On October 16, 2023, the Principal Director, Defense Pricing and Contracting (DPC) and the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP), on behalf of civilian agencies, signed a groundbreaking Memorandum of Understanding to recognize parity and reciprocity between the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) DoD Contracting Professional Certification and the Federal Acquisition Institute’s (FAI) Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) (Professional).  This achievement is the culmination of effort over the past three years of both DoD and FAI undergoing a modernization of the respective acquisition certification programs. 

Contracting certification reciprocity means that certified contracting professionals that work in either DoD or Federal civilian agencies are considered equally certified for contracting positions no matter where they work in the Government.  DoD and the Federal civilian agencies will accept each other’s Contracting Certifications!  The Reciprocity MOU removes an unnecessary barrier in the hiring process, allows for easier talent mobility of the over 40,000 professionals in the Federal contracting workforce, opens up the playing field for contracting professionals to have more available job opportunities to grow in their contracting careers, and for contracting organizations to have maximum flexibility and access to a wider talent pool when filling contracting positions.  

DoD and OFPP were able to achieve alignment as we have both adopted a common set of contracting competencies, certification standards (e.g., education, training, assessment, and experience), and a continuous learning requirement across the entire Federal contracting workforce.  In fact, our contracting certification assessment is exactly the same for the civilian agencies and DoD. 

The MOU and associated Contracting Functional Area Leader memorandum may be viewed on the DPC Workforce Development webpage at: https://www.acq.osd.mil/asda/dpc/cp/policy/workforce-development.html 

To find out more about a career in contracting, check out these links:

DPC Acquisition Workforce Webpage:  Contract Policy Workforce Development

DAU Functional Area Certification Standards:  Contracting Certification Career Guide

Federal Internship Portal:  USAJOBS - Search

Careers In Acquisition: Careers in Acquisition | FAI.GOV