Sally Roliff

Sally Roliff serves as a Contract Negotiator for the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate (FA8650), where she leads the negotiation and execution of complex research and development contracts critical to advancing U.S. air and space propulsion capabilities. Her role centers on securing innovative solutions in hypersonics, adaptive flight control, and high-performance materials, ensuring technical excellence aligns with fiscal and regulatory compliance. She manages a portfolio of prime contracts involving cutting-edge engineering R&D, often requiring multidisciplinary collaboration across government, industry, and academic partners to accelerate technology transition from lab to operational systems. Roliff maintains strategic relationships with leading aerospace and defense contractors including UES INC, General Electric Company, DCS Corporation, Spirit Aerosystems Inc., and Advanced Thermoplastic Composites LLC. These partnerships reflect a focus on high-technical-capability vendors with proven expertise in propulsion systems, materials science, and flight control technologies. Her negotiation approach emphasizes performance-based outcomes, technical risk mitigation, and long-term innovation sustainment, fostering collaborative environments that support rapid prototyping and fieldable solutions. Her procurement activity is entirely non-set-aside, with 100% of contracts awarded under full and open competition, indicating a prioritization of technical merit and mission-critical capability over socioeconomic preferences. While small business participation is not structurally mandated in her portfolio, she consistently evaluates all qualified offerors based on technical proficiency and past performance, ensuring the highest standards of operational readiness. Roliff’s work is concentrated in NAICS 541712—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—reflecting her deep specialization in advanced propulsion systems, functional materials, and aerospace engineering R&D. She procures services spanning computational fluid dynamics, hypersonic wind tunnel testing, composite material development, and adaptive control algorithms, supporting the Air Force’s mission to maintain technological dominance in next-generation air and space platforms.