SOW_NC-NA0000-23-01213.pdf

STATEMENT OF WORK

NATIONAL OCEAN SERVICE

Support for Human Resource Staffing Plans, Data Analysis and Reporting and Organizational Changes

C.Request No. NC-NA0000-23-01213

BACKGROUND

The National Ocean Service provides data, tools, and services that support coastal economies and their contribution to the national economy. NOS is dedicated to advancing the following priorities:

● Increase U.S. Coastal Resilience

● Make Equity Central to NOS’s Mission

● Accelerate Growth of the New Blue Economy

● Provide Equitable Access to Healthy Coastal and Marine Ecosystems

The NOS Headquarters consists of the Assistant Administrator’s (AA) Office, the Management & Budget Office (MBO) and the Information Management Office (IMO). The role of the HQ staff is to provide leadership, guidance and policy support to eight program offices that conduct the mission activities of the National Ocean Service.

The MBO Workforce Management Division (WMD) is responsible for human resources management of NOS Headquarters and Program Offices. The Division is responsible for recruitment, workforce/succession planning, performance management, policy, employee recognition, and executive resources. The Division provides leadership and advice on matters affecting strategic human capital planning, workforce management, programs, policies, accountability, and reporting; and serves as the principal contact for NOAA’s Office of Human Capital Services. The Division focuses on the following major functional areas:

human capital policy and accountability, executive resources, talent recruitment and retention, workforce relations and learning and development.

SCOPE

The scope of the contract is to provide additional support to NOS MBO Workforce Management Division (WMD) for developing human resource staffing plans, data analysis and reporting and for organizational changes and realignments.

TASKS/DELIVERABLES

● Assists with the execution of the FY24 Workforce strategy/staffing plan process for NOS and ensures hiring plans are reviewed/approved by the CFO/CAO

○ Analyzes information gathered from the NOS program offices through succession planning, annual staffing plans, and other means to identify how the current workforce is prepared to address future requirements

○ Provides analysis for leadership consideration and recommends approval or further changes

○ Coordinates between WMD, the Budget Execution Division (BED), and the Formulation and Planning Division (FPD) to improve alignment of workforce and budget, more closely connecting workforce planning, budget formulation, and budget execution.

Ensures NOS is positioned to meet NOAA Budget Office (NBO) and other reporting requirements.

○ Conducts staffing models, out-year planning, forecasting, predictive analytics, competency analysis and skills gap analysis in support of strategic recruitment, as well as short and long-term workforce planning

○ Leads development of an NOS competency framework

○ Collaborates with the NOAA Office of Human Capital Services, Enterprise Services, NBO, counterparts in other line and staff offices, and MBO and program office staff to ensure a consistent and collaborative approach to improve NOS-wide human capital programs

○ Develops and executes presentations, memos, and reports

● Supports NOS Programs for organizational changes and realignments

○ Develops comprehensive guidance and a submission, review, and recommendation framework to facilitate, guide, and support NOS program offices in making changes to their organizational structure via reorganizations or on an ad hoc basis

○ Serves as a technical expert for MBO when a program office is considering modifying its organizational structure. Reviews and analyzes the organizations’ mission, functions, strategic objectives, work processes, and workloads to determine the skills mix (occupational types, grade levels, supervisory status, and numbers of positions in each occupational category) required to achieve strategic objectives

○ Identifies functional interrelationships, workflow and work process bottlenecks and inefficiencies, recommends work process and workflow reengineering; and develops organizational structure and staffing models that facilitate efficient and effective achievement of strategic objectives

○ Identifies and analyzes data from the National Finance Center and other personnel systems relevant to the proposed structural changes

○ Ensures regular and effective communication on planning, organizational changes, and position management. Analyzes functions and work processes and makes recommendations for improvement, such as by modifying positions or organizational units

KEY COMPETENCIES

Conducts studies on effectiveness of programs/operations or management/organizational efficiency;

identifies procedural problems or resolves issues; utilizes quantitative or qualitative methods or techniques; analyzes findings; makes recommendations in reports; and determines impact of new or revised guidelines/regulations. Knowledge of analytical and evaluative methods; skill in using excel or other analytical tools; oral/written communications skills; ability to collect/analyze/evaluate data and/or apply federal, departmental and agency regulations to business processes.

Develops and participates in the management of personnel programs, or provides direction, coordination, and management for one or more functional personnel programs. Requires knowledge of human resources management policies, procedures, and programs and the programmatic ability to manage the functional area.

QUALIFIED PERSONNEL

The Contractor shall provide qualified personnel to perform all requirements specified in the awarded Call order. The contractor must provide a workforce that is fully trained to meet the requirements;

therefore, professional development training costs and hours are not billable to the government. NOS uses various software applications and performs operational tasks according to SOPs that are specific to the organization. NOS federal personnel will provide the contractor workforce with the training necessary to become competent with these applications and procedures, except in cases where the contractor wishes to provide cross-training across its workforce in addition to those employees who are already performing such tasks.

The Contractor shall execute the required tasks in an effective and efficient manner, with timely and high quality work products, in a manner that achieves the best value and interest for the government. The individuals providing such support services shall not only possess the skills necessary to meet the program requirements, but also must maintain and improve such skills as necessary throughout the life of the BPA.

NOS is a customer-focused organization that will rely on the contractor personnel to represent the government externally to customers and coastal stakeholders. It is critical that the workforce provided by the contractor be technically and topically competent with full support within their work environment.

The contractor shall provide necessary supervision of the work required herein to ensure satisfactory and timely completion of tasks, work products, and quick intervention should problems arise. The government will not exercise relatively continuous supervision over the contractor's employees performing work under the awarded call orders.

CONTINUITY OF SUPPORT

The Contractor shall ensure that the contractually-required level of support for awarded call order requirements are maintained at all times. The contractor shall ensure that all call order support personnel are present for all hours of the workday specified within the awarded call order. If for any reason the contractor staffing levels are not maintained, the contractor shall provide e-mail notification to the COR assigned to the awarded call order prior to employee absence. Otherwise, the contractor shall provide a fully-qualified replacement.

CONTRACTOR IDENTIFICATION

Contractor employees working on-site at government facilities shall wear a government-issued identification badge. All Contractor employees shall identify themselves as contractors when their status is not readily apparent (e.g., in meetings, when answering government telephones, in e-mail messages, etc.) and display their government-issued badge in plain view above the waist at all times. Contractor employees working at off-site locations (for example, at trade shows) shall identify themselves as contractors with readily-visible items that identify them as Contractor employees. Examples include, but are not limited to, Contractor shirts, hats, or name tags. Government-issued identification badges are not to be displayed outside of government facilities.

The contractor shall be responsible for complying with current NOS, NOAA, and Department of Commerce rules and regulations in regards to employment and visitors in all locations. While on-site at NOS partner facilities, the contractor shall also comply with all applicable facility access requirements.

EMPLOYEE CONDUCT

The Contractor’s employees shall comply with all applicable government regulations, policies, and procedures (e.g., fire, safety, sanitation, environmental protection, security, “off limits” areas, etc.) when visiting or working at Government facilities. The Contractor shall ensure Contractor employees present a professional appearance at all times and that their conduct shall not reflect discredit on the United States or the Department of Commerce. The Project Manager shall ensure Contractor employees understand and abide by NOAA- established rules, regulations and policies concerning safety and security.

REMOVING CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEES FOR MISCONDUCT OR SECURITY REASONS

The Government may, at its sole discretion (in coordination with the Contracting Officer where practical), direct the Contractor to remove any Contractor employee from NOAA facilities for misconduct or security reasons. Removal does not relieve the Contractor of the responsibility to continue providing the services required under the contract. The Contracting Officer will provide the Contractor with a written explanation to support any direction or request to remove an employee.

SECURITY

In addition to the basic requirements for U.S. citizens, a minimum of thirty (30) days’ notice shall be required for a visit by or employment of a Foreign National who is a lawful permanent resident of the United States (aka Green Card holder). A minimum of sixty (60) days’ notice shall be required for a visit by or employment of a Foreign National who is not a lawful permanent resident. The Government will not be held liable for the contractor’s Foreign National being denied access to a Federal facility.

Contractor guests or employees visiting or working at off-site locations may need to comply with other requirements as applicable.

Contractor employees shall have the proper documentation correctly and completely entered in order to obtain security clearance prior to their entrance on duty. Preliminary security approval for the contractor’s employees, which is required in order to be issued a Common Access Card (CAC), must be received from NOAA’s Eastern Regional Security Office prior to the employee’s logical access to NOAA IT systems or physical access to NOAA facilities. Additional security review and clearance may be required for any contractor employees who require access to other NOAA systems, such as high-performance computing resources.

Contractor employees who terminate employment under this call order will no longer have access to the facilities and must surrender their CAC, keys, and key cards before or on their final day of employment.

The contractor shall be held responsible for collecting contractor badges, keys, key cards, and other federal property and returning them to the appropriately designated NOAA/NOS federal official.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE September 15, 2023 – September 14, 2024

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE Silver Spring, MD

TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS: The Contractor and their staff will make their own travel arrangements and also pay for their own travel costs in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulations. No invitational travel orders will be issued to the Contractor or their staff.

POST-AWARD CONFERENCE

The Contractor shall attend a Post Award Conference with the call order awarding Contracting Officer and the COR no later than 15 business days after the date of award. The purpose of the Post Award Conference, which will be chaired by the Contracting Officer, is to discuss technical and contracting objectives of this contract and review the Contractor's transition plan as well as provide the opportunity for further questions or clarification regarding deliverables or contractual requirements. The Post Award Conference will be held as noted in the awarded call order videoconference.

PROGRESS REPORTS

The contractor shall submit a monthly progress report to the call order awarding Contracting Officer and COR via electronic mail, concurrently with submission of the invoice. The contents of the progress report will be outlined in the awarded call order. At a minimum, the progress report shall include:

● A summary of all Contractor work performed and progress achieved during the month. This summary should include any pertinent deadlines or milestones;

● A summary of problems or delays encountered or foreseen, actions taken, and recommended solutions;

● An outline of activities proposed for the next period;

● Any additional information – including findings and recommendations – that may assist the Government in evaluating progress under this contract;

● Current and cumulative labor hours expended for each labor category, broken out between Firm, Fixed Price and Time and Materials personnel; and

● Current and cumulative current costs incurred.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORTING

NOS uses project management principles and practices to plan and manage operational projects and related work. Contractor employees performing call order requirements that support such projects shall provide information regarding such work to the applicable project lead in a timely manner. This may include information that helps the project lead develop the scope and schedule of a project, or details regarding the execution of work, such as dates when specific tasks were started and completed, hours expended, project-related issues encountered, actions taken to resolve issues, or actions recommended to avoid such issues in future projects.

PAYMENTS:

Invoices will be submitted to:

Patrice Moore

DOC/NOAA/NOS

1305 East West Highway, SSMC4 13th Floor Silver Spring, MD 20901 Tel: 202-936-5406 Email: patrice.moore@noaa.gov

GOVERNMENT-FURNISHED EQUIPMENT

The Government will provide the workspace, equipment and supplies necessary to perform the on-site portion of Contractor services required in this contract, unless specifically stated otherwise in the awarded call order.

The Contractor shall use Government furnished facilities, property, equipment and supplies only for the performance of work under this contract, and shall be responsible for returning all Government furnished facilities, property, and equipment in good working condition, subject to normal wear and tear. The Contractor is responsible for the loss or theft of any government-furnished property or equipment in a timely manner and in accordance with NOAA regulations and policies, particularly those regarding cybersecurity.

GFE will include, but is not limited to, a workstation and if the position warrants it additional GFE may be issued. The Contractor will also be provided software and other material, access to documentation, systems, and information needed for the performance of the work. This section also applies to computer and land-line telephone equipment used to perform or support on-site activities.

Contractor staff needing to perform work off-site using GFE shall sign all appropriate agreements and follow all appropriate regulations per NOS, NOAA, and DOC policies including NOAA and NOS property regulations. The Contractor shall comply with Help Desk and/or property requests to make the GFE available upon request to meet organizational property requirements and/or to maintain the GFE in accordance with the organizational defined security posture. All users who have been issued a Government furnished client endpoint computing device (e.g. laptop, cell phone, tablet, etc.) shall be accountable for the confidentiality, integrity and security of that device. The Contractor shall comply with existing and new policies and memorandums specifically covering issued GFE.

The Government has established time frames for addressing configuration management, vulnerability management, vulnerability remediation and inventory reconciliation activities. The Contractor will be notified of any changes to established schedules and shall work with the Help Desk in meeting the schedule changes. The Contractor must connect the GFE to the internet or using Virtual Private Network at least three times per week to receive the configuration management updates and vulnerability management assessments. The current Government established times frames include:

a) Configuration management (normal updates and patching) occurs every Monday and Wednesday night at 10 pm

b) Vulnerability Management and Remediation (vulnerability scanning and apply missing updates/patches) occurs every Wednesday and Thursday from 9 AM to 3 PM every week for both on site and VPN connected devices. Vulnerability Scanning only occurs when the GFE is directly connected to the NOS network or connected to the Government provided VPN service using Common Access Card authentication. The Government may shorten vulnerability management and remediation requirements for vulnerabilities designated as significant risk.

c) Inventory reconciliation/management occurs annually between February and March. Ad hoc inventory activities occur if new equipment is issued, lost or stolen.

It is the contractor’s responsibility to ensure Government Furnished desktops and or laptops are scanned, patched, and updated during the specified times mentioned above by keeping the desktop and laptops turned on and connected to the network when the devices are not being used, or by connecting laptops to the VPN or the internet when the devices are being used outside of the office. If an issue arises that requires onsite helpdesk support, the contractor shall obtain helpdesk support at the Silver Spring location. Any additional cost incurred with onsite helpdesk support will be reimbursed upon approval with the issuance of a modification to the contract. The associated cost shall be requested and approved in advance by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). The cost request shall include the name of the individual requiring onsite helpdesk support, the reason for onsite helpdesk support, the dates and location of travel if required, and the cost including a breakdown of cost (travel and additional labor hours). The Contractor shall submit GFE software/hardware changes (install/remove/modify) operating system, software or application to the government assigned Help Desk and receive approval of the appropriate change approval process prior any change being made to the GFE software/hardware.

In the alternative, if an issue arises the COR may choose to send replacement equipment instead of requiring the contractor to physically travel to the onsite helpdesk for support. The Government recognizes that said replacement equipment may need to be updated or upgraded with needed software, programs, etc. for the contractor to continue performing and schedules and time shall be addressed at the time an issue occurs. Any additional cost incurred with sending replacement equipment and time to get new equipment up and running will be reimbursed upon approval in advance by the COR. The cost request shall include the name of the individual requiring replacement equipment and time to catch up, dates, and location, and the submission must include a cost breakdown (additional labor hours).

The Contractor shall safeguard GFE assigned for the duration of the contractor unless returned to the Government prior to the end of the contract. Lost, misplaced, or stolen GFE issued to the Contractor through this contract shall be reported to the government assigned Task Manager and government assigned Help Desk within 4 hours of detection. The Contractor shall assist with any security incident report filed related to the loss of the GFE. The Contractor or contractor staff assigned to the GFE can be held accountable to reimburse the Government for the cost of the GFE depending on the circumstance that resulted in the GFE loss. The Contractor shall comply with the NOAA Chief Administrative Officer’s Memorandum “What to Do When a Laptop Is Identified as Missing” issued January 27, 2009 and DOC Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Business Identifiable Information (BII), and Privacy Act Breach Response and Notification Plan issued July 2013. Memorandum and Breach Response and Notification Plan are sensitive documents that will be provided upon request after GFE has been provided. The Contractor may be required to participate in completing the above requirements.

The Contractor shall be responsible for safeguarding all government property provided for Contractor use.

At the close of each work period, government facilities, equipment, and materials shall be secured.

IT SECURITY REQUIREMENTS:

The contractor is performing work that is of a sensitive nature, including access to personally-identifiable information (PII). Contractors shall comply with DOC security requirements regarding access to government facilities. If access to government IT resources is required, contractors must also comply with DOC and NOAA IT Security Policies, which includes completion of annual IT Security Awareness training. Contractors will also be required to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement prior to obtaining system access.

The Certification and Accreditation (C&A) or Assessment and Authentication (A&A) requirements of Clause 48 CFR 1352.239-72 do not apply, and a Security Accreditation Package is not required.

The contractor agrees, in the performance of this contract, to keep the information furnished by the Government and designated by the Contracting Officer or Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative in the strictest confidence. The contractor also agrees not to publish or otherwise divulge such information in whole or part, in any manner or form, nor to authorize or permit others to do so, taking such reasonable measures as are necessary to restrict access to such information while in the contractor’s possession, to those employees needing such information to perform the work provided herein, i.e., on a “need to know” basis. The contractor agrees to immediately notify the Contracting Officer in writing in the event that the contractor determines or has reason to suspect a breach of this requirement.

Upon request of the Contracting Officer, the contractor must securely remove all copies of the files developed for this acquisition.

The Contractor shall comply with the following DOC Department Administrative Orders (DAO): DAO 200-0 Department of Commerce Handbooks and Manuals and DAO 207-1 Security Programs (available at: https://www.osec.doc.gov/opog/dmp/daos.html). The Contractor shall comply with the following DOC Department Organization Orders (DOOs) DOO 15-23 Chief Information Officer (available at:

https://www.osec.doc.gov/opog/dmp/doos.html). The Contractor shall comply with the NOAA Administrative Orders (NAO) NAO 212-13 NOAA Information Technology Security Policy and NAO

212-15 Management of Environmental Data and Information (available at:

https://www.noaa.gov/organization/administration/noaa-administrative-orders). DOC issues policies under DAO 200-0, DAO 207-1 and DOO 15-23. NOAA issues cybersecurity policies under NAO 212-

13. The DAO, DOO, NAO and corresponding policies are sensitive controlled unclassified information (CUI) documents that shall be limited to use only on Government Furnished Equipment and will be provided after contract award.

It is a mandatory requirement for every NOAA IT user (e.g., government employee, contractor, associate, or temporary personnel) to complete the NOAA Cyber Security and Privacy Awareness Training course every year. Temporary personnel include visitors, guest workers, etc. who plan to work at a NOAA site, access NOAA information and/or use NOAA IT resources. Both new and temporary employees must take the course within three days after initial issuance of NOAA IT equipment and annually thereafter.

In performance of this contract, the Contractor will need a number of non-privileged user accounts and possibly a limited number of privileged accounts based on the roles being performed. The Government will work with the contractor in determining and issuance of non-privileged and privileged accounts. The Contractor shall use these assigned accounts in the manner they are issued and not to attempt to modify permissions, elevate permissions, install unapproved software, and modify system configurations and/or application configurations without the written permission of the Task Monitor. If the Government detects any suspicious or inappropriate activities by Contractor personnel on the GFE, the Contractor shall provide the requested assistance necessary for an investigation. The Contractor shall abide by the Government’s remedial actions issued/taken to resolve the suspicious or inappropriate actions.

Government provided privileged accounts are to implement multifactor authentication (MFA) to the greatest extent possible and obtain written approval when MFA can’t be applied to one or more privileged accounts.