A04 Justification and Approval_Redacted.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF WAR

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

1155 DEFENSE PENTAGON

WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1155

ACQUISITION DIRECTORATE

WHS-2026-2245

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION UNDER SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES

FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS

UNDER FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 12

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: The Department of War (DoW), Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Acquisition Directorate (AD), Enterprise Services and Innovation Division (ESID) on behalf of the WHS Human Resources Directorate (HRD), Planning, Performance, and Integration Office (PPIO).

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: WHS AD intends to award a new, sole-source, Firm- Fixed-Price (FFP) commercial contract to Stryder Corp., doing business as (dba) Handshake for its Enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription to the Handshake Premium platform.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: The WHS HRD requires an enterprise-level SaaS subscription to Handshake Premium to execute its centralized early-career talent sourcing, outreach, and strategic recruiting mission servicing select Department of War Components, the Joint Staff, the Military Departments, the Office of the Secretary of War (OSW), Congress, and the Executive Office of the President.

The Handshake SaaS subscription consists of the following integrated modules:

Handshake Talent Engagement Suite: Core digital infrastructure for automated candidate messaging and virtual recruiting campaigns.

20 Recruiter Seat Licenses: Enterprise-tier administrative seats enabling WHS recruiters to identify and engage early-career candidates nationwide.

Expert Assist Service: Dedicated technical onboarding, account management, training, and customer success support led by a Federal Program Manager.

Advanced Brand Page: Customizable rich-media portal to project WHS and DoW civilian career opportunities directly across campus networks.

Advanced Insights & Reporting Dashboard (Handshake Insights): Real-time analytics, talent supply benchmarking, and demographic trend reporting to guide Strategic Recruitment Plans.

system (SIS) data, including confirmed major, cumulative GPA, enrollment status, and anticipated graduation date. The March 2026 pilot demonstrated a 100% verified qualification accuracy rate, eliminating candidate qualification discrepancies at the pre-screening phase. In contrast, standard commercial talent networks rely on unverified, self-reported candidate profiles, which carry an estimated industry error/misrepresentation rate for academic credentials, degree programs, and GPA cutoffs.

University career-services system-of-record access: Handshake is the officially contracted career-services platform of record for more than 1,600 U.S. colleges and universities—including extensive coverage across Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs).

During the pilot, this sanctioned access enabled immediate, direct recruiter engagement through official campus channels rather than unvetted third-party commercial avenues.

Active Pipeline Engagement and Conversion: Unlike traditional job boards targeting passive candidates or recent graduates, Handshake functions as an active recruitment platform for currently enrolled college students. The pilot proved that engaging emerging talent while actively immersed in their degree programs yielded a candidate conversion rate (students completing applications following direct recruiter outreach), substantially exceeding standard federal job board conversion rates of

Centralized National Scale & Measurable Time-to-Hire Reduction:

Handshake connects WHS HRD to a centralized network of more than 25 million students and recent alumni through a single portal. By combining centralized reach with verified data pre-screening, the pilot demonstrated an estimated reduction in sourcing-to-referral timeline (saving an average of business days per recruitment action).

Controlled Data Access: Handshake's publicly available Terms of Service state that employer use of the service is for the employer's own internal use, is non-assignable, and carries no right to resell, reproduce, or distribute the service. The terms also prohibit third parties from bulk collecting Handshake student or marketplace data and restrict disclosure and reuse of student data received through the service. Accordingly, another recruiting-platform provider cannot simply purchase, scrape, license from an employer, or resell Handshake-resident candidate data to WHS as an interchangeable commercial data set.

Additional market research also identified 12twenty, Inc. as a relevant functional service.

12twenty offers multi-school job posting, candidate search, and verified data through its own career-center partnerships and, like Handshake, is not characterized as merely a self-reported job board. However, 12twenty operates a separate recruiting network. It cannot provide access to Handshake-resident student/user data, Handshake institutional relationships, or the university/student permissions established within Handshake.

12twenty could be a potential source for a general higher-education recruiting requirement using its own data network, but it is not a source for the Handshake data set and network access that HRD validated and requires for this acquisition.

Other commercial job boards, including LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster, primarily rely on self-reported candidate information and do not provide equivalent registrar-integrated verification or university career-services system-of-record access. Campus-specific systems, including Symplicity and individual university portals, operate on fragmented, decentralized software instances requiring separate employer accounts, distinct postings, and independent administrative actions for each school, making them incapable of executing a unified national recruiting campaign. Manual campus outreach across 1,500+ institutions is neither feasible nor scalable to support WHS HRD’s projected annual hiring requirement of 900 to 1,100 personnel.

Without this acquisition, WHS HRD will lack a commercially available, centralized capability for verified, nationwide higher-education recruiting at the required scale, impairing its ability to meet DA&M-directed recruitment objectives for Department of War civilian intelligence, acquisition, STEM, and administrative positions. Handshake will improve HRD’s efficiency in finding, developing, and hiring talent by enabling earlier engagement with students and graduates, simplifying the identification of qualified candidates, and facilitating the collection and validation of education information, including academic institutions, grades, and transcripts. The resulting efficiencies are expected to reduce recruiter search and screening time, expand the qualified candidate pool, strengthen long-term talent pipelines, and improve hiring timeliness. These outcomes can be evaluated using baseline comparisons for time to identify and contact candidates, number of qualified candidates engaged, applicant conversion rates, and time to fill.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION: In accordance with RFO 5.101(a), a Notice of Intent to issue a sole-source award to Handshake was published on the Government Point of Entry (SAM.gov) on September 11, 2026, and closed on September 14, 2026.

No objections were received in connection with the notice. Handshake Premium platform Software as a Service (SaaS) is commercial computer software. Extensive market research showed that Handshake is the only vendor capable of providing the required services. The minimum timeframe for posting a presolicitation notice is “combined with the solicitation.” RFO 5.101(d). The Agency, however, is not issuing a solicitation for this requirement. Accordingly, the Contracting Officer determined that a three day period for the notice of Intent to issue a sole-source award was a reasonable time for offerors to respond. A direct solicitation and Request for Quotation (RFQ) were issued to Handshake, and the contract was awarded on September 21, 2026. This J&A will be publicly available pursuant to RFO 6.301.

WHS/HRD and WHS/AD will continue to monitor the commercial marketplace for any emerging platforms that build comparable direct-university registrar integrations or equivalent three-sided networks.

7. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION: The Contracting Officer will determine that the anticipated price to the Government is fair and reasonable in accordance with RFO 12.204, Price Reasonableness and the price analysis techniques prescribed in FAR 15.404-1.

The Government’s independent cost estimate was developed through Handshake's established commercial catalog and market pricing, and historical prices paid and contract awards for Handshake Premium subscriptions across peer defense and civilian federal agencies (including the Department of the Navy, Army Civilian Career Management Activity, DCAA, NSA, and DHS).

8. MARKET RESEARCH: Market research was conducted from October 2025 through September 2026 in accordance with applicable RFO market-research requirements to identify commercial sources, evaluate alternative solutions, and determine whether authorized third-party resellers could fulfill the requirement.

WHS HRD evaluated LinkedIn Recruiter, Indeed Hiring Platform, Monster Gov, Symplicity, and WayUp. These platforms do not meet the requirement because they primarily rely on self-reported candidate information and do not provide Handshake’s combination of registrar-verified academic data and centralized access to institutionally integrated, multi-campus career-services networks.

A March 2026 limited-access operational pilot validated Handshake’s ability to provide verified student data, including GPA, major, degree progression, enrollment status, and anticipated graduation date. WHS HRD determined that the evaluated alternatives could not provide equivalent verification or nationwide, centralized campus recruiting capability.

WHS HRD and AD also reviewed available Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts, GSA Multiple Award Schedule sources, and potential distribution channels to identify authorized resellers or small-business distributors. Inquiries with Handshake confirmed that Handshake Premium licenses, proprietary data rights, and Expert Assist Federal Program Management services are sold, administered, and supported exclusively by Handshake; no authorized third-party reseller, dealer, or partner distribution channel exists for federal enterprise sales.

Additionally, WHS HRD reviewed available federal procurement history involving Handshake, including awards by Department of Defense components and other federal agencies. The reviewed procurements reflected direct awards to Handshake based on determinations that no authorized reseller or commercially available substitute provided equivalent capabilities.

Based on the totality of this research, WHS HRD determined that no alternate source can furnish the required Handshake network/data rights and Handshake Premium enterprise services. Handshake is therefore the only commercial source available for the Government's specific minimum requirement.

9. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF SOLE SOURCE: WHS does not possess, and cannot obtain from another source, the technical data, software code, proprietary integrations, institutional agreements, or data rights necessary to develop, operate, or compete a comparable nationwide higher-education recruiting platform.

Developing an alternative capability would require separately obtaining access to university systems and student data, establishing agreements with individual institutions, and building a national multi-campus network. This approach would not satisfy WHS HRD’s requirement within the required timeframe.

10. INTERESTED SOURCES: Although a Notice of Intent to issue a sole-source award was published to the Government Point of Entry (SAM.gov) on September 11, 2026, and closed on September 14, 2026, no objections were submitted by industry. Furthermore, comprehensive market research which included direct inquiries with industry vendors, reviews of relevant commercial catalogs and capability statements, and searches across federal acquisition databases (such as GSA Advantage and SAM.gov) revealed no other responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's requirement.

Pursuant to RFO 12.301(a)(2) and RFO 6.301, a redacted Sole Source Justification will be made publicly available on the Government-wide Point of Entry (SAM.gov) within 14 calendar days after contract award and will remain online for a minimum of 30 calendar days.

11. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION: WHS HRD and AD will conduct market research before any subsequent acquisition to identify potential sources capable of meeting the requirement. This research will include monitoring industry days, higher-education recruiting conferences, commercial recruiting platforms, and appropriate Requests for Information.

Future market research will compare: (1) coverage of HRD's target institutions and academic disciplines; (2) the source and verification method for academic fields; (3) candidate-level search, messaging, segmentation, campaign, and analytics capabilities;

(4) the legal and technical rights to access and use the underlying candidate data; and (5) the availability of authorized resellers, small-business partners, or socioeconomic distribution channels.

If a responsible source becomes available that can meet the Government’s requirements, WHS will pursue competition to the maximum extent practicable.

Is this acquisition for a non-competitive follow-on acquisition previously awarded on a non-competitive basis?

Yes. A copy of the previous justification is attached. The actions to remove any barriers to competition cited on the previous justification were were not completed.