Procurement Counselor

Description

Salary: $33.65/hour- $43.27/hour

PACE Procurement provides extensive business training and direct technical assistance (TA), specialized procurement assistance and partnership resources including business expansion support tools: financing, insurance, and bonding, to help businesses build the capacity to foster and secure new government and private-sector contracting opportunities throughout Southern California. Through PACE's ProcureLA initiative (), the Procurement team offers free support services including one-on-one counseling, help identifying contracting opportunities, guidance on the public agency bidding process, and registration assistance for government and private-sector vendor portals.

The team works with agencies and prime contractors such as the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Metro, Caltrans, and Southern California Edison, among many others, to help small, women-owned, minority-owned, and veteran-owned businesses become certified and contract-ready.

PACE seeks a Procurement Counselor to support the department's procurement efforts by working closely with the Program Assistant, Procurement Relationship Manager, and Business Development Officer. The Procurement Counselor serves as the front-line gatekeeper for the procurement pipeline, filtering and reviewing the high volume of inquiries generated by the Program Assistant's client database to identify business owners who are not yet contract-ready.

This position provides direct one-on-one counseling and technical assistance (TA) to help those clients build their capacity, develop a capability statement, and understand the government contracting bid process before being referred on for more advanced procurement services. This is an entry-to-mid-level position requiring strong organizational skills, sound judgment in triaging inquiries, and a genuine interest in coaching small business owners.

• Work closely with the Program Assistant, who manages a large pool of client inquiries in the database; regularly review and filter that pipeline to identify business owners who are not yet contract-ready
• Provide clients direct counseling, one-on-one mentoring, and technical assistance; refer clients to credit/loan counselor or other resources as needed
• Serve as the front-line gatekeeper for the procurement program; elevate contract-ready businesses to the Procurement Relationship Manager and other senior procurement staff for advanced services
• Actively engage and collaborate with staff of PACE Business Development Center, community partners, consultants and other PACE departments, consultants, speakers, interns, and volunteers

• Filter and review client inquiries and leads from the Program Assistant's database on a regular basis to determine which businesses are contract-ready versus in need of foundational counseling and TA
• Serve as the first point of contact and front-line gatekeeper for procurement inquiries, triaging leads and directing clients to the appropriate PACE staff or resources
• Provide one-on-one counseling and technical assistance to business owners who are not yet contract-ready, helping them build the foundational capacity needed to pursue government contracts
• Help business owners develop a capability statement and guide them through the basics of the government contracting bid process
• Guide businesses through the process of assessing their capacity/suitability for government contracting
• Assess firms training and technical assistance needs and develop a plan outlining recommendations for how that client can most efficiently meet their strategic objectives for succeeding in the government market
• Assist businesses with government…