Sentinel Program Infrastructure Partnering Program

Castle � Sentinel Program, in coordination with joint program stakeholders, is issuing this Sources Sought Notice to alert specialized organizational development firms, strategic facilitators, and industrial partnering experts to an upcoming collaborative opportunity. This is NOT a formal solicitation. The Sources Sought notice is for planning and market intelligence purposes only. PROGRAM OBJECTIVES & SCOPE The selected partner shall develop and implement a comprehensive, partnering program that engages stakeholders at all levels of execution in support of the U.S. Air Force Sentinel Program Infrastructure. The effort should establish effective partnering frameworks, governance-aligned engagement strategies, and communication protocols that foster collaboration, transparency, and accountability, and sustained stakeholder alignment throughout program execution. Partnering Program Core Objectives: Program Development: Establish and implement a structured partnering framework and recurring engagement cadence to foster a program-wide partnering culture. Integrate partnering activities with the existing Sentinel governance structure to ensure alignment with decision-making processes, reporting requirements, and oversight mechanisms. Define roles, responsibilities, and touchpoints across all organizational levels, and synchronize partnering efforts with program milestones to promote consistency, accountability, and sustained collaboration throughout execution. Multi-Level Stakeholder Alignment: Identify, assess, and define key Sentinel Program Infrastructure stakeholders across all organizations and functional areas to capture primary executing elements, critical assets, and program-specific concerns that will inform partnering program development. Conduct stakeholder mapping to clarify roles, responsibilities, authorities, and interdependencies. Ensure deliberate alignment of stakeholders at each execution tier and across all project phases by establishing clear lines of communication, decision-making pathways, and engagement strategies. Promote integration and unity of effort to support a cohesive, multidisciplinary project team capable of effectively addressing complex program requirements. Active Facilitation: Lead comprehensive facilitation efforts across all organizational levels, including planning, coordinating, and executing partnering workshops, alignment sessions, and strategic interventions. Drive collaboration among stakeholders, resolve conflicts, and reinforce shared objectives to advance program development and ensure sustained alignment throughout execution. Operational Directives: Develop and implement a comprehensive suite of partnering documents that establish clear communication protocols, define appropriate levels of partnering intensity, and standardize engagement across the program. Create a structured issue resolution framework to enable timely identification, escalation, and resolution of challenges. Provide detailed guidance for the development and maintenance of a shared risk register to promote transparency and proactive risk management. Additionally, produce a relationship management plan and Partnering Charter to formalize roles, responsibilities, shared objectives, and behavioral expectations, ensuring alignment and accountability among all stakeholders throughout the program lifecycle. PARTNER CAPABILITY QUESTIONNAIRE (MARKET INTELLIGENCE/RESEARCH) To streamline market intelligence and research, interested firms should respond to the questions below utilizing the online questionnaire. The questionnaire link to submit responses is: Sources Sought Questionnaire Navigating Existing Hierarchies: How does your firm design and implement a partnering framework that integrates seamlessly with established, highly rigid defense acquisition governance structures? Describe the diversity within your approach and when your team regears to address ongoing friction points? Managing Conflicting Commercial Interests: Provide an example of a project where you successfully aligned the competing interests of two massive, distinct industrial entities (e.g., prime hardware vs. construction partners) with a government team who all held competing motivations. What methodology did you use to build a "single-team" culture? Multi-Tiered Integration: How will your team ensure that "partnering principles" successfully cascade down from executive leadership (General Officers/CEOs) to the field-level execution crews working in remote locations? The Partnering Playbook: Describe your process for co-creating a Partnering Playbook with stakeholders rather than delivering a generic, pre-packaged document. How do you measure and enforce compliance with guidelines and dispute-escalation pathways defined in the playbook? Focused Dispute Resolution: Outline a scenario where an active multi-billion-dollar program was facing severe schedule slip due to an active dispute between stakeholders. What strategic partnering intervention did you lead to resolve the issue, and what metrics did you use to track the return of collaborative health? Staffing Composition: What specialized skillsets do your proposed facilitators possess that qualify them to handle high-friction defense discussions? Agile Scaling & Deployment: The Government will issue operational directives and direct you to designated work sites across the Sentinel infrastructure footprint on an as-needed basis. Describe your firm�s capability to rapidly deploy high-caliber facilitators and support resources to multiple geographic locations (e.g., Vandenburg SFB, Hill AFB, Minot AFB, Malmstrom AFB, F.E. Warren AFB) with minimal notice. Does industry have a preferred acquisition structure to dynamically address this scope, such as Other Transaction Authority or FAR based Contract? RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS Firms interested in this opportunity are requested to take the following action: Submit Questionnaire Answers: Complete and submit the digital questionnaire online at the secure Sources Sought Questionnaire. Monitor SAM.gov: Official updates, Q&A, and solicitation files will be published under the designated Reference Document number on SAM.gov. Sources Sought Point of Contact: Jon Nadig Email: Jonathan.M.Nadig@usace.army.mil James Long Email James.M.Long2@usace.army.mil Disclaimer: This sources sought notice does not constitute a Solicitation /Request for Proposals (RFP) or an agreement to award. The Government is not liable for any planning, administrative, or preparation costs incurred by industry in response to this planning notice.