Sonya Diaz De Leon

Sonya Diaz De Leon serves as a key procurement professional within the Naval Research Laboratory, supporting the agency’s mission to advance foundational research and development in support of naval and national security. She manages complex acquisitions for cutting-edge scientific and engineering capabilities, focusing on high-precision sensors, electronic warfare systems, signal processing technologies, and autonomous navigation platforms. Her work directly enables the transition of laboratory innovations into operational maritime systems, ensuring that R&D investments align with strategic naval requirements. She handles a mix of basic and applied research contracts, often under cost-reimbursement and time-and-materials structures, requiring deep technical understanding and agile contracting approaches. Diaz De Leon maintains consistent partnerships with a core group of specialized contractors including Assurance Technology Corp, L3Harris NexGen Communications LLC, Envisioneering Inc, Integration Innovation Inc, and Analex Corporation. These firms provide advanced engineering services, prototype development, and systems integration for classified and unclassified defense R&D programs. Her contracting patterns reflect long-term, mission-critical collaborations, often involving multiple-phase task orders and rapid prototyping efforts requiring stringent compliance with DoD technical and cybersecurity standards. Her procurement portfolio is predominantly open competition, with 80% of awards issued without set-aside restrictions, reflecting the specialized nature of the technical requirements. However, she actively supports small business participation through 20% total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, consistently prioritizing firms with proven expertise in physical sciences and engineering services. While she does not routinely utilize 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB set-asides, her approach ensures equitable access for qualified small businesses capable of meeting the NRL’s high-performance technical demands. Her primary NAICS focus is 541715 for research and development in physical and engineering sciences, complemented by 541330 for engineering services and 336120 for specialized heavy-duty vehicle systems integration. She procures advanced instrumentation, embedded electronics, signal analytics software, and ruggedized test platforms, demonstrating deep domain expertise in naval sensor systems, electronic combat, and autonomous platform development.