system prototyping, and high-fidelity testing of next-generation propulsion architectures, requiring deep technical acumen and a nuanced understanding of aerospace engineering disciplines.