AI/ML and full-stack technical SME for SDVOSB proposal teams.
PMP, Security+, 20 years Signal/G6, production AI portfolio, full-stack delivery, sovereign GPU and bare-metal infrastructure for working demos at zero cloud-cost overhead. Built for mid-size SDVOSBs with active proposal cadences who need credible technical depth on AI/ML or full-stack pursuits without hiring an FTE.
Mid-size SDVOSBs with proposal infrastructure and a technical capability gap.
The engagement model assumes the partner SDVOSB brings the BD operation and contract vehicle access. We bring the AI/ML, data, and cloud technical depth that closes the gap.
- 5–25 person SDVOSB with an active pursuit cadence
- Existing contract vehicles or substantive teaming relationships with primes
- Proposal manager and contracts admin on staff
- Chasing task orders or set-asides in the $2M–$20M range
- Real technical capability gap on AI/ML, data, or cloud volumes
- Solo or 2–3 person SDVOSB without proposal infrastructure
- Pre-revenue or pre-first-award
- Looking for staff augmentation rather than scoped technical advisory
- Need a body for hours, not a named technical voice
- Post-award engagements without a prior proposal-phase relationship
The right customer is not the prime — it is the SDVOSB across the table.
Big primes already have proposal shops, technical fellows, and demo labs. Other SDVOSBs are a much better-fit customer for four structural reasons.
They actually need the help
A 5–20 person SDVOSB chasing a $2M task order has no senior AI/ML or full-stack engineer on staff and no infrastructure to demo on. They're either ghosting technical requirements or bidding work they can't deliver.
SDVOSB-to-SDVOSB is structurally simple
No teaming awkwardness, no "are we competing with our own prime" politics. A peer subcontractor or paid SME, not a threat.
They talk to each other
The SDVOSB community is small and word-of-mouth carries. Two good engagements turn into ten referrals.
It strengthens teaming density
Every SDVOSB you help win is a future teaming partner who owes you a callback. That is exactly the MOU density a Phase-1 capture roadmap calls for.
Eight trigger signals in the solicitation that mean you need an AI/ML or full-stack SME on the team.
If any two of these show up in your Section L, Section M, or SOW, the technical evaluation is going to score AI/ML or full-stack engineering depth — and the gap is real even if your past performance is strong elsewhere.
"Demonstrated experience deploying ML/AI in production," or evaluation criteria that score AI/ML or full-stack engineering depth directly.
Technical demonstration during oral evaluations or site visit — AI inference, full-stack workflow, or both. Screenshots and slideware lose points against a live system.
30–90 day prototype, pilot, or end-to-end working demo as Phase 1 of award. Common in modernization, replatform, and digital-services RFPs.
RAG, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, generative AI, LLM evaluation, computer vision, document understanding.
NIST AI RMF, EO 14110, responsible-AI controls, or model risk management language in the SOW or PWS.
FedRAMP-Moderate / IL4–IL5, on-prem GPU, or air-gapped delivery — generic SaaS endpoints will not clear evaluation.
Legacy COBOL/Oracle/.NET migration to modern web stacks, microservices, container deployment, or API-first architecture.
Authority-to-Operate, ATO sustainment, or CMMC controls combined with AI/ML or full-stack delivery scope. Few SDVOSBs carry both technical bands in-house.
Proposal Technical SME for SDVOSB Pursuits
Sit on another SDVOSB's proposal team as a named technical SME for AI/ML, full-stack, data, and cloud sections. They get a credible technical voice they can't afford to hire full-time.
Senior technical voice without the FTE cost
Most small SDVOSBs cannot afford a senior AI/ML or full-stack engineer on staff. Booking one as a named SME for the duration of a pursuit is the only economically rational way to win technically demanding task orders.
Hosted Demo & POC Environment — AI/ML or Full-Stack
When a peer SDVOSB needs to demo a working system — a RAG pipeline, an agentic workflow, a CV model, a full-stack web app, an API platform, or an analytics dashboard — for an RFP, the alternatives are bad. Stand up GovCloud (slow, expensive, requires AWS expertise they don't have), fake it with screenshots (loses points), or call us.
Zero cloud-cost overhead — nobody else in the SDVOSB pool has this
Most SDVOSBs are a single PM, a small staff-aug shop, or a niche cyber/IT firm. A peer with production GPU and bare-metal infrastructure who can host AI/ML demos and full-stack POCs at no marginal hosting cost — plus the federal capture experience to land them — is the gap this tier fills.
When the RFP includes a technical demonstration — AI/ML or full-stack — a working POC is what wins the room.
Mid-size SDVOSBs lose AI/ML and full-stack pursuits to bigger primes for one specific reason: their proposal text is competitive, but their orals demo is empty. Screenshots and architecture diagrams don't carry an oral presentation. A live system — AI inference, working web app, or both — running on real infrastructure does.
The Tier 2 hosted demo plus on-call presentation support is built for exactly this gap. Nobody else in the SDVOSB pool brings sovereign GPU and bare-metal infrastructure at zero cloud-cost overhead, plus federal capture experience, plus the technical depth to answer evaluator questions in real time.
- Working POC on production GPU infrastructure, not a sandbox.
- Live presentation support during oral evaluations and site visits.
- Technical Q&A coverage for evaluator follow-ups.
- Loom walkthrough as proposal artifact and orals backup.
Named LCAT on Award
If the pursuit wins, slide into a named senior technical seat on the awarded contract. A clean on-ramp from proposal SME to subcontract LCAT — both sides keep the relationship and the SDVOSB-to-SDVOSB MOU compounds.
Proposal SME → named subcontract seat
The technical voice on the proposal is the technical voice on delivery. That is what evaluators and contracting officers expect, and it is the cleanest path from a peer pursuit to recurring receipts. Post-award engagements always follow a proposal-phase Tier 1 or Tier 2 — both to protect against ostensible-subcontractor risk and to ensure delivery continuity.
Award protection: keeping post-award engagements protest-resistant.
A subcontractor who is too central to delivery can invite an ostensible-subcontractor protest under 13 CFR 121.103(h)(4). Mutual SDVOSB classification does not cure that risk on its own. Here is how we structure Tier 3 so a competitor protest has nothing ambiguous to attack.
Hour cap on post-award labor
Tier 3 hours stay below the threshold that would invite ostensible-subcontractor analysis under 13 CFR 121.103(h)(4). The exact cap is set against your total contract labor and reviewed jointly with your counsel.
We never own the contract's primary purpose
Your team performs the principal workshare. We provide named AI/ML technical depth — not the management, not the majority of labor, not the sole expert delivering the primary scope.
Counsel review before signature
We expect your contracting counsel to review the teaming agreement and subcontract before award. If you don't have one, we can introduce SBA-protest-experienced counsel for a one-hour pressure-test.
Documented separation of control
Management, supervision, and labor share are spelled out from proposal through performance — so a competitor protest has nothing ambiguous to attack.
Not legal advice. Final teaming structure should be reviewed by your contracting counsel before subcontract signature.
SDVOSB-tier pricing — public, ranged, predictable.
Posted ranges so peer SDVOSBs can self-qualify before reaching out. Final scope and price set during a 30-minute discovery call against the specific RFP.
| Engagement | SDVOSB-tier price | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery call | Free, 30 min | RFP review, scope sizing, fit assessment. | |
| Hourly proposal SME | $165–$215 / hr | Senior, but accessible for SDVOSB-tier engagements. | |
| Fixed-fee technical volume | $6K–$18K | Whole AI/ML, full-stack, or cloud volume, 3–4 weeks. | |
| Fixed-fee demo build | $4K–$12K | Working POC (AI/ML or full-stack) + Loom + live demo support. Hosting cost absorbed. | |
| Retainer (multi-pursuit) | $3K–$5K / mo | 1–2 active pursuits, priority access, deepens teaming. | |
| Post-award named seat | $185–$235 / hr loaded | Subcontract LCAT, mutual SDVOSB benefit. | |
Rates reflect SDVOSB-to-SDVOSB engagement scale at the mid-size partner level. Prime-tier pursuits and federal direct contracts are scoped separately. Engagements assume the partner SDVOSB owns the BD operation, vehicle access, and post-award contract management.
I'm not chasing your work. I'm the AI/ML and full-stack SME you can put on your proposal team when the RFP needs technical depth you don't have on staff — and the hosted demo runs on my infrastructure, so you don't pay for the cloud. Here's my sample volume. Here's my demo Loom. Let's talk about your next pursuit.
In rooms full of peer SDVOSB owners.
Several owners in any of these rooms have an active pursuit on their desk that day. The pitch is short, the conversation is concrete, and the relationship compounds.
Have a pursuit on your desk?
Bring the RFP and three things: your staff size, current contract vehicle holdings, and target award value. We'll size the AI/ML, full-stack, or cloud volume in 30 minutes and tell you whether a hosted demo — at zero cloud-cost overhead — is the differentiator you need, or whether we're not the right fit (which is also useful information).
Direct: contact@tktechventure.com