Pricing. Negotiations. Subcontracts.
High-stakes subcontracts don’t leave room for on-the-job learning. Sauce Masters delivers subject matter expert level expertise: negotiations, pricing analysis, contract clause development, and supplier strategy directly to your team when you need it most. We are former Tier-1 (Prime Contractor) supply chain professionals. We know what DCMA looks for because we’ve built files that survived every CPSR audit.
Services We Offer
We work at the complex, high-value end of procurement — where cost, schedule, and compliance risk converge. For many clients that means FAR Part 15 subcontracts. For others it’s a high-stakes commercial award. The work is the same.
Subcontracts and Supply Chain Support
When your team doesn’t have the depth or bandwidth, we come in and do the work, not advise on it. We function as senior subcontracting resource(s) on your team: fact-finding supplier proposals, analyzing price and cost positions, developing negotiation objectives, and writing subcontracts for award. Most engagements are surge-oriented and discrete; we come in during startup or at a critical milestone, make high-impact contributions, then step back when the work is done. Experienced hands when you need them most.
Performance-Based Contracting
With extensive experience in performance-based contracting, we help you structure your subcontracts so that payment milestones, acceptance criteria, and incentives are tied to actual performance outcomes. This approach protects the schedule and gives you leverage after award if suppliers start slipping.
Proposal Support
Proposals don’t pause the day job, they stack on top of it. We plug into your team as senior supply chain professionals for the proposal cycle and help lead supplier outreach, teaming, solicitation development, negotiating and evaluating subcontractor proposals, and producing compliant documentation built to survive customer scrutiny. When the proposal is done, we’re done. No on-going commitments.
Skill Development & Coaching
Your team knows the basics. We help them handle the hard ones: complex negotiations, pricing positions under scrutiny, suppliers pushing back after award. Coaching is structured around real situations on active programs, not theory. The goal is a team that can operate at the high end independently.
Negotiation Strategy
We lead or co-lead supplier negotiations on your behalf, or build the strategy and positions your team executes. Our approach is grounded in FAR Part 15 pricing principles, not intuition. We come to the table with documented positions, fallback logic, and a clear picture of where the supplier’s proposal doesn’t hold up.
Subcontract Program Management
When a supplier is in trouble (schedule slipping, cost growing, etc.) we help diagnose the root cause and build a recovery strategy. We focus on what the contract requires the supplier to do, use that as the lever, and actively manage the supplier to the desired business outcome.
Substantiating Commerciality & Cost Accounting Standards Exceptions
Navigating regulatory challenges can be complex, but our team excels in substantiating commercial item determinations and securing exceptions from Cost Accounting Standards (CAS). We know what DCMA looks for and build defensible commercial item positions that hold up, including for items that are near-commercial but require a careful argument.
Government Audit Support
Sauce Masters provides expert support to clients facing audits from the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA). We help clients prepare for audits, address findings, and build the systems and records that prevent the same issues from recurring.
Not Every Problem Comes with a Recipe. Ours Don’t Either.
If your situation doesn’t fit neatly into the above, reach out anyway. Our best engagements started with a problem that didn’t have a label on it.
Some ways we can help:
- Fractional subcontracts leadership on active programs
- CPSR readiness assessment and remediation
- Subcontract policy and procedure development
- Complex sole-source procurements
- Custom engagements (contact us to discuss)
How It Works
Get In Touch
Reach out to schedule an initial conversation. No obligation.
Discovery Call
We want to understand the situation, the stakes, and where the risk sits.
Engagement Plan
We’ll recommend a focused scope and get to work. Fast.
Testimonials
