DAWIA Certification: Requirements, Tiers, and Deadlines

DAWIA certification requirements are the education, training, and experience standards a Department of Defense acquisition employee must meet to hold an acquisition-coded position, set under 10 U.S.C. Chapter 87 and implemented through DoDI 5000.66. Since 2022, the “Back-to-Basics” framework has replaced the old three-level system with two tiers per functional area, and what you personally must complete depends on the position you sit in.

Whether Your Position Actually Requires Certification

Certification applies only to positions formally coded into the acquisition workforce. The requirement follows the position, not the person. If you move into an acquisition-coded role, you inherit its certification requirement regardless of your background; if your role isn’t coded, you don’t need DAWIA certification at all.

Managers decide coding by comparing a position’s duties against the criteria for the established functional areas. You can confirm whether your job is coded by reading your official position description or asking your organization’s manpower office.

Your Functional Area and Tier Set the Specifics

Back-to-Basics organizes the workforce into six functional areas with seven certification tracks:

Program Management (PM)
Contracting (CON)
Engineering and Technical Management (ETM)
Life Cycle Logistics (LCL)
Business – Financial Management and Business – Cost Estimating (two separate tracks in one area)
Test and Evaluation (T&E)

Your area determines which courses you take, what experience counts, and which tier your position requires.¹

Each functional area uses two tiers, but the names differ. Engineering and Technical Management uses Foundational and Practitioner. Program Management uses Practitioner and Advanced.² Contracting stands apart with a single credential, the DoD Contracting Professional Certification.³ The tier is tied to the complexity of the work, not a ladder everyone climbs.

If you already held a legacy Level I, II, or III certification, it may have converted automatically to the corresponding Back-to-Basics tier. If your legacy certification didn’t map to the tier your current position description now requires, you have to complete the new Back-to-Basics requirements.

Education, Experience, and Training

Education

Federal law requires contracting positions in the GS-1102 series and their military equivalents to hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution.⁴ The old requirement for 24 semester hours in business-related courses is gone; the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020 removed it.⁵ Other functional areas follow education requirements set by the Secretary of Defense based on position complexity under 10 U.S.C. § 1723.⁶

Experience

Experience is counted in years of relevant acquisition work and scales with the tier. Contracting officers with authority above the simplified acquisition threshold must have at least two years of contracting experience by statute.⁴ Program and project management under the FAC-P/PM framework ranges from one year at entry to four years at the senior level.⁷ Past performance records and position descriptions document what you’ve done. Federal law caps how much academic time can substitute for experience at one year.⁶

Training

Training runs through the Defense Acquisition University, in both online and classroom formats. Each functional area has its own prescribed curriculum. For contracting, the required courses are CON 1100V (Contract Foundational Skills), CON 1200V (Contract Pre-Award), CON 1300V (Contract Award), and CON 1400V (Contract Post-Award). They must be taken in sequence; each is a prerequisite for the next.⁸ Other functional areas have their own tracks in the DAU catalog. Completion is tracked electronically and feeds directly into your certification application.

The Contracting Exam

Contracting professionals face an extra requirement that most other functional areas don’t. CON 3990V is a closed-book proctored exam of 150 questions, and you must score at least 70% to pass. It cannot be waived. You become eligible to request it after finishing the four required CON courses, and you submit the authorization request through the FAI CSOD system.⁸ The exam applies only to those who have never held a FAC-C or DoD contracting certification; if you already held one of those legacy credentials, the exam requirement doesn’t apply.

Submitting the Application

Once you meet the requirements, you file a formal certification request through your service’s electronic system. Army personnel use the Career Acquisition Management Portal, which routes through CAPPMIS to the Certification Management System.⁹ Other services have comparable portals.

You sign and submit the digital form. It goes to your immediate supervisor, who verifies that the experience and training you listed match your actual duties and history. From there it moves to a certifying official with authority to grant the credential. Expect roughly 30 to 60 days for processing, depending on the agency and workload. A denial comes with feedback explaining what’s missing so you can fix and resubmit.

How Long You Have After Assignment

You don’t have to be certified on your first day. DoDI 5000.66 provides a grace period tied to your tier:¹⁰

Foundational tier: 3 years
Practitioner tier: 5 years
Advanced tier: 4 years

Key Leadership Positions are the exception. There is no grace period for a KLP; you must already hold the required certification when you’re assigned. If you can’t finish within your grace period, you can request a position waiver, but waivers are capped at 24 months and buy time without removing any requirement. The certification standards themselves cannot be waived.

Keeping the Certification: Continuous Learning

The credential doesn’t stay active on its own. You must earn at least 80 continuous learning points every two years, with a goal of 40 per year.¹⁰ Civilian agencies using the FAC framework run on a common two-year cycle; the current one covers May 1, 2024 through April 30, 2026.¹¹

Most qualifying activities earn one point per hour: formal or informal training, conferences and seminars, coaching and mentoring, publishing acquisition-related work, experiential on-the-job learning, and short-term project assignments. Several categories, including conferences, mentoring, publications, and on-the-job learning, are capped at 20 points per year.¹¹ Logging the points is your responsibility, and your supervisor must approve the activities as relevant to your development.

Moving Between DoD and Civilian Agencies

If you’re transferring between DoD and a civilian federal agency, you generally don’t restart. A legacy FAC-C, legacy DAWIA certification, or DoD Contracting Professional certification counts as equivalent to the FAC-C (Professional) if two conditions are met: you’re current on the 80-points-every-two-years continuous learning requirement, and your agency acquisition career manager approves the equivalency.⁸ If your continuous learning has lapsed, get current before relying on reciprocity.

What Happens If You Don’t Meet the Requirements

Missing certification within your grace period is treated as failing to meet a condition of employment. Agencies have removed employees for it, and have imposed reductions in grade when someone couldn’t hold the certification their higher-graded position required.¹² The agency has to issue a formal proposal letter, give you a chance to respond in writing, and then decide. You can appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board and request a hearing if you believe the action is unjustified.

The same risk attaches to continuous learning. Letting your 80-point requirement lapse can cost you certification status and lead to reassignment out of your acquisition-coded position. Your supervisor and career manager will usually flag an approaching deadline, but the responsibility is yours.¹³

1
U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. Functional Areas for the Defense Acquisition Workforce
2
Defense Contract Management Agency. Back-to-Basics Streamlines Acquisition Training
3
Department of Defense – Defense Pricing and Contracting. Contract Policy – Workforce Development
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 U.S.C. 1724 – Contracting Positions: Qualification Requirements
5
U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. Exception to Policy – Waiver of Requirement for Completion of 24 Semester Credit Hours
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 U.S.C. 1723 – General Education, Training, and Experience Requirements
7
FAI.GOV. FAC P/PM Certification Requirements
8
FAI.GOV. FAC-C (Professional) Certification Requirements
9
U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center. FAQ Topic: Certification
10
Department of Defense. DoDI 5000.66 – Defense Acquisition Workforce Education, Training, Experience, and Career Development Program
11
FAI.GOV. Continuous Learning
12
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. Williams v. Department of Education
13
FAI.GOV. Continuous Learning Requirements