Shecola Waters

Shecola Waters serves as a key procurement lead within the Air and Marine Contracting Division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, responsible for managing mission-critical acquisitions that support aerial and maritime border security operations. She oversees the acquisition of specialized aviation and maritime surveillance systems, including integrated sensor platforms, real-time intelligence systems, and mission support equipment essential for detecting and interdicting illicit activity across land, air, and sea domains. Her work directly enables the operational readiness of CBP Air and Marine Operations by ensuring timely delivery of high-performance, mission-ready capabilities aligned with national security priorities. While specific contractor relationships are not currently documented in the procurement record, Waters engages with a broad spectrum of defense and aerospace contractors capable of delivering advanced airborne and maritime systems. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical precision, compliance with federal acquisition regulations, and performance-based outcomes, fostering partnerships with vendors experienced in ruggedized avionics, radar integration, and secure communications infrastructure. She maintains a results-driven procurement process focused on reliability, interoperability, and lifecycle support. Waters exhibits a strong preference for open competition, with 100% of her acquisitions classified as “No Set-Aside,” indicating a focus on technical capability and mission necessity over socioeconomic set-asides. This reflects a strategic alignment with the division’s operational urgency and the specialized nature of the systems procured, where qualified vendors are often limited to those with defense-grade certifications and proven track records in high-stakes environments. Her procurement portfolio is exclusively focused on NAICS 333415—Air-Conditioning and Warm Air Heating Equipment and Commercial and Industrial Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturing—indicating a specialized need for climate-controlled enclosures, thermal management systems, and environmental conditioning units critical for sustaining sensitive electronics in extreme operational conditions aboard aircraft and maritime vessels. This niche specialization underscores her deep technical understanding of the environmental demands placed on border security hardware.