Pathfinder Engineering Inc.

Pathfinder Engineering Inc., a service-disabled veteran-owned and veteran-owned small business based in Donnelly, Idaho, operates exclusively as a prime contractor providing heavy equipment and engineering services for wildland fire suppression, land management, and all-hazard incident response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service across western regions. The company competes under Total Small Business set-asides across its entire prime footprint and holds no subcontractor engagements.

Pathfinder's capability portfolio centers on deployment of specialized heavy equipment—dozers, excavators, water tenders, skidders, masticators, and road graders—along with trained operators and maintenance services to support Forest Service incident response and prescribed fire management. Representative work includes a $523,984.80 delivery order from Forest Service Region 4 (Intermountain Region) in July 2025 for miscellaneous heavy equipment support, a $279,778 delivery order from the same region in June 2026 for engineering services and equipment support in Monroe, Utah, and a $348,585 delivery order from Forest Service Region 6 (Pacific Northwest Region) in July 2026 for heavy equipment and engineering services supporting wildland fire suppression.

Customer concentration is extreme and deliberate. The Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management National Interagency Fire Center accounts for 27 awards worth $8.6 million combined potential value; Forest Service Region 4 (Intermountain Region) holds 23 awards worth $3.1 million; Forest Service Region 3 (Southwestern Region) holds 12 awards worth $1.1 million; and Forest Service Region 6 (Pacific Northwest Region) holds 9 awards worth $1.1 million. These five customer segments account for 96% of awards and 98% of combined potential value. Pathfinder serves a total of seven distinct federal agencies, but the overwhelming majority of its footprint anchors to the Forest Service ecosystem.

Pathfinder's contract vehicle position spans multiple regional indefinite-delivery contracts issued through the National Interagency Fire Center's Virtual Incident Procurement system. The top five vehicles by task-order volume are IDIQ 1202SB21T7257 (17 task orders, $1.6 million combined potential value), IDIQ 1202SB24T7404 (11 task orders, $1 million), IDIQ 1202SB21T7058 (4 task orders, $674 thousand), IDIQ 1204H124T7205 (4 task orders, $398 thousand), and IDIQ 12569R23T7827 (4 task orders, $436 thousand). Across these vehicles, Pathfinder holds awards running through mid-2030 with individual IDC ceiling values ranging from $250,000 to $750,000 covering Forest Service Regions 1 through 6 and East and West Zone dispatch areas.

Activity shows volatility year to year: 21 awards in 2022, 4 in 2023, 21 in 2024, 7 in 2025, and 22 in 2026 through August. The company holds 77 total awards with combined potential value of $14.7 million and $6.2 million obligated (42% of potential). Seventy-seven awards were issued under NAICS 238990 (Support Activities for Forestry) and PSC R409 or R499 (fire suppression/presuppression and heavy construction equipment rental). Because award dates and ultimate completion dates in the recent delivery-order footprint cluster in the summer months (fire season), recompete exposure varies seasonally; multiple IDCs running through 2028–2030 will require recompete as they approach completion.

Pathfinder operates with no subcontractor footprint and does not appear as a sub on any tracked federal awards. The vendor's entire federal footprint is prime contracting under small-business set-asides to a single customer ecosystem—the Forest Service—with geographic diversification across western regional offices but no customer or vehicle diversification. This posture creates both concentration risk (single customer, single capability, single geography) and set-aside protection (100% of awards under Total Small Business designation).