Sarah L. Yopek

Sarah L. Yopek is the Deputy Director of the Procurement & Grants Policy Division within the NASA Office of Procurement. In this position, Ms. Yopek leads and manages senior acquisition professionals responsible for ensuring NASA compliance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and NASA FAR Supplement. This division is also responsible for Grants Policy and Compliance, as well as career development, warrant authority, training, and certification of NASA’s acquisition workforce.

Ms. Yopek is a seasoned acquisition professional with over 20 of experience. She has held various roles throughout her career, making her a well-balanced analyst with both Government and Industry perspective. She joined NASA in 2022, as the lead of the agency’s Procurement Management Review (PMR) Program. As the PMR Program Manager, Ms. Yopek was responsible for assessing NASA’s compliance with federal procurement statutes and regulations, as well as with NASA’s internal controls and policies across the 12 buying centers nationwide.

Before joining NASA, Ms. Yopek supported the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Missile Defense Agency (MDA), where she was the Director of Acquisition Workforce Management, Director of Contract Policy, and the Deputy Director of Contracting for the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Weapon System. Prior to that she served as contracting officer with unlimited warrant authority at the U.S. Army Contracting Command, and as a cost/price analyst with the Defense Contract Management Agency. Prior to her government service, Ms. Yopek was a program analyst with Industry. There she managed a portfolio of contracts with the DoD, with special focus on Earned Value Management.

Ms. Yopek holds a Master of Science degree in Acquisition and Contracts Management from the Florida Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She holds a Professional Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting, and has earned many awards throughout her career, including the Armed Forces Civilian Service Medal and the MDA Medal for Meritorious Civil Service.