AFCEC assesses civil engineer positions for acquisition certification Published March 3, 2015 By Jennifer Schneider AFCEC Public Affairs JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- For years, acquisition has played a role in the workloads of many Air Force civil engineers. Now, through the efforts of a working group at the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, efforts are underway to formally recognize these positions with the appropriate acquisition certification, paving the way for educational training opportunities and better acquisition decisions. "Historically, the Air Force has been underrepresented in the facility engineering acquisition career category when compared to the other services," said Suzanne Bilbrey, lead for the Air Force Facility Engineering Acquisitions Working Group and director of the AFCEC Environmental Directorate. "While Air Force civil engineers have been involved in acquisition activities for years, the positions had not been coded as such, so they did not have access to formal training and other benefits." Properly coding the positions helps the Air Force meet legal and Department of Defense requirements to properly identify positions involving acquisition activities, and also provides the opportunity to use expedited hiring authority and Defense Acquisition Workforce Development Funds. The effort has been underway since 2010, when the Air Force Facility Engineering Acquisitions Working Group, comprising specialists across AFCEC, was created and charged with developing guidelines and strategies necessary to implement the coding across the facilities engineering career field. The diversity of the career field has made the task particularly challenging, as it includes military and civilian personnel across seven categories: facility maintenance, facility engineering, environmental, housing and dorms, real property, emergency services and management positions. The working group pulled together to determine requirements, develop processes and get the initial request to personnel in the field, said Michael Wilson, a real estate project manager within the AFCEC Installations Directorate. "It was astounding to see our AFCEC team, our major command and base civil engineers, and our detachments all pull together," Wilson said. "This is about providing acquisition training and ultimately more credibility to our civil engineering community - and that's something we all want to see happen." To date, the group has coded more than 70 positions across the CE enterprise, and is currently evaluating an additional 1,600 positions. Positions under consideration undergo several rounds of approval, including supervisors, working group members, the Air Force facilities engineering acquisition program manager, and ultimately reaching the office of the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisitions for final approval. While recoding the positions takes a lot of effort, the time spent now is far outweighed by the benefits. "Better training equals better decisions," Bilbrey said. "Better decisions lead to less time and money spent on Air Force acquisitions."