FORT BELVOIR, Virginia –
Defense Logistics Agency Land and Maritime’s new generation of acquisition professionals are embracing technological enhancements in artificial intelligence, advance analytics and machine learning to put parts in the hands of warfighters faster.
Among them is Stephen Shaw, who as DLA’s Acquisition Support Professional of the Year, is enabling the logistics combat support agency’s acquisition community to find answers quickly and reliably through process automation.
Shaw is a procurement analyst with DLA Land and Maritime’s Procurement Process Support Directorate in Columbus, Ohio.
“My background is that I wanted to play video games with my friends,” Shaw said. “I decided I needed to teach myself how to code in order to play this one particular game.”
“Along the way, I got into business school and that led me to working at DLA as a student because of the DLA Pathways to Career Excellence Program,” he added. “I was still in college at the time, so DLA’s commitment to student loan reimbursement was really appealing to me, it let me focus on school while also working toward a career.”
Today, Shaw is a 15-year DLA employee working with internal customers to find efficiencies in existing processes, developing tools, and working toward robotic process automation.
One of Shaw’s innovations is the Ask the Analyst tool where DLA Land and Maritime acquisition associates can ask questions that are then routed to an analyst. Answers are posted online for future referencing.
Shaw created a process to automatically route new questions directly to the correct policy or pricing analyst and determine which answers are viewed the most, providing insight into the effectiveness of the program. Further refinement led to a program that averages around 100 users a day with a total user base of 500 employees. The data is used by various analysts to identify gaps and create training content to present in future forums.
Shaw’s supervisor, Mary Shearer, said she is continually impressed by his unparalleled creativity and innovative solutions to improve acquisition functions.
“Stephen is a visionary who programs automation, enabling acquisition specialists to find answers with greater efficiency,” Shearer said.
Shaw supports his teammates by improving existing tools and creating new tools that help them manage their programs more intuitively. His efforts contributed to DLA Land and Maritime receiving 100% from the DLA Warrant Program Manager on the 2024 Compliance Review.
“I figure out where the problems are and write programs to fix them,” Shaw said. “A lot of what I’ve learned for programming is what I learned on the job. DLA has empowered me to go to school, get training, and learn deeper about programming and development.”
In the acquisition workforce there are a lot of opportunities for employment growth. Demand for what we do is increasing radically all the time, he said.
“What I like about contracting and being an ‘1102’ is that if you have 10 contracting officers in a room, you will have 11 opinions,” Shaw said. “For me, not accepting the status quo has been a big part of my success. I work with a lot of people, and I have found that people are willing to live with a lot of pain. They just get used to it and move past it, then they’ll talk about their processes and I start seeing red flags.”
“Instead of accepting that we have no choice but to live with the pain, I try to figure out a better way,” Shaw explained. “It’s a combination of critical thinking, objectivity and passion. And I think the greatest of these is passion. It’s so easy to get into the flow of just processing data or to give up on a project when it gets really hard, but passion gets me through those moments of humdrum and challenge and drives me to keep going even when a project fails.”
The recent recognition and awards have been unexpected.
“Honestly, I am blown away,” Shaw said. “I genuinely enjoy what I do, developing applications, critically thinking about our processes, and trying to figure out ways to improve things at a grass root level is proper fun for me. I feel that the things I am doing really matter and this has led to meaningful progress and making a difference in people’s lives. It’s really incredible.”
There is a critical need for contracting professionals within DLA. Find out more about the 1102 job series at https://www.fai.gov/sites/fai/files/1102-Career-Field-Brochure.pdf. Visit the DLA Careers webpage to learn about current job openings and career opportunities.