Functional Areas
Auditing
Department of Defense mission support requires over $300 billion per year of contracted support. Securing the needs of the Warfighter is a timely and essential mission with a constantly constrained budget. Auditing professionals are the agents who keep costs fair and reasonable for the taxpayer.
Business - Financial Management and Cost Estimating
The DoD Business Career Field is comprised of two tracks: Business Financial Management (BUS-FM) and Business Cost Estimating (BUS-CE). As advisors to acquisition decision makers, responsible for program financial planning, formulation and budgeting, budget analysis and execution, and cost estimating.
Contracting
Contracting professionals contribute to military readiness by serving as the business advisors to the acquisition team and are vital to accomplishing the DoD mission and securing warfighter needs. The contracting workforce skillfully negotiates, awards, and administers contracts totaling over $300 billion per year to deliver supplies and services in support of acquisitions for major weapons systems, information and cyber technology, research and development, construction, logistics and sustainment, base operations, infrastructure, and military operations.
CON 3990V DoD Contracting Certification Exam - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Engineering and Technical Management
The ETM workforce has a vital role in developing, fielding, and sustaining defense systems and ensuring DoD products are delivered on time, perform as expected, and are cost-effective. The role requires developing and implementing solutions with an integrated technical approach across the total life-cycle to satisfy stakeholder needs and expedite transition of technology to the user, practicing early production planning and systematically examining producibility.
Memo: Recommended Continuous Learning Opportunities for the Engineering and Technical Management Functional Area
Life Cycle Logistics
The Life Cycle Logistics functional area spans the system life cycle, encompassing acquisition and sustainment activities, and includes professionals responsible for planning, developing, implementing, and overseeing effective and affordable product-support strategies for weapons, materiel, or information systems.
Memo: Recommended Continuous Learning Opportunities for the Life Cycle Logistics (LCL) Functional Area, FYs 23-24
Program Management
Acquisition professionals in the Program Management career field are concerned with all functions of a program management office to accomplish program objectives for the development, production, deployment, and sustainment of systems to meet the user’s operational needs.
PM Exams FAQ Sheet.pdf (dau.edu)
Test and Evaluation
T&E is a critical part of the DoD acquisition process. T&E professionals develop, optimize, execute and evaluate the testing of system performance, interoperability, reliability, maintainability and cybersecurity. They offer unbiased information to support and inform design improvements, production and fielding decisions.
