Sara Rieger

Sara L. Rieger serves as a key procurement lead within the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Disa/ditco Europe office, responsible for securing and sustaining critical telecommunications infrastructure to support U.S. military operations across Europe and Southwest Asia. She manages the acquisition of high-capacity, encrypted, and low-latency wired telecommunications services essential for secure, resilient command and control networks. Her portfolio centers on commercial carrier services that enable mission-critical data transport in theater environments, ensuring compliance with DoD cybersecurity and interoperability standards. Rieger’s work directly supports DISA’s mission to maintain global information superiority through robust, scalable communication architectures. She maintains long-standing relationships with leading global telecommunications providers, including L1 Enterprises Incorporated, British Telecommunications Public Limited Company, Vodafone Enterprise Germany GmbH, Liberty Communications, Inc., and QualityNet General Trading and Contracting Company WLL. These partnerships reflect a preference for established commercial carriers with proven capabilities in secure, cross-border fiber and microwave transport, as well as managed network services tailored to defense requirements. Her contracting approach emphasizes reliability, compliance with NATO and U.S. cryptographic standards, and seamless integration with existing DoD networks. Rieger’s procurement activity is overwhelmingly non-set-aside, with 96.7% of awards conducted under full and open competition, reflecting the specialized nature of the services required and the limited pool of qualified vendors capable of meeting stringent operational and security criteria. Only 3.3% of awards are designated as total small business set-asides, indicating a deliberate, mission-driven prioritization of capability over socioeconomic preferences, though small business participation is not excluded when technically viable. Her procurement focus is exclusively under NAICS 517111 — Wired Telecommunications Carriers — encompassing the acquisition of terrestrial and undersea fiber-optic networks, point-to-point leased lines, and encrypted backbone services. She specializes in procuring infrastructure that supports classified and unclassified data transport, with deep technical expertise in SD-WAN, MPLS, and DoD-approved encryption protocols for tactical and strategic communications environments.