The Department of Defense, specifically the Department of the Navy through NAVSEA HQ, is seeking qualified small businesses under the SBA 8(a) Business Development Program to provide comprehensive IT Operations support for the U.S. Navy's Integrated Combat System (ICS) program and its Forge Software Factory (Forge SWF). The procurement aims to identify participants capable of delivering systems administration and cloud engineering services, ensuring the operational integrity of the Forge Development Environment (FDE) and supporting both classified and unclassified environments. This initiative is critical for enhancing the Navy's combat capabilities by leveraging advanced IT resources and tools for software development. Interested parties should submit their capability statements to the primary contact, Kekoa Erber, at kekoa.c.erber.civ@us.navy.mil, by adhering to the specified submission guidelines, as this is a sources sought notice and not a request for proposals.

Section 1: Purpose

This notice is being issued to conduct market research to identify qualified eligible participants within the SBA 8(a) Business Development Program capable of providing comprehensive Information Technology (IT) Operations support for the U.S. Navy's Integrated Combat System (ICS) program and its Forge Software Factory (Forge SWF). This includes supporting both classified and unclassified environments within the Forge Development Environment (FDE).

Section 2: Background

Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare System; Integrated Combat System (PEO IWS X) mission is to deliver combat capability at the speed of relevance. The Forge SWF enables this mission by providing an environment where tools, engineers, developers, and IT resources are leveraged to build the ICS. The Forge Development Environment (FDE) is a collection of Government Owned and Contractor Managed tools that evolve to meet the needs of Engineers and Developers building Forge SWF products.

Section 3: Scope

This Sources Sought seeks qualified eligible participants within the SBA 8(a) Business Development Programcapable of providing the following:

Systems Administration Services
Cloud Engineering Services

System Administration

Objective: Maintain the healthy operation of FDE tools and provide end-user support in Unclassified and Classified Environments.

Requirements:

Shall perform administrative actions in FDE tools for tasks that require elevated permissions
Shall implement role-based access control (RBAC) in FDE Tools
Shall create, delete, and modify user accounts, groups, and permissions in FDE Tools
Shall create, develop, and modify documentation for administrative tasks
Shall service user requests for administrative support in FDE Tools as prioritized by the Government Product Owner
Shall provide support in the onboarding and offboarding of FDE users
Shall develop documentation for account request processes
Shall support FDE users in transfers and delivery of unclassified and classified data to and from FDE Tools.

Cloud Engineering

Objective: Maintain the continuous operation of cloud hosted production services and support Forge Product Teams in the deployment of Applications and Systems on Cloud Services.

Requirements:

Shall Develop and Maintain Identity and Access Services for Applications
Shall develop Single Sign On (SSO) solutions for cloud hosted services and applications
Shall develop solutions that enable the transition of monolithic services from on-prem infrastructure to cloud hosted services
Shall manage Kubernetes hosted management services
Shall contribute to the development of Platform services and tools
Shall support Platform Teams in deployment of forge products on Kubernetes
Shall maintain the services and tools leveraging infrastructure as code and automation tools

Personnel  

FTE                               Labor Category                              Key Personnel Status

1                       Enterprise Tools Administrator                       Key Personnel

1                                Cloud Engineer                                              Key Personnel

1                       Enterprise Tools Administrator                             Non-Key

(1) Enterprise Tools Administrator – Key Personnel
Required Experience:
Minimum of 5 years of experience in Jira and Confluence Administration
Required Skills:
Configuring Jira and Confluence instances
Automating Jira Workflows
Creating and modifying Jira Projects
Supporting and configuring Jira and Confluence plugins
Desired Skills:
Experience with management of the Jira Big Picture plugin
Aggregating Jira and Confluence data into live dashboards
Integrating tools and applications with webhooks

(1) Cloud Engineer – Key Personnel
Required Experience:
Minimum 10 years of experience in IT Systems Infrastructure and Networking
Minimum 5 years of experience in Azure Administration
Required Skills:
Maintaining production applications in cloud
Automating deployment of cloud resources with IAC
Migrating workloads from on-prem to cloud

Desired Skills:
Certified Kubernetes Administration (CKA)
Linux Systems Administration
Network Engineering Experience
Cloud cost optimizing

Surge FTEs

FTE                                         Labor Category                                        Key Personnel Status

2                                  Enterprise Tools Administrator                                         N/A

2                                              Cloud Engineer                                                             N/A

FDE Tools and Applications

Below is a list of tools and applications in the FDE as of April 2025.

Please note:

The number applications hosted in the FDE scales based on the needs and requirements of Forge Product Teams.
Some tools are duplicated on classified and isolated networks. Denoted with -d
The hosting and availability of some tools is provided by an external service provider. Denoted with - x

Tools and Applications List:

Jira - xd
Confluence -xd
Gitlab - xd
Rocket Chat -x
Artifactory -d
Bitbucket
Doors -x
Cameo

Other Work Requirements

Shall provide weekly status report to Contracting Officer Representative (COR).
Shall track progress of tasks and objectives in Government Backlog.
Provide in-person onsite support at least 4 days per week at the FORGE in Riverdale, Maryland.
Provide on-call support M-F 0600-1800
The contractor shall work within a larger team construct and must be able to effectively collaborate with government and other contractor personnel.

Section 4: Submission of Responses

Interested small businesses shall submit a Capability Statement addressing the following:

Company Information:

Company name, address, DUNS number, CAGE code.
Verification of certification and small business status.
Designated representative name(s) and point of contact, including phone numbers and email addresses.
Number of employees employed by the company's business unit considering this opportunity.
Facility security clearance level (Secret or above).
Identify contracts within the last five (5) years with similar scope and provide a brief overview of company responsibilities and magnitude of its role.
Describe your company's experience working with the federal government, particularly within the Department of Defense.

Experience and Performance Capability:

Describe your company's experience in:
Providing and managing secure classified lab environments for software development.
Delivering DevSecOps IT Operations and Systems Administration services, specifically within a DoD environment.
Working within an Agile development framework.
Managing and administering the specific FDE tools listed.
Supporting unclassified environments at Impact Levels -2, -4, and -5, particularly in relation to software development.
Demonstrate your company's ability to meet the personnel requirements for the two DevSecOps teams, including the availability of individuals with the required skillsets.

Submission Instructions:

Responses shall be limited to a total of 10 pages, with 1-inch margins, and a minimum font size of 10-point Times New Roman.
Figures/Graphs/Tables can be included within the page limit with an 8-point font or larger text.
File size is limited to 8MB per email.  Vendors are responsible for ensuring their email size does not exceed the 8MB limitation. File sizes larger than 8MB and .zip file extensions will be stripped by the Navy email system.
Submitted electronic files should be limited to the following extensions:
docx Microsoft Word
.xlsx Microsoft Excel
.pptx Microsoft PowerPoint
.pdf Adobe Acrobat
.mmpx Microsoft Project
Submitted electronic files should not be compressed.

DISCLOSURE:

This is not a request for proposals and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation; it does not constitute a solicitation or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This sources sought does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, the Navy is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. In accordance Far 15.201(e), responses to the sources sought are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The information provided in this sources sought is preliminary and does not reflect approved Government specifications. The Government will not reimburse the cost of any submission or other expense in response to this sources sought– the entire cost of any submission or other expense will be at the sole expense of the source submitting the information. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

Failure to respond to this sources sought does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if any is issued. If a solicitation is issued, it will be synopsized on the System for Award Management (SAM) website at (SAM.gov). The information provided in this sources sought is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. It is the responsibility of potential respondents to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement. The information requested by this sources sought will be used within the U.S. Government to facilitate decision making and may be used in the development of the acquisition strategy and any future RFPs. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought is voluntary. Other requests for information contained in this RFI shall be referred to NAVSEA 025 – kekoa.c.erber.civ@us.navy.mil

An acknowledgement of receipt will be provided for all responses received. If you do not receive an acknowledgement within two working days, please notify the points of contact listed in this notice. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

Proprietary information, if any, must be clearly marked. To aid the Government in its review and evaluation, please segregate proprietary information and label it as such for appropriate handling by the Government. Respondents are solely responsible for properly marking and clearly identifying any proprietary information or trade secrets contained within their response. All information received that includes proprietary markings will be handled in accordance with applicable statutes and regulations. Respondents that include their submissions data that they do not want disclosed to the public for any purpose, or to be used by the Government except for sources sought response consideration purposes, shall mark their submissions as follows:

1) Mark the title page with the following legend: This response includes data that shall not be disclosed outside the Government and shall not be duplicated, used, or disclosed – in whole or in part – for any purpose other than to consider this response. The data subject to this restriction are contained in sheets [insert numbers or other identification of sheets]; and

2) Mark each sheet of data it wishes to restrict with the following legend: Use or disclosure of data contained in on this sheet is subject to the restriction on the title page of this submission.

Respondents are advised that ManTech, Technomics, and 2Mi third party support contractors, who provide support to the PEO IWS X program, may assist the Government in its review of responses received under this notice and therefore may have access to the submitted material. These contractors have executed Non-Disclosure Agreements with the Department of Navy. Respondent shall provide notification on its cover page if the Respondent does not consent to the use of the aforementioned contractors. Unless otherwise stated by the Respondent, a submission received in response to this notice constitutes consent that the above-mentioned contractors may have access to all information provided in the Respondent’s submission. Unless otherwise stated by the Respondent, a submission received in response to this notice constitutes a Respondent’s consent for the Government to disclose all information provided in the Respondent’s submission to the above-mentioned third-party support contractors, for the purposes of the Trade Secrets Act.

Forge IT Operations Support - Small Business Sources Sought Notification

Contract Opportunity Analysis

Classification Codes

Solicitation Documents

Related Contract Opportunities

Project Timeline

Agency Information

Point of Contact

Place of Performance

Official Sources