DRAFT SOO - TalentSI - 10.19.2026.pdf

DRAFT

TalentSI: Integrated Statement of Objectives (SOO)

I. Background, Purpose, Operational Vision The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) must substantially reduce time-to-hire and the administrative burden associated with recruiting, hiring, and onboarding for the Transportation Security Officer (TSO), Federal Air Marshals (FAM) and Management, Administrative, and Professional (MAP) positions.

TSA’s backbone hiring system, USA Staffing (USAS) does not natively let Human Capital (HC) or Airport Human Resources staff automatically sort, extract, or operationalize applicant and new hire data. This is most acute for candidates who apply to more than one duty location: each location's application is its own USAS record, with no automated way to link or consolidate them. Staff must sort each location's data by hand and manually build a single consolidated record per candidate - a process that introduces delay and inconsistency and does not scale. TSA needs a capability that runs in parallel to USAS - extracting, sorting, and building consolidated candidate-level records on demand as the data foundation for automation.

Currently, candidate progression through pre-hire screening and onboarding is severely hampered by manual administrative handoffs, asynchronous data entry, and delayed updates within the enterprise human capital system of record (USAS). Key candidate milestones, including medical evaluation results, drug screening clearances, background investigations, and structured interview scores, require labor-intensive, manual reconciliation that introduces latency, candidate drop-off, and tracking errors.

USAS’s structure also lacks automated cross-crediting mechanisms for shared qualifications across job opportunity announcements (JOAs), permit non-responsive applicants to languish in active queues without timely business-rule enforcement (such as automated involuntary withdrawals), and lack proactive system health-checks to flag out-of-sequence candidate records.

TSA seeks to improve the connection between onboarding and workforce readiness. Candidates and employees need clearer pathways from entry through basic training, certification, continuing standards, and career development. A coordinated solution can reduce duplicative administrative effort, improve candidate and employee experience, and give TSA a more complete view of workforce progression. The hiring process for FAM, TSO, and MAP position is similar but different. Any solution should drive consistency where appropriate and re-use existing workstreams but also be able to address unique hiring milestones based on the position.

TSA requires an integrated, modular capability that operates in parallel with USAS to consolidate candidate data;

automate defined onboarding workflows, screening and background-processing activities, and enable training and career-pathway functions.

II. Candidate Data Integration and Workflow Automation TSA is seeking a solution that provides automation that integrates with the USAS Task Update API to update applicable TSO, FAM, and MAP candidate records, including medical, drug-testing, background, and assessment results. The solution should support cross-crediting valid structured-interview results; configurable business rules for appropriate candidate actions, including withdrawal of non-responsive candidates; automated health checks to identify stalled, incomplete, or inconsistent records; and role-based dashboards for hiring managers and stakeholders, including Personnel Security and Training & Development.

III. Decision-Support Automation With Human Oversight TSA is seeking a solution that also provides decision-support tools that assist personnel in identifying incomplete, inconsistent, or missing information in e86 packages and related onboarding documentation. The solution should summarize candidate-provided resume information for candidates against TSA-provided, job-related criteria, generate standardized prompts and completeness checks, and maintain auditable records. Automated outputs must support, rather than replace, human review and final decision-making.

IV. New-Hire Orientation, Paperwork, and Benefits Education TSA is seeking solutions that provide a new-hire orientation capability to guide employees through required forms, benefits enrollment actions, and other onboarding tasks. The solution should enable authorized pre-population and reuse of USAS data, offer plain-language benefits education and health-plan comparison resources, provide reminders and exception reporting for incomplete tasks and deadlines, maintain auditable records, and deliver aggregate reporting.

V. Planned Acquisition Strategy and Delivery Schedule TSA is seeking white papers of not more than 5 pages from industry describing their solution to the problems identified in this SOO. TSA will not consider graphics when assessing submissions. TSA is interested in industry’s assessment of feasible timelines for the acquisition strategy discussed below.

The acquisition strategy is structured into a 4-stage challenge-based phased approach, shifting the focus from paper milestones to iterative demonstration and continuous government input:

• Stage 1: Concept Paper & Architecture baseline (2 weeks – followed by government evaluation): Responds directly to the Statement of Objectives (SOO) by establishing the overall system architecture, data flow models, security, and privacy frameworks, and core Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) drivers to include proposed new business models, team qualifications, and deployment parameters. TSA will perform a down-select at the conclusion of Stage 1.

• Stage 2: Working System & Minimum Viable Product Demonstration (6 weeks – followed by government evaluation):

Delivers and validates a functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP) within a controlled test/lab environment, demonstrating technical viability. TSA will perform a down-select at the conclusion of Stage 2.

• Stage 3: Multi-Phase Refinement with Continuous Government Input (3 months): Iteratively scales and hardens the platform in direct partnership with government stakeholders through operational.

• Stage 4: Contract Award and Nationwide Production Rollout: Down-selects to the final production contract award to deploy the hardened, fully integrated platform nationwide.