Summary
Deltek’s Top Federal Opportunities reports for federal fiscal year 2027 are out. In Episode 10 of the Deltek Podcast, Kathleen Sievers and Ashley Sanderson, the Deltek GovWin IQ analysts behind them, walk through what stood out on the lists and what it means for contractors.
Why It Matters: Contractors build their pipelines around these opportunities, and the analysts explain how shifting requirements, consolidation, and proposed size standards could affect where and how they compete.
Key Takeaways:
- Large opportunities come with moving parts. Even the biggest FY 2027 opportunities can shift in timing, structure, or procurement method, so contractors need to track them closely.
- Consolidation is changing how contractors get in. As more large requirements move onto fewer vehicles, on-ramps, teaming, joint ventures, and subcontracting matter alongside prime roles.
- Proposed small business size standards could change who can prime. The Small Business Administration’s proposal would change size standards broadly, with potential effects on set-asides, competition, and subcontracting.
Ashley Sanderson, Sr. Manager of Federal IS Research at Deltek, builds the unrestricted list, a top 20 of full-and-open competitions that can include pools for small businesses. Kathleen Sievers, Director of Federal IS Research, builds the set-aside list, which is reserved for small businesses and other socioeconomic categories. “Deltek’s jewel in the analysis crown” is how Sievers described the reports. Sanderson agreed that they offer “a really strong bellwether look at what fiscal year 2027 is going to be.”
1. Set-Aside Standouts: SOE TLS & STARS IV
The FY 2027 set-aside list carried the largest combined ceiling in years: about $121 billion, Sievers said, the biggest since the FY 2019 list. Two opportunities drive it. The Defense Logistics Agency's Special Operational Equipment Tailored Logistics Support (SOE TLS) program has a $60 billion ceiling, raised from $33 billion in January 2026. Sievers called it one of the rare contracts that actually lives up to its ceiling, and she expects the follow-on to carry a similar or higher one because the government cannot afford to be without the service.
The second is STARS IV, the recompete of the General Services Administration's (GSA) 8(a)-exclusive IT government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC). STARS III had a $50 billion ceiling, and the analysts presume STARS IV will be similar. The concern is the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) program, which has been "under intense scrutiny for the last year," with audits and a year-long pause in new admissions from August 2025 to August 2026. Based on her latest check, every participant added since has been Native- or tribally owned. STARS III started with more than 1,000 contract holders and is now under 200. Sievers thinks STARS IV will happen because the program is so significant, but the analysts are "not holding our breath."
2. Unrestricted Standouts: A Smaller Total & a New LOGCAP Suite
Sanderson's FY 2026 list was "gigantic," at more than $800 billion, so this year's much lower total was a little unnerving at first. The reason is two outliers: the Department of Veterans Affairs' Community Care Network (CCN) Next Gen and GSA's OASIS+ made up about half of last year's value. Without them, she said, the list is not changing much, which fits the broader theme of consolidation.
Sanderson also highlighted the Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP), now in its sixth iteration, which adds a small business suite. The label can mislead. It is not simply a small business version of LOGCAP. It consolidates some logistics task orders from the Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise (EAGLE) and other places, while full-and-open LOGCAP continues. The goal, she said, is to avoid past questions about who is responsible for what, which matters for a contract meant to respond quickly.
3. Requirements Change. Here's How to Stay Current.
Building these lists takes months, and requirements keep moving while the analysts work. Sanderson's team had to "maintain a lot of communication with the government" to pin down the timeline on an Army human resources requirement that slipped from August toward November because of changes inside the issuing office. Sievers' Census Bureau Transformation and Application Modernization (CenTAM) opportunity was reorganized on the day of her webinar, with two of its four blanket purchase agreements (BPAs), Decennial and Geospatial, prioritized as "Group A." Days after Sanderson presented, the Air Force Research Laboratory multiple award contract (AMAC) was dissolved and moved to other procurement methods, including other transaction authority (OTA) agreements. Sievers' summary: "If you're in federal contracting, you know exactly what we're talking about. And if you're new to federal contracting, welcome to your future."
Their advice for keeping up:
- Track opportunities with multiple search agents. Sievers recommended using Deltek GovWin IQ to track opportunities, incoming contracts, and activity. A single search with every criterion filters out things you should see, so build several. Sanderson agreed.
- Search by keyword and inside documents. Early requests for information (RFIs) sometimes carry a blank North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, or a generic title with a description that says only to see the attachment, so keyword and document searches matter.
- Plan backward from incumbent expirations. Report timelines are the earliest estimates, Sanderson said, so expect them to move. Recompetes are easier to predict because the incumbent contract expires on a set date; work back through proposal evaluation, proposal writing, and solicitation. Some procurements, like LOGCAP, come out early because protests are anticipated.
- Respond to early RFIs and ask questions. RFIs let contractors shape a requirement before it hardens. GovWin IQ analysts will submit questions on a contractor's behalf if it does not want the contracting office to know who is asking, and even an unanswered question can prompt an agency to announce something publicly.
4. Consolidation: On-Ramps, Teaming & Joint Ventures
Consolidation was Sanderson's big theme. An opportunity for the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Dome that she expected on her list disappeared as work consolidated, and GSA's new ASCEND moved off after changes that included executive orders. Yet she also sees the government turning to on-ramps much more often to keep competition active. SEWP VI, a massive IT GWAC used across agencies, is the first in its series to offer on-ramps, giving firms that missed the original proposal round a way back in.
Sanderson also noted that "just being a prime vendor on something is not your only way into contracting." Teaming, joint ventures, and subcontracting are all vital routes as work consolidates, and GovWin IQ can show who else is working on an opportunity.
5. Proposed SBA Size Standards: Who Counts as Small?
In August 2026, the SBA proposed new small business size standards and a new methodology for setting them, aiming to grow a small business industrial base that Sievers said has been shrinking for years. As she described it, the proposal raises every size standard. To show the impact, she used one family of IT codes, NAICS 541512 – Computer System Design Services. In her example, the standard would rise from $34 million to $531 million in average annual receipts. Under the current standard for that code family, a firm under $34 million can prime, and a larger one can only subcontract or team. Under the proposal, every company between those figures would become small and able to prime. The analysts expect some version of the rule to take effect, though Sievers said the final numbers will probably differ.
The effects cut both ways, Sievers said. Larger small businesses have more resources, which makes bidding tougher for the smallest firms, though plenty still win. Firms reclassified as small no longer need subcontracting plans, so some subcontracting opportunities could disappear. And with more companies qualifying as small, the "rule of two" is easier to meet, so more work could become set-aside at the task order level. She did not expect it to change the FY 2027 unrestricted list, and she pointed listeners to the webinars for a table comparing current and potential size standards for every opportunity on the set-aside list.
Where to Go Next
The conversation moves from what is on the lists to what shapes them: requirements that change, work that consolidates, and a proposed rule that could change who counts as small. Sievers and Sanderson's advice along the way is to track opportunities closely and to remember that a prime role is not the only way in. Sanderson closed by urging listeners to watch both the unrestricted and set-aside webinars for more detail. To go deeper, watch the full Deltek Podcast episode, then visit the Top Federal Opportunities hub to download the reports and watch the webinars on demand.
