Leader of SAM Transition Is Leaving Government

The General Services Administration (GSA) building is seen, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Washington.

The General Services Administration (GSA) building is seen, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Judith Zawatsky will retire from public service after 15 years to take on a new role in the private sector.

The head of the General Services Administration’s Integrated Award Environment—the effort to combine all acquisition support sites under a single portal at SAM.gov—will be leaving government in the new year.

Judith Zawatsky, assistant commissioner for the office of systems management in the Federal Acquisition Service, is leaving government in early January to return to the public sector after 15 years in public service.

Zawatsky started her federal career in 2006 as a program analyst for GSA, serving in a number of support and leadership roles in FAS. She was appointed assistant commissioner in June 2018.

More recently, Zawatsky has spearheaded the agency’s efforts to consolidate all of its procurement resources into a single website. To date, that has included transitioning the Federal Business Opportunities, or FedBizOpps, site; the reporting functions of the Federal Procurement Data System, or FPDS; the entity registration system from the legacy SAM.gov, and a host of other sites.

Those transitions have not been without challenges, which Zawatsky spoke to in an interview with Nextgov in 2020.

As she exits, Zawatsky will be headed to research firm Gartner, where she will take on the role of enterprise IT leadership partner.

Prior to her government experience, Zawatsky worked as an accountant, controller and contract specialist for various private sector firms in Maryland.

GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.