Sole Source Justification for Early Career Talent Recruitment Platform
Overview
Buyer
Place of Performance
NAICS
PSC
Set Aside
Original Source
Timeline
Qualification Details
Fit reasons
- NAICS alignment with historical contract wins in similar service areas.
- Scope strongly matches core technical capabilities and delivery model.
Risks
- Past performance thresholds may require one additional teaming partner.
- Potential clarification needed on staffing minimums before bid/no-bid.
Next steps
Validate eligibility requirements, assign capture owner, and schedule partner outreach to confirm teaming strategy before submission planning.
Quick Summary
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), Office of Centralized Acquisition Services (OCAS) has issued a public notice regarding a sole-source contract award (Contract No. 47QACA26C0036) to Stryder Corp dba Handshake. This award is for an Early Career Talent Recruitment Platform to support the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in modernizing the federal workforce by attracting students and recent graduates. This notice serves as a justification for the award, not a solicitation for proposals.
Purpose & Scope
The platform is critical for OPM to rapidly attract, engage, and convert early career talent into applicants for Federal employment opportunities. Key requirements include a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cloud-based dynamic recruitment platform with the ability to:
- Target students by academic major, GPA, degree level, graduation year, career interest, and geographic location.
- Provide immediate access to a pre-existing, verified network of over 20 million students and recent graduates from 1,500+ partner institutions.
- Offer proactive engagement tools for multi-channel outreach.
- Feature AI-powered job matching with direct deep-linking to USAJOBS.
- Deliver actionable analytics dashboards and universal accessibility (mobile, Section 508 compliant). The pilot aims to engage 50,000 students and support 1,000 hires within a four-month window.
Contract Details
- Contract Type: Sole-Source Award (Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition)
- Awardee: Stryder Corp dba Handshake
- Product/Service Code: DA10 (Support Services, SaaS/Subscription for Application Development)
- Place of Performance: Washington, DC
- Period of Performance:
- Base Period (Pilot): May 6, 2026 – September 3, 2026 (4 months)
- Option Year 1: September 4, 2026 – September 3, 2027
- Option Year 2: September 4, 2027 – September 3, 2028
- The total estimated value covers the base period and two option years.
Eligibility & Justification
This is a sole-source justification, citing "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements" (RFO 6.103-1) and the authority of the Competition In Contracting Act (CICA) (41 U.S.C. 3304). Market research confirmed Handshake as the only vendor capable of meeting the unique, time-sensitive requirements, including immediate operational readiness and access to verified institutional data. Numerous other federal agencies have also awarded sole-source contracts to Handshake for similar services.
Submission & Evaluation
As this is a justification for a sole-source award, there are no proposal submission or evaluation instructions.
Contacts
- Primary: Theophilus Hlovor (theophilus.hlovor@gsa.gov)
- Secondary: Tyrone Dallas (tyrone.dallas@gsa.gov)