Kimberly Ziegler, a senior procurement analyst at the Department of Defense’s DARS, short for Defense Acquisition Regulations System, has been named as acting director of the DOD unit for six months, effective Feb. 18.
A memo from John Tenaglia, principal director of the DOD’s Defense Pricing, Contracting and Acquisition Policy, announced the appointment for the acting director role that has been filled on a rotating basis since the former incumbent, Linda Neilson, retired in August 2023. Tenaglia said in his memo digitally signed Feb. 13 that he will continue a competitive hiring process for a permanent DARS director.
Ziegler’s Career History
Ziegler’s appointment in an interim capacity is her second, with Tenaglia first naming her acting DARS director for six months in February 2024. In August 2024, the acting director post was assigned to Dawn Messer, DARS deputy director, a role that she reassumed following Ziegler’s new appointment, Tenaglia said in his recent memo.
Ziegler in her interim capacity chairs the Defense Acquisition Regulations Council and is in charge of the acquisition rules and guidelines for the DOD’S procurement of goods and services for warfighter support. Her tasks as DAR Council head cover the development and enforcement of the Federal Acquisition Regulation the Defense FAR Supplement, as well as support functions to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council.
Before her DARS stint, Ziegler served for over two years as chief of the National Guard Bureau’s Acquisition Policy and Oversight Division and more than three years as a senior procurement analyst in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army.
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