Blog · Acquisition Workforce

DIU's Bet on Acquisition Reform Runs Through Contracting Officers, Not Regulations

Chris A. Grable · August 7, 2026

Companies that pitch commercial solutions openings and other transaction agreements often hit the same wall. The authority exists, the policy permits it, and nobody in the contracting office has actually used it. The Defense Innovation Unit is working on that problem through people rather than paper.

How the program works

The Immersive Commercial Acquisition Program dates to May 2022. Participants are contracting professionals at about the GS-13 or GS-14 grade, or the military equivalent, who combine classroom work with hands-on execution of prototype projects. The curriculum covers DIU's core instruments: commercial solutions openings and other transaction authority.

DIU runs the program with the Warfighting Acquisition University. Applications for the next cohort were open in August, according to Cherissa Tamayori, DIU's director of acquisition. (Update, 31 October 2026: DIU's program page now shows fiscal 2027 applications closed.)

Why the effect reaches past DIU

Graduates do not stay at DIU. They return to buying commands across DOW able to conduct commercial solutions openings and award other transaction agreements. Each cohort adds contracting officers who have done it before, in offices that may not have had one.

What this means for companies

Most reform effort goes into writing rules. This program addresses the step after that, where a contracting officer has to apply the rule. For industry, the practical question when approaching a buying command is not only whether a fast pathway is allowed, but whether someone in that office has run one.

UDC recommends that companies pursuing commercial solutions openings or other transactions ask early which contracting staff in the target office have executed one, and shape their approach around that experience or its absence.