Sophia Speira LLC

Sophia Speira LLC, a Durham, North Carolina-based limited liability partnership, operates exclusively as a subcontractor delivering research and development services to the Department of Defense, with 95% of its recent federal footprint routed through Aptima Inc. as the prime contractor. The vendor has no direct prime contract awards and competes in the open market without set-aside designations.

Sophia Speira's capability portfolio centers on defense research and development, grounded entirely in subcontract work under Aptima. Recent representative projects include research and development services supporting leader competency development methods for mission command in the future operating environment (five sub awards, May 2024); research into the role of climate in the prevention of harmful behaviors with option-year exercises (eleven sub awards, October 2023); and general research and development and service contracts (twenty-one sub awards, June 2022 and May 2022). The vendor's work is classified under NAICS 541711 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences) across the vast majority of its awards.

Customer concentration is heavily tilted toward Army organizations. The top five customers by award count account for 98% of recent awards, anchored by the Defense Contract Management Agency (41 awards), the Department of the Army Headquarters Office of the Chief of Staff (10 awards), and the Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Center (9 awards). Potential-value concentration differs markedly — while the Defense Contract Management Agency dominates award count, the Department of the Army Headquarters West Point Military Academy carries the highest named potential value at $242 thousand across two awards, with the Army Medical Command at $125 thousand across one award. This divergence reflects the prevalence of small, award-count-heavy task orders flowing through the Defense Contract Management Agency vehicle against fewer, higher-dollar research initiatives elsewhere.

Sophia Speira sits on two Army IDIQs. The Indefinite Delivery Contract W911NF18D0003 carries 45 task orders, and Indefinite Delivery Contract 47QFLA19D0012 carries 10 task orders. Activity has been volatile — two awards in 2018, one in 2019, a spike to 28 in 2022, 27 in 2023, and only five in 2024. Combined potential value across all awards totals $367 thousand, but combined dollars obligated across all awards stands at $5.9 million, indicating that many awards have been exercised and obligated at levels well above their stated potential values — a signal of active utilization on the Army's research initiatives. The vendor's federal footprint spans back to February 2011, placing it as a long-tenured but low-profile sub to Aptima on defense research contracts without visible prime capability or agency-wide vehicle diversification.