Federated Search

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) issued a Request for Information (RFI) on March 5, 2026, seeking qualified firms to design, develop, and implement a scalable Federated Search solution that enables seamless, real-time information retrieval across ATF's disparate digital platforms. The solution must integrate secure connectors to internal repositories including SharePoint, SQL databases, on-premises files, and AWS, as well as external data sources such as Accurint AVCC, Clear, i2 Analyst Notebook, and several other specialized platforms. Key requirements include maintaining logical and physical data separation through a search-time aggregation architecture, implementing selective query logic with toggle/filter capabilities, achieving full Section 508 accessibility compliance, and adhering to NIST SP 800-53 security controls at moderate/high impact levels. The RFI, which closed on March 20, 2026, required respondents to submit a maximum 15-page whitepaper addressing company capabilities, past performance on similar government contracts, staffing estimates by labor category, and preliminary cost estimates. Questions were required to be submitted by March 13, 2026, with final RFI responses due by March 20, 2026, to Contracting Officer Steven Jaimes at Steven.Jaimes@atf.gov.

This is a planning RFI for market research purposes only and does not constitute a formal solicitation or binding commitment to award a contract; however, non-response does not preclude future RFP participation. No set-aside designations have been applied, though the RFI specifically encourages responses from small business concerns, including 8(a), SDVOSB, HUBZone, and WOSB/EDWOSB certified firms. The anticipated contract structure is firm-fixed-price task order with a base year of 12 months plus four one-year option years, though specific award values have not been disclosed in the RFI documentation. The solution must support approximately 5,000 user accounts with 500 concurrent users, index approximately 83 million records with anticipated annual growth of 20%, and achieve daily ingestion rates of 22,234 documents across current data volumes of 1-5TB with annual growth of 500GB-1TB. All work will be performed partially at the contractor's U.S. location and partially at ATF headquarters in Washington, DC, with personnel required to have SECRET security clearance eligibility and core work hours of 9:00 AM-3:00 PM Central time, Monday through Friday.