JOFOC_OPM - Early Career Talent Recruitment Platform_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

41 U.S.C. 3304 In accordance with the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) Subpart 6.103, I hereby determine that the Early Career Talent Recruitment Platform is required through a sole source procurement and competition is precluded for the reasons indicated below.

Please select the appropriate statutory authorities in accordance with RFO Part 6.103, Other than full and open competition:

RFO 6.103-1 Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

1. Identification of the Agency and the Contracting Activity:

This requirement is in support of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Office of the Director, 1900 E St NW, Washington, DC 20415.

The contracting office is the Office of Centralized Acquisition Services (OCAS) within the General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved:

Pursuant to the authority of the Competition In Contracting Act (CICA) and as implemented by RFO Subpart 6.103 for justifying other than full and open competition, GSA intends to award a sole-source contract to Stryder Corp dba Handshake. This action is necessary to acquire an immediately operational, uniquely qualified, and proven early career talent recruitment platform that is indispensable for OPM to meet critical, time-sensitive federal workforce modernization objectives.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimate value)

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requires a proven, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cloud-based dynamic recruitment platform to rapidly attract, proactively engage, and efficiently convert early career talent (students and recent graduates) into applicants for Federal employment opportunities. The platform must be capable of precisely targeting students according to their academic majors, career interests, and related qualifications, and direct them to relevant job opportunities on USAJOBS. Furthermore, OPM requires a contractor with unparalleled and well-established, nationwide relationships with university and college career centers to ensure immediate, rapid, and effective implementation and achieve significant hiring outcomes within an aggressive timeline.

Critical, non-negotiable requirements include:

Immediate Access to a Verified Network: Ability to identify and target students and early career talent nationally based on diverse institution types (e.g., Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Servicing Institutions, community colleges, R1 research universities) from day one of contract award. This network must be pre-existing and verified, not requiring build-out.

Due to the timeline for initiating this process, the development of a new network would take time and necessitate a testing and validation phase, which is not feasible within the available timeframe.

Precise Candidate Targeting with Verified Data: Capability to identify and target students and early career professionals based on verified college/university enrollment, academic majors, degree programs, skills, interests, and career preferences. This requires access to institutional, academic-record-level data, not merely self-reported profiles.

Proactive Engagement Tools: Robust, multi-channel outreach and messaging tools specifically designed to effectively engage students and recent graduates before they apply, driving interest and application conversion.

AI-Powered Job Matching: Sophisticated AI-driven algorithms that accurately connect student profiles to relevant Federal job announcements, with direct deep-linking capabilities to USAJOBS vacancy announcements, thereby streamlining the application process.

Talent Targeting and Agency Support: Ability to deliver virtual job fairs and support campaigns and targeted outreach initiatives tailored for federal recruitment...

Actionable Analytics: Real-time,comprehensive analytics dashboards tracking student engagement, click-through rates to USAJOBS, and application conversion metrics essential for rapid decision-making and optimization during the pilot. .

Universal Accessibility: Full mobile accessibility (iOS and Android) and Section 508 accessibility compliance, ensuring broad reach and inclusivity for all potential applicants.

The period of performance is a four (4) month base period pilot with two (2) one-year option periods. The objective of this high-priority pilot is to engage a minimum of 50,000 students nationally and generate qualified applicant flow to Federal agencies sufficient to support 1,000 hires within the non-extendable four-month pilot window.

The contract's total estimated value is , covering a base period and two (2) option years. The anticipated performance period is detailed below:

Base Period: May 6, 2026 – September 3, 2026 Option Year 1: September 4, 2026 – September 3, 2027 Option Year 2: September 4, 2027 – September 3, 2028

4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition

In accordance with 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) and RFO 6.103-1, competition is precluded because only one responsible source exists, and no other supplies or services can meet the agency's unique and time-sensitive requirements. Based on comprehensive and rigorous market research detailed below, Handshake is the sole entity that fully satisfies OPM's defined needs without unacceptable delay or performance risk.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited OPM's requirement is critically defined by three interdependent and time-sensitive characteristics that, collectively, can only be satisfied by Handshake without jeopardizing the success of this urgent national initiative:

A. Immediate Operational Readiness —Performance Required In response to Executive Order 14170 and the Administration’s unequivocal call to action to strengthen the federal workforce by attracting top early-career talent and addressing longstanding critical skills gaps, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is executing a targeted, high-stakes four-month pilot initiative. This effort aims to engage 50,000 students and recent graduates and support up to 1,000 hires into mission-critical federal roles. Success absolutely depends on immediate, large-scale outreach during the current graduation season, when students and recent graduates are actively making career decisions.

OPM’s four-month pilot window is a fixed, non-extendable, and mission-critical period. The Government’s ambitious objectives cannot be met if a vendor requires weeks or months to build a student user base, establish university relationships, or configure and populate a platform from scratch. The requirement demands a mature, fully deployed platform that can expeditiously produce hires and generate qualified applicant flow to USAJOBS from the moment of contract award. With thousands of students graduating in the coming weeks, any delay in platform availability would result in irrecoverable lost opportunities and failure to meet the Administration’s workforce modernization goals.

Handshake is the only platform in the early career talent market that meets this exacting standard without qualification or delay. Handshake’s Talent Engagement Suite (Enterprise) is a fully deployed, commercially operational SaaS platform with zero buildout or implementation timeline required. Every student enrolled at any of Handshake’s 1,500+ partner institutions receives a verified Handshake account upon enrollment, providing immediate access to a continuously refreshed, active national pipeline of over 20 million students and recent graduates,including substantial representation of master’s and PhD candidates, ready for OPM’s use on contract award day. No competing platform offers a pre-existing, institutionally verified student user base of comparable scale and depth that can be leveraged by the Government without delay and without the need for a lengthy ramp-up period.

B. Exclusive Institutional Data Access and University Network OPM requires the ability to target students by academic major, GPA, degree level, graduation year, career interest, and geographic location at national scale, across diverse institution types including HBCUs, HSIs, community colleges, and R1 universities (Doctoral Universities - very high research activity).This level of granular, verified targeting is fundamental to efficient and effective federal recruitment.

Handshake's capability in this area is uniquely and exclusively derived from formal institutional partnership agreements with 1,500+ colleges and universities, including 300+ community colleges.

These agreements give Handshake direct integration with student academic records at the data layer of each partner institution's career services office. Handshake is the de facto system of record for career services offices nationwide. This verified academic data — major, GPA, graduation year, degree level — is not self-reported by students and cannot be replicated by open-market platforms that rely on user-generated profiles.

Handshake provides a robust, pre-qualified national pipeline of early career professionals that enables unprecedented precise targeting of qualified candidates to specific Federal job postings based on skills, education, and career interests. This capability ensures seamless progression for candidates—from initial interest through application to final placement—dramatically accelerating the federal hiring timeline. Federal agencies benefit from immediate access to verified, high-potential talent, eliminating the need for time-consuming candidate research, multiple rounds of interviews, or uncertainty about qualifications. As a result, agencies can fill mission-critical positions faster and more efficiently, reducing administrative burden and delivering measurable improvements in hiring speed and quality.

No other commercially available early career recruitment platform holds institutional agreements of comparable breadth that provide verified, academic-record-level student data across this range of institution types. This unique partnership enhances Stryder Corps ability to job match quicker and target talent based on verified profiles. This element critically improves timeliness and allows for candidate sorting in a highly precise and efficient manner. Platforms such as LinkedIn operate as open-market job boards dependent on self-reported user profiles and do not offer access to verified institutional academic data, making them unsuitable for OPM's stringent requirements. A custom-built platform would have no institutional relationships at award, requiring months or years to develop equivalent access — rendering it completely unviable within the four-month pilot window.

C. Purpose-Built Early Career Platform with Demonstrated Federal Track Record OPM’s requirement is not general-purpose recruitment. It is specifically and exclusively targeted at students and recent graduates — a candidate population with distinct behavior, discovery patterns, and engagement requirements that differ materially from mid-career or late-career talent pools.

Handshake is purpose-built exclusively for this population. Its AI-powered matching, proactive messaging infrastructure, employer branding tools, and talent targeting events management capabilities are engineered to improve early career recruitment outcomes, not merely adapted from tools designed for broader professional markets.

Critically, Handshake has demonstrated this capability with a proven track record in directly relevant Federal agency engagements, including the Department of the Navy (Civilian and Officer), U.S.

Intelligence Community (ODNI and member agencies), Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with a combined contract value exceeding $12.9 million in active or recently completed Federal early career recruitment support. These engagements conclusively demonstrate that Handshake's platform is already configured and proven for the Federal hiring environment — including support for mission-sensitive roles, diverse career field targeting, and USAJOBS application redirection.

Handshake is the only responsible source capable of meeting the Government’s mandatory needs and within the required, compressed timeline. Handshake possesses the mature, ready-to-deploy platform and the existing extensive network of institutional relationships necessary to fully satisfy these critical requirements without unacceptable delay or compromise to mission objectives.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as possible, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by part 5 and, if not, which exception under part 5 applies In an effort to ensure offers were solicited from as many potential sources as practicable:

OPM, through GSA's Office of Centralized Acquisition Services (OCAS), issued a comprehensive Sources Sought Notice (RFI-OCAS-2026-001) on April 14, 2026, for 6 days explicitly inviting responses from all interested vendors to gauge market interest and explore alternative sources.

Ten responses were received. OPM and GSA reviewed all responses. Based on that review, only Handshake demonstrated the capability to satisfy the agency’s needs. (See para #8) In accordance with RFO Subpart 5.1, a pre-solicitation notice of this sole-source action will be posted on SAM.gov to confirm no alternative sources exist before issuing the RFP.

7. A determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable The contracting officer determines the anticipated cost to the government will be determined fair and reasonable by comparing proposed prices to the independent government cost estimate (IGCE) of

, using previous pricing data provided by other government agencies (see number 8 below), or, if necessary, utilize commercial other than certified cost and price data from the vendor.

8. A description of the market research conducted (see part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted

Extensive and multi-faceted market research was conducted from approximately March through April 2026 by both the customer (OPM) and the contracting office (GSA OCAS) to ensure a thorough understanding of market capabilities and to definitively confirm the absence of other qualified sources.

OPM conducted online market research and identified only one potential product that possessed the unique combination of capabilities required to meet OPM’s requirements . Only Handshake provided the immediacy required outreach and capacity for reaching a multitude of college students.

The customer found a contract with another agency Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), which had awarded a contract (SP4704-24-C-0003) to Handshake in 2024 for similar services. The contracting office-initiated market research by first contacting the Contracting Officer, , for the DCAA award through email correspondence and a video meeting, to discuss their own market research findings, Handshake’s capabilities, and the rationale for their sole source award.

GSA learned that DCAA's market research, initiated via a SAM.gov Sources Sought notice posted on May 22, 2024, resulted in the submission of five capability statements. DCAA’s review of these submissions revealed that none satisfied DCAA's requirements. Identified shortcomings included insufficient information, the offering of customized data management platforms which deviated from the DCAA requirement for an off-the-shelf solution, and a limited network of college and university connections to provide the necessary national reach. DCAA concluded that no other identifiable contractor other than Handshake had the direct outreach and unique partnership capacity offered through their platform.

In addition, GSA’s contracting office issued a Sources Sought Notice/Request for Information (RFI) notice on SAM.gov. The SAM.gov notice (Notice ID: RFI-OCAS-2026-001) was posted for 6 days from April 14, 2026, through April 20, 2026, and solicited capabilities statements and industry feedback from all interested vendors. Ten (10) vendors responded to the notice. OPM and GSA reviewed all responses against the draft Statement of Work requirements, with particular focus on:

(a) platform operational readiness at time of award (off-the-shelf ready); (b) access to verified student academic data from a broad network of U.S. colleges and universities including HBCUs, HSIs, and community colleges; (c) and demonstrated online recruitment experience targeting early career and recent college graduates. The market research confirmed that Handshake uniquely satisfies all three criteria simultaneously. No other identified source is capable of providing the required services at the level of quality required without an unacceptable delay to the mission.

Market research conducted under RFI-OCAS-2026-001 confirms that no other responding vendor offers the critical combination of capabilities required. These include: (a) an immediately operational platform, (b) verified institutional academic data access across over 1,500 partner schools, and (c) an active student user base of sufficient scale to meet the pilot's 50,000-user engagement requirement from day one.

A review of capability statements revealed that other vendors fell short in various areas:

Some proposed custom builds that cannot deliver an operational platform within the four-month pilot window. To effectively engage graduating students and attract them to federal employment opportunities, it is imperative that the Government initiate recruitment efforts during the peak seasons, for example (May – July) to achieve initial hiring targets. Any delay in commencing these efforts directly heightens the risk of losing highly qualified talent to other sectors. To be clear, customization would take time. Not having a platform that is ready would impact the vendor meeting the requirements and increase risk.

Others offered enterprise platforms (such as talent customer relationship management (CRM) and applicant tracking systems) that serve as orchestration layers rather than dedicated early career student sourcing platforms. These lacked the pre-existing student user base or university network necessary to meet OPM's day-one engagement requirement. Obtaining a vendor that possesses a ready-to-deploy platform and established experience in attracting students and early career talent nationwide to Federal job opportunities will expedite the hiring process and lead to more effective job matching outcomes.

Additional vendors provided broad professional network reach but relied on self-reported, unverified academic data and were not purpose-built for early career student populations.

Utilizing verified data allows OPM to more effectively target specific candidate pools for positions, directly leading to an increased success rate in making quality hires. This is important as a quality hire contributes to high productivity and reduces the likelihood of employee attrition within the agency.

Furthermore, others had not demonstrated verified institutional university partnerships at the required scale. This critical capability is fundamental to accelerating the qualification review process and significantly reducing the time and resources currently diverted to evaluating candidates who do not meet the essential skill requirements for successful placement.

Finally, four of the ten vendors that responded submitted Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimates that significantly exceeded the pilot's pricing. This suggests either a misunderstanding of the requirements or a lack of an operational, ready-to-deploy product capable of meeting OPM’s needs. OPM needs a ready-to-deploy product to immediately start the recruitment process.

Thousands of students will be graduating in the coming weeks, any delay in platform availability would result in irrecoverable lost opportunities and failure to meet the Administration’s workforce modernization goals.

GSA conducted further market research via SAM.gov to identify other federal agencies that had independently determined Handshake's product/service to be uniquely suited for a sole source award, following their own research efforts. A review of these postings revealed numerous agencies had issued notices of intent to award sole source contracts to Handshake, specifically citing its unique capabilities for early career recruitment.

These include:

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) (Notice ID: D-23-HR-0106) - Sole source notice posting on 09/14/2023

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) (Notice ID: 9531CB24P00xx) - Sole source notice posting on 11/06/2023

Peace Corps (Notice: Handshake Premium Talent Engagement Suite Licenses) - Sole source notice posting on 02/14/2024

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (Notice ID: PCCA-24-00154) - Sole source notice posting on 02/29/2024

Department of the Interior (DOI) (Notice ID: 140E0124Q0034) - Sole source notice posting on 02/08/2024

Department of Defense (DoD) (Notice ID: N0018924QZ499) - Sole source notice posting on 09/05/2024

General Services Administration (GSA) (Notice ID: 47HAA025Q0005) - Sole source notice posting on 12/10/2024

The documented prevalence of sole source awards to Handshake by numerous federal agencies serves as validation of Handshake's unique capabilities and essential position within this specialized industry, thereby reinforcing GSA’s determination to proceed with a sole source contract. Awarding this critical contract to a vendor unable to fully meet the Government's needs presents a substantial performance risk; however, Handshake's proven expertise and stability effectively lessen this concern.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition As previously stated, based on the extensive market research conducted, including the conclusive results of the sources sought, only Stryder Corp dba Handshake can meet OPM’s requirements.

The Federal government workforce crisis in early career talent is not merely acute, but an existential threat to federal mission continuity and expertise, particularly with only 7% of Federal employees under the age of 30 and over 30% eligible for retirement. OPM's four-month pilot is critically time-sensitive and strategically designed to generate immediate, measurable hiring results to meet Administration recruitment objectives as stated in the Merit Hiring Plan (dated May 29, 2025) “OPM’s Talent Team will partner with agency Talent Teams to build and maintain a strong talent pipeline of students, recent graduates and other early career talent… Agency Talent Teams, led by their CHCO, shall set early career hiring targets and track annual early career hires.” To address this the OPM Director is leading a centralized national recruitment effort from which agencies can directly source and hire mission-critical early career professionals. This massive undertaking is targeting to bring on over 16,000 early career professionals within the next 12-months. Delay in award or award to a vendor requiring platform buildout directly undermines OPM's ability to meet its immediate objective of 1,000-hires ahead of the Spring/Summer 2026 graduation, leading to irreparable harm to federal workforce goals.

Handshake's proprietary data shows that of Federal applicants were messaged by an employer prior to applying, and of students apply within days of a first employer touchpoint. These behavioral patterns directly validate the critical requirement for a platform with proactive outreach capability and a pre-existing, highly engaged student user base, which only Handshake provides.

This early career recruitment pilot is being executed in direct response to Executive Order 14170 and a high-level White House mandate to modernize the federal workforce and close critical skills gaps by rapidly attracting and onboarding top early-career talent. OPM Director Scott Kupor has led intensive coordination with senior White House officials, including the Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Domestic Policy Council (DPC), to shape and advance this strategic priority.

In March 2026, Director Kupor presented the initiative at the Deputy Secretaries meeting, securing broad interagency buy-in. Under this framework, OPM is leading centralized national recruitment efforts and will establish and maintain a robust, pre-qualified talent pipeline from which federal agencies can directly source and hire mission-critical early career professionals. This high-level White House direction and coordinated interagency commitment underscores the urgent requirement for a mature, immediately deployable recruitment platform capable of delivering measurable results on contract award dated within the compressed four-month pilot window. Furthermore, to highlight the urgent need for a platform that’s ready to meet OPM’s needs and is in place by May 6, 2026. This deadline is critical because a nationwide virtual hiring fair is planned for May 7th, which aims to attract students before their departure for finals.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition The following sources responded to RFI-OCAS-2026-001 and expressed interest in the procurement:

1. America's Workforce Solution, LLC

2. Avature Limited

3. Carahsoft Technology Corp.

4. Deloitte Consulting LLP

5. Federon Procurement Solutions

6. Progressive Business Consulting, LLC

7. Stryder Corp dba Handshake

8. TCB Veterans, LLC

9. Vantage Point Consulting Inc.

10. Zelpha LLC

As noted in number 8 above, although these 10 companies expressed an interest in this procurement, the customer and contracting officer have determined that only one offered a product that will meet OPM’s requirements.

11. A statement of action, if any, that agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent for the supplies or services required OPM issued a public Sources Sought Notice to ensure broad industry awareness of this requirement.

All interested vendors were afforded the opportunity to demonstrate capability. The market research findings — that only Handshake possesses the combination of immediate platform readiness, verified institutional university data access, and demonstrated Federal early career recruitment performance — reflect the inherent nature of the requirement rather than any artificial barrier to competition.

For any future similar requirements, OPM and GSA will continue to monitor market developments for new entrants or evolving capabilities that might address these unique needs. However, given the current state of the market and the specific, non-negotiable requirements for this urgent pilot, no foreseeable actions can overcome the present lack of alternative qualified sources.

Program/Technical Official Certification:

I hereby certify and accept the responsibility that any and all supporting data provided above or used to justify the above requested for a sole source procurement (e.g., verifying the Government’s minimum needs, schedule requirements, and/or other rationale for other than full and open competition) is accurate and complete to the best of my personal knowledge and belief.

Executive Officer OPM Office of the Chief Financial Officer

Contracting Officer’s Certification

I hereby certify that the information contained in this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge.

Contracting Officer (CO)

GSA, OCAS

One Level Above the Contracting Officer

I hereby certify that the information contained in this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition, is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge.

Service Center Director

GSA, OCAS

Competition Advocate Review:

Competition Advocate

GSA, OCAS

Approve By:

In consideration of the information presented above, I hereby approve this justification for other than full and open competition.

Head of Contracting Activity (HCA)

GSA, OCAS