Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO)

The Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO) is a senior official within each major federal agency who is statutorily responsible for the agency's overall acquisition function -- including policies, systems, workforce development, and performance. The CAO role was created to elevate acquisition management to the senior leadership level and to establish a single accountable official for the agency's contracting activities, their efficiency, and their legal compliance.

What is a Chief Acquisition Officer?

The CAO position was established by Section 1421 of the Services Acquisition Reform Act of 2003 (SARA), codified at 41 U.S.C. 1702. SARA requires each major federal agency (as defined by the Chief Financial Officers Act) to designate a CAO. The CAO must be a non-career employee -- either a political appointee or a member of the Senior Executive Service in a non-career position -- to ensure political-level accountability for acquisition outcomes.

The CAO's statutory responsibilities include:

• Advising and assisting the agency head and senior management in designing and managing the agency's acquisition activities.
• Managing the agency's acquisition workforce, including career development, training requirements, and certification standards under the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Act (DAWIA) for defense agencies and equivalent civilian standards for other agencies.
• Evaluating the performance of the agency's acquisition function and implementing improvements.
• Establishing clear lines of authority and accountability for acquisition decisions within the agency.
• Representing the agency in interagency acquisition policy forums, including those convened by OFPP.

In practice, the CAO often chairs or co-chairs the agency's acquisition review boards for major procurements and is the approving authority for deviations from standard FAR procedures. The CAO works alongside the Senior Procurement Executive (SPE), a career position with day-to-day operational authority over the agency's contracting activities.

Why it matters for contractors

The CAO's priorities directly shape an agency's acquisition posture. When a CAO focuses on competition, small business utilization, or contract consolidation, those priorities translate into policy changes, evaluation criteria adjustments, and shifts in how the agency structures its buying. Tracking a new CAO's public statements, congressional testimony, and agency strategic plan provides intelligence on where the agency's acquisition program is heading.

For contractors engaged in large or strategic program relationships with a specific agency, understanding who the CAO is and what their stated priorities are is as important as understanding the program manager's technical requirements. CAO-level decisions about bundling, set-aside policies, and contract vehicle preferences determine the competitive landscape that contractors navigate.

Example

A new CAO at a large civilian agency announces a priority to reduce the agency's dependence on cost-plus contracts in favor of fixed-price vehicles for services work. Within 12 months, the agency's contracting officers -- operating under new CAO guidance -- begin restructuring upcoming service contract solicitations from cost-reimbursement to fixed-price or time-and-materials structures. Contractors who identified this CAO-driven policy shift early adjusted their pricing models and proposal strategies before the solicitations issued. Contractors who did not track the CAO's policy statements were surprised by evaluation criteria that favored fixed-price approaches.