Surlean Darby

Surlean Darby serves as a Contract Specialist responsible for managing the full lifecycle of professional services acquisitions, ensuring compliance with federal procurement regulations and aligning contract awards with mission-critical agency objectives. She specializes in soliciting, evaluating, and awarding contracts for technical and scientific services, with a focus on ensuring transparency, fairness, and efficiency in the acquisition process. Her work directly supports the agency’s operational needs by securing high-quality, performance-based services from qualified vendors, primarily in research, development, and testing domains. Darby cultivates relationships with a diverse range of contractors, including established professional services firms and specialized small businesses, particularly those with expertise in scientific research and laboratory testing. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages vendors capable of delivering complex, non-commodity services requiring technical rigor and regulatory adherence. Her contracting approach emphasizes competitive bidding, clear performance metrics, and vendor accountability, fostering a procurement environment that prioritizes quality over cost alone. A strong advocate for small business participation, Darby structures approximately 20% of her acquisitions as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, reflecting a deliberate commitment to expanding economic opportunity within the federal marketplace. While the majority of her contracts remain open to all competitors, her consistent use of small business set-asides demonstrates a strategic balance between broad competition and socioeconomic goals, without reliance on other set-aside programs such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 541990 (All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services) and 541712 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences), with a secondary emphasis on 541380 (Testing Laboratories and Services). She routinely acquires analytical services, engineering research, data validation, and laboratory testing solutions, demonstrating deep familiarity with technical requirements in science-driven environments and a proven ability to translate complex operational needs into effective contract language.