SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- OPM USA HIRE SUPPORT SERVICES II
- Notice Date
- 9/24/2025 1:08:39 PM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- GSA FAS AAS OSO (QFA) Washington DC 20405 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20405
- Solicitation Number
- 47QFMA25K0009
- Response Due
- 10/8/2025 9:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 10/23/2025
- Point of Contact
- Steven Nerenberg, Mike Levy
- E-Mail Address
-
steven.nerenberg@gsa.gov, michael.levy@gsa.gov
(steven.nerenberg@gsa.gov, michael.levy@gsa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- NONE No Set aside used
- Description
- USA HIRE II RFI/MAD 47QFMA25K0009 Request for Information (RFI) And Market Assessment Discussion (MAD) 47QFMA25K0009 USA Hire ? Support Services II in support of: The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Issued to: All Industry Partners (Open Market) Issued by: GSA Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) ARMY 24 September 2025 Responses due no later than 12:00 hrs. Eastern Time (ET) on 8 October 2025 1. INTRODUCTION The General Services Administration (GSA), Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) is releasing this Market Assessment Discussion (MAD) notice on behalf of The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The purpose of this notice is to assist the Government in conducting market research regarding the subject requirements, promote competition, and garner high-quality proposals. As provided by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 10.002 and 15.201, the Government anticipates conducting one-on-one virtual meetings with respondents to this notice to promote competition in a potential future acquisition. The Government is particularly interested in gathering information on industry best practices for � hosting and managing assessment content (e.g., items, item banks) in a secure environment, � delivering assessments in a secure unproctored asynchronous environment, � delivering online video-based interviews � remote proctoring, � using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in assessment development and scoring, � minimizing and/or mitigating applicant use of Artificial Intelligence (e.g, AI chatbots) to improve assessment performance � facilitating data sharing, including PII, between integrated platforms, � integrating and delivering assessments across multiple assessment platforms, � and ensuring scalable governmentwide assessment delivery. This information will be used for market research only and any information provided by an Industry Partner because of these conversations will not be shared with any other Industry Partner. The Government is not obligated to release a future solicitation. The MAD is a market research method utilized by AAS Army to determine the extent of interest in a specific acquisition and industry practices related to the acquisition. The MAD methodology allows for a one-on-one exchange between the AAS Contracting Officer (CO) and any interested Industry Partner early in the acquisition process. In this process, the Government requests only a minimum amount of information necessary to gauge industry interest. The Government may consider the responses within these exchanges in the future determination of an appropriate acquisition strategy for the program. This RFI and MAD notice does NOT constitute a Request for Proposal and is not to be construed as a commitment, implied or otherwise, by the Government that a procurement action will be issued. Response to this notice is not a request to be added to a bidders list or to receive a copy of a solicitation. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of the submission of the requested information. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement and any follow-up information requests. Responses to this RFI and MAD may be considered in the future determination of an appropriate acquisition strategy for the program. The Government may not respond to any specific questions or comments submitted in response to this RFI and MAD or information provided as a result of this request. Any information submitted by respondents as a result of this notice is strictly voluntary. 2. BACKGROUND The landscape for Federal hiring has changed dramatically in the past 12 months. The Chance to Compete Act of 2024 (CCA), Executive Order 14170 (Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service, January 20, 2025) and the Merit Hiring Plan (MHP, issued May 29, 2025) require Federal agencies to: a) incorporate skills-based assessments into their hiring processes; and b) eliminate the use of self-rating assessment questionnaires that have been used pervasively across government for many years. The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is the central agency for providing human resources solutions to Federal agencies. Through its Human Resources Solutions (HRS) Federal Staffing Center (FSC) USA Hire ? Program Office, OPM provides Federal agencies with high-quality assessment tools through a centralized assessment platform that meets the goal of more efficient evaluation of applicants and better-quality hires across government. USA Hire ? includes a range of assessment solutions that can help agencies meet skills-based assessment requirements. In Fiscal Year 2024, USA Hire ? customer agencies used the program to assess approximately 1 million applicants for over 20,000 job opportunity announcements; OPM expects continued exponential growth in the use of its assessments in future fiscal years. USA Hire ? provides an online assessment program designed specifically to meet the hiring needs of government agencies. Federal agencies need professionally developed and validated assessment tools to identify highly qualified and proficient applicants and ultimately make the best hires. Better assessments can lead to better hires and a stronger workforce that builds a high performing organization set up to achieve mission success. USA Hire ? currently offers off-the-shelf assessment batteries covering over 800 individual job series/grade combinations, off-the-shelf assessment batteries covering skills and competencies shared across jobs (e.g., project management, writing, data skills, supervisory skills), and custom assessment batteries targeting the needs of individual agencies, access to test center locations worldwide, and a broad array of assessment and IT expertise. HRS can develop, customize, and deliver assessment solutions that effectively and efficiently meet the needs of Federal agencies. USA Hire ? was built specifically for use in the Federal Government; USA Hire ? fully integrates with USA Staffing�; USA Hire ? meets all Federal IT standards; and USA Hire ? maintains high levels of security, accessibility, and usability. Agencies use the USA Hire ? platform to administer a wide variety of online assessments such as traditional multiple-choice assessments, sophisticated work simulations, video-based assessments, computer adaptive tests (CAT), computer-scored writing assessments, video-based interviews, and more. USA Hire ? currently blends state-of-the-art assessments and technology enabled assessment delivery solutions to modernize and transform the Federal hiring process. Through USA Hire ? , Federal agencies have access to online assessment (proctored and un-proctored) products and services with the goals of helping to manage large applicant pools, improving the quality of hires, decreasing the time-to-hire, minimizing applicant burden, and improving the applicant experience. USA Hire ? is part of an integrated solution that currently combines HRS� internal expertise (e.g., Industrial/Organizational Psychology, staff acquisition), assessment technology resources (USAJOBS and USA Staffing) with the external capabilities of industry partner(s). USA Hire ? includes computer adaptive testing technology. All assessments are fully compliant with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, and video-based items are supported by an HTML5-based video player and allow for closed-captioned videos. USA Hire ? also complies with all Federal IT security and privacy mandates. 3. SCOPE The USA Hire ? program seeks an industry partner-provided commercial solution that meets the needs of its federal customer base. OPM requires an online system that can deploy off-the-shelf and custom assessments that measure a variety of competencies for Federal occupations. OPM seeks an assessment delivery system that can automatically score closed-end and open-ended responses, including writing samples. The online assessment platform shall be able to handle any mathematical formula for scoring purposes. Based on the needs of USA Hire ? �s customers, OPM requires an assessment platform that supports static, multi-form, computer-adaptive (CAT), and linear-on-the-fly (LOFT) assessments delivered in un-proctored, in-person, and remote proctored settings. The platform shall support applicant self-scheduling for proctored test sessions. The platform shall additionally support the delivery of synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) online interviews, online interview scheduling, and provide an interface for raters to review and rate applicant interviews. Online interviews shall be delivered through the integration with USA Staffing and combinable with other assessments. The platform shall include an interface for OPM and customer Industrial/Organizational Psychologists to author, upload, and configure tests, and to manage assessment processes. The contractor shall be able to support secure, standardized, real-time data interconnections with other assessment delivery platforms and provide the government with access to additional online assessments, including technical skills-based assessment content (e.g., accounting, coding, cybersecurity, engineering). All assessment platforms shall rely on the applicant�s USAJOBS Login.gov account or Federal employee�s USA Hire ? Login.gov account for authentication. OPM requires an industry partner that can provide psychometric expertise to support Federal Industrial/Organizational Psychologist resources in developing and implementing valid, defensible assessment batteries for the USA Hire ? customer base, which may include conducting job analyses, data analyses, integrating multiple content sources, and evaluating and interpreting results. The USA Hire ? contractor will also support OPM program evaluation efforts that assess the current health of USA Hire ? and guide the program�s strategic direction. OPM also seeks to leverage vendor partner resources for project management in support of assessment and talent acquisition projects with customer agencies. OPM requires an industry partner whose platform and psychometric support can dynamically scale to support both the growth and surge needs of the USA Hire ? program. The CCA and MHP foster the use of skill-based and competency-based technical assessments by requiring at least one technical or alternative assessment in competitive hiring processes. Further, the MHP strongly encourages the use of multiple-hurdle assessment approaches and encourages agencies to use USA Hire ? assessments. OPM intends to position USA Hire ? as the assessment program of choice for agencies to meet their competitive hiring assessment needs. To provide an idea of the potential scale, the approximately 1 million applicants for more than 20,000 job opportunity announcements mentioned earlier represent less than 20% of competitive hiring across the government in FY24. While it is challenging to estimate the exact number of assessments to be delivered in future years given the variation in needs across government and the current gap in use of skills-based assessments, the USA Hire ? program anticipates the need to support the delivery of online assessment batteries for several million applicants per year. OPM is seeking an industry partner who can assist the USA Hire ? program with delivering online assessments at scale across government as efficiently and effectively as possible. In sum, OPM requires a contractor that is able to deliver: � Psychometric expertise to manage and support delivery of online assessment solutions � A scalable solution that can efficiently address both expected growth and surge demands � An online assessment solution/platform for use in proctored and un-proctored environments that also allows for assessment scheduling � Assessment delivery in proctored and un-proctored environments using a variety of delivery engines (e.g. static, CAT) � Delivery of online video-based interviews in both synchronous and asynchronous modes � Reporting to document activities, results, system performance, system maintenance and other relevant information � Responses to and support for data calls � System management, integration, and testing services � Help desk support � Ensuring approved reasonable accommodations are applied at proctored test centers � Project management and program reviews � Program evaluation � Data analytics � Ease of editing candidate-focused content (notifications, instructions, etc.) 1. REQUIREMENTS TASK 1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT The Contractor shall provide a Psychometric expert as the overall Project Manager who shall be responsible for all Contractor work performed under this project. The Project Manager shall be a single point of contact for the Contracting Officer and the OPM Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) and serve as the integrator for all engagements. The Project Manager shall be one of the senior level employees provided by the Contractor for this work effort In addition to the Project Manager described above, the Contractor shall provide an IT expert (IT Project Manager) and an I-O expert (I-O Psychology Project Manager). The IT Project Manager will lead all related IT efforts in support of USA Hire ? and shall ensure the quality, cost, and timeliness of all Contractor work in areas including, but not limited to, IT security, performance, functionality, and availability. The IT Project manager shall be a senior staff member skilled and experienced in managing large-scale IT solutions for online assessment delivery including integrations across multiple platforms. The I-O Psychology Project Manager will lead all related I-O Psychology efforts in support of USA Hire ? and shall ensure the quality, cost, and timeliness of all Contractor work in areas including, but not limited to, content management, assessment development, technical reports, and statistical analysis. The I-O Psychology Project Manager shall be a senior staff member skilled and experienced in managing large-scale projects focused on selection and assessment design, development, and delivery. The individual shall hold a graduate degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology or a closely related field TASK 2: ONLINE ASSESSMENT SOLUTIONS: PLATFORM AND CONTENT The contractor shall provide and maintain a fully integrated online assessment platform that seamlessly interfaces with OPM's USA Staffing� Talent Acquisition System to support Federal hiring assessment processes while ensuring security, compliance, and optimal user experience. The integration with USA Staffing shall allow for real-time, bidirectional transfer of applicant, position and assessment data. The data interconnection shall adhere to the current assessment interconnection framework and not require any changes to USA Staffing. The Contractor platform shall rely on the applicant�s USAJOBS Login.gov account for authentication. The assessment platform shall support a full range of assessment content and methodology, to include but not limited to static, multi-form, computer-adaptive (CAT), linear-on-the-fly (LOFT), and multi-stage (hurdle) delivery in un-proctored, in-person, and remote proctored settings. The assessment platform shall include support for both synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) online video-based interviews. The platform shall support applicant self-scheduling for proctored test sessions and online interviews.The platform shall support technology designed to detect and/or mitigate applicant use of Artificial Intelligence (e.g, AI chatbots) to improve assessment performance for assessments in which the use of AI is prohibited. TASK 3: PSYCHOMETRIC AND INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL (I/O) SUPPORT The contractor shall provide comprehensive psychometric and I/O psychology expertise to successfully manage and support the delivery of online assessment solutions in accordance with Federal Human Resources policies and practices for multi-agency environments. Support services include, but may not be limited to, assessment strategy, design, development, and validation; applying advanced measurement theory, item response theory (IRT), and classical test theory (CTT) to analyze and maintain assessment tools and content; reviewing assessments for compliance with EEOC, ADA, and other regulatory guidelines; conducting job analyses; conducting and analyzing pilot studies; providing and implementing test security and integrity recommendations; translating complex psychometric concepts into clear, actionable guidance to ensure smooth adoption and effective use of assessment solutions; monitoring, evaluating, and reporting assessment performance over time; and refining assessment tools to adapt to the evolving needs of the government and/or evolving assessment technology. The contractor shall have experience using Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in assessment development and scoring. TASK 4: SYSTEM MANAGEMENT AND TESTING The contractor shall provide comprehensive systems management and integration services to ensure secure, reliable, and continuous operation of the online assessment platform while maintaining full compliance with OPM security requirements and supporting seamless integration with USA Staffing systems. The contractor shall be compliant with current Federal regulations and guidance found in: the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), the Privacy Act of 1974, the E-Government Act of 2002, Section 208, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and the 800-Series Special Publications (SP), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memorandum, and other relevant Federal laws and regulations with which OPM must comply. TASK 5: ASSESSMENT PLATFORM INTEGRATION AND DELIVERY SERVICES The contractor shall provide a comprehensive assessment platform that serves as the central hub for USA Hire ? , facilitating secure data interconnections with multiple assessment service providers while delivering flexible assessment administration services across all U.S. locations. This includes establishing and maintaining USA Hire ? as a centralized assessment integration platform that seamlessly connects USA Staffing with multiple external assessment service providers through secure, scalable, and persistent data interconnections. The diagram presents a conceptual framework for the assessment platform integration and delivery services. The integrations shown are for illustration purposes only. Actual required integrations will be determined based on the Contractor platform capabilities and the Government�s assessment needs. 5.0 ANTICIPATED CONTRACT DETAILS The Government anticipates that this requirement will be awarded on a combination Time and Materials (T&M) and Firm Fixed Price (FFP) basis. The planned contract action will include the procurement of labor, other direct costs (ODCs) and travel within the Contiguous United States (CONUS) with a period of performance of a twelve (12) month base and seven (7) year optional periods of performance. The Government currently estimates this requirement to be valued at approximately $750 million. 6.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS The Government requests responses in two Parts: MAD RSVP Google Form Submission, and Written Email Submission. 1. MAD RSVP responses shall be submitted electronically via Google Form using the link provided below, no later than 1 October 2025 at 12:00 PM EST using the link below: MAD Market Assessment RSVP (USE THE LINK IN THE NOTICE) The Government will assign a 30-minute timeframe for each respondent on 22 October 2025 and 23 October 2025. RFI responses shall be submitted by email to AAS Contracting Personnel, Contracting Officers, Steven Nerenberg (steven.nerenberg@gsa.gov) and Mike Levy (michael.levy@gsa.gov), no later than 8 October 2025 at 12:00 PM EST. Responses submitted via email must maintain one-inch margins, 12-point Times New Roman font and be single spaced. Submissions shall be no greater than ten (10) pages, inclusive of Corporate Experience Template. 7.0 MARKET RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. Maintaining the integrity of USA Hire ? assessment content and processes is paramount to the success of the OPM USA Hire ? mission. Please describe commercially available technology solutions for maintaining test security, preventing content piracy, and minimizing applicant use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to gain an assessment advantage. 2. Based on the desired outcomes described above, how long would it take to integrate and customize a commercial online assessment platform with OPM�s USA Staffing� Talent Acquisition System? Note: The integration shall adhere to the current assessment interconnection framework and not require any changes to USA Staffing. The Contractor platform shall rely on the applicant�s USAJOBS� Login.gov account for authentication. 3. Please provide feedback on the OPM framework outlined in Task 5 above. Is the information sufficient to develop an approach to accomplishing the requirement? 4. What pricing approach(es) do you recommend for OPM to achieve economies of scale while expanding delivery of a wide variety of assessments government-wide? 7.1 CORPORATE CAPABILITIES AND APPROACHES 1. Please describe your organization�s experience in using Artificial Intelligence in the development, maintenance, and scoring of assessments. 2. Please describe your organization�s assessment capability to develop and/or deliver assessments that measure a full range of cross-cutting general competencies (e.g., reasoning, decision making, customer service, flexibility) and job-specific technical skills (e.g., coding, data analysis, accounting, project management). In your response, please include any innovative solutions you offer such as interactive work sample assessments, AI-based branching assessments, etc. 3. Please describe your firm�s capability to provide industrial-organizational and psychometric expertise in managing, consulting, developing, and supporting the delivery of online assessments in the multi-Federal agency environment. Please include how your firm uses psychometric expertise to develop, validate, implement, and evaluate assessment content and tools. 4. Describe your firm�s litigation experience defending assessments and assessment batteries in high stakes testing situations. 5. Once interconnected, what is your ability to manage and maintain an assessment platform, including seamlessly transitioning OPM and current customer agencies from an existing platform to your proposed platform without a break in service. Please detail your transition-in strategy based on specific experience interconnecting with Government systems used in Federal hiring. 6. What is your firm�s strategy to developing and delivering an online assessment platform for use in un-proctored environments, in-person proctored environments, and remote proctored environments? 7. Please provide a description of work performed that is relevant to the scope of services outlined in this RFI for the development and delivery of assessments at the government wide scale described above. 8. What pricing approach(es) do you recommend for OPM to achieve economies of scale while expanding delivery of a wide variety of assessments government-wide? 9. Describe your firm�s experience working with and protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII). 10. Describe your experience with obtaining Federal Agency�s ATO or FedRAMP certification. 7.2 CORPORATE OVERVIEW Name of Company Name of Business Unit Responding to the RFI (if applicable) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) Code Corporate Address POC Name and Email Address:
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/workspace/contract/opp/3ca8ea7f661946b9a00ed4bd15601c31/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, DC 20415, USA
- Zip Code: 20415
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20415
- Record
- SN07603529-F 20250926/250924230050 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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