Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, LLC

Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, LLC, a subsidiary of NCS Pearson, Inc.'s Pearson VUE division, delivers personnel assessment, test administration, competency modeling, and job analysis services to federal agencies as a large-business prime contractor, competing under full and open competition with no socioeconomic set-asides. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, PDRI operates across 60 distinct customer agencies with a recent prime-award portfolio spanning 844 awards valued at $13.1 billion in combined potential value, though only $511.8 million has been obligated to date.

PDRI's customer concentration tilts sharply toward the Office of Personnel Management—325 awards carrying $982.3 million in potential value represent 58% of the top-customer awards count and anchor the civilian service-delivery footprint. The GSA Federal Acquisition Service dominates the dollars side: eight awards carry $11.68 billion in combined potential value, driven almost entirely by PDRI's December 2024 award of the OASIS+ Unrestricted indefinite delivery contract, a multi-year multiple-award vehicle with no specified ceiling running through December 2029. Beyond GSA, the Department of the Army (including Research Development and Engineering Command and Materiel Command) places 97 awards worth $113.4 million combined; the Department of the Navy and Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration contribute 60 awards worth $39.6 million and $39.6 million respectively. Civilian service-delivery dominance is pronounced: OPM, CFPB, FAA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection anchor the active prime portfolio.

PDRI's concrete capability set centers on personnel testing and assessment administration. Recent representative work includes a $42.3 million Department of the Air Force electronic testing delivery order (September 2023, HCaTS vehicle) for current and future personnel tests, performance through April 2029; a $2.7 million Army Research Institute officer non-cognitive computer adaptive test development contract (September 2023, cost-plus-fixed-fee) through September 2027; a $25.3 million Drug Enforcement Administration nationwide testing centers and test development delivery order (September 2022, HCaTS) covering test refresh, job analysis, and validation through September 2027; and a $9.5 million Customs and Border Protection single-award indefinite delivery contract (June 2022 through June 2027) for Customs Broker License Exam administration and proctoring across the United States, with semi-annual task orders ranging from $771 thousand to $1.01 million per exam cycle. PDRI also operates a $5 million Federal Aviation Administration single-award IDV for job analysis and assessment strategy development (through July 2028) and a $2.5 million Consumer Financial Protection Bureau single-award IDV for examiner commissioning test validation services. Army Research Institute work encompasses competency modeling, behavioral and social sciences research, and assessment validation—including a $1.29 million research contract on enlisted soldier career progression (August 2024), a $1.15 million small unmanned aircraft systems leader training contract (August 2024), and a $899 thousand contract on accelerating innovative thinking in Army officers (May 2024), with subcontractors Drasgow Consulting Group and Chimaera Science contributing research and training development support.

PDRI places substantial volume through parent vehicles. The Human Capital and Training Solutions (HCaTS) IDIQ anchors 42 delivery orders across the Air Force, DEA, Veterans Affairs, and other agencies; the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) carries 141 task orders worth $269.2 million; the Information Technology Schedule 70 supports 116 task orders worth $101.9 million; and an older OPM Training and Management Assistance 2007–2014 vehicle still carries 331 legacy task orders worth $63.8 million combined potential value. The newly awarded OASIS+ Unrestricted vehicle (December 2024, no specified ceiling through December 2029) is already active: PDRI received a $2.73 million Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives physical task testing delivery order (May 2026) under this vehicle, with place of performance in Chantilly and completion by April 2031.

Activity has remained steady across the recent five-year window—15 awards in 2022 and 2023 each, 13 in 2024, declining to six in 2025 and seven in 2026—though the dollar magnitude reflects the concentration in large federal vehicles rather than transactional task-order volume. Eighteen awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $84.3 million and present recompete opportunity for competitors and renewal-management exposure for PDRI.

PDRI's Service Contract Inventory-reported federal services activity shows $123.8 million in invoiced revenue across FY2022–FY2025: $19.9 million in FY2022 (31.1 FTEs), $31 million in FY2023 (34.1 FTEs), $38.7 million in FY2024 (21.8 FTEs), and $34.2 million in FY2025 (66.4 FTEs). Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, median government-paid hourly rates run approximately $256/hr, with the rate spectrum spanning from entry-level project analysts at around $85/hr through senior manager positions pricing near $400/hr. On the GSA Schedule, PDRI offers 15 active labor categories across project analyst, software engineer, systems engineer, and senior management roles, with hourly rates spanning $84.52 to $398.77 and no security-cleared positions. PDRI self-performs nearly all reported hours on SCI-reportable contracts—subcontractors account for roughly 5% of total contractor hours on average across prime contracts, with 24 named subs reported. Named subcontracting relationships include Drasgow Consulting Group (Army behavioral research support), Chimaera Science (small unmanned systems training development), Peraton Inc. (Navy selection and classification analytics), and DCS Corporation (Air Force airman promotion procedures); PDRI also subs to Federal Management Partners, LLC on automated assessment services for the Office of Human Resources.

PDRI competes entirely as a large business under full and open competition; the vendor carries no small business set-asides across its recent prime footprint and operates predominantly as a prime (844 of 847 awards), with only three sub awards in the source data spanning Federal Management Partners, DCS Corporation, and Peraton. The foreign-ownership designation reflects NCS Pearson's parent-company structure; PDRI itself operates from U.S. headquarters and staffing and maintains federal contracting infrastructure across multiple GWACs and agency-specific vehicles. Category concentration underscores the personnel-assessment and training focus: professional and management development training NAICS accounts for 351 awards; custom computer programming for 131; research and development in social sciences for 107; and education/training–personnel testing PSC for 43 awards.