Guest Post: The Top Federal Opportunities for FY2026 in the Government Contracting Market

Article contributed by Ashley Sanderson and Kathleen Sievers, Guest Contributors, Deltek

The beginning of the new fiscal year is always an exciting time for federal government contractors. It’s a chance to make a fresh start, to focus on growth, and to pursue some of the numerous, lucrative business opportunities offered by various federal government agencies.

Below, we have assembled a high-level overview of those top opportunities, along with analysis that may help businesses get a head start on one or more of the top federal opportunities at the start of FY2026.

Government Contracting Spending Trends Across the Top Opportunities

Each year, Deltek’s expert analysts compile a series of webinars and corresponding reports that cover the key opportunities to do business with the government in the upcoming fiscal year. Deltek’s research has found that while federal government spending has been altered by the new administration’s policies and executive orders, there are still high-value opportunities to be won.

Consolidation has continued to be a major factor in the federal government, particularly in the cases of government-wide contracts such as those managed by the General Services Administration (GSA). As competition for some of the most high-dollar contracts increases, it will become more and more important for government sellers to research and properly identify the best-fit opportunities.

To help government contractors identify those best-fit opportunities and use them as a bellwether for where the contracting market is headed, the Top Opportunities reports and webinars from Deltek’s experts offer guidance by leveraging data drawn from Deltek’s GovWin IQ database of federal government contracting opportunities. The list of opportunities considered fall into one of two categories: unrestricted or small business set-aside. Each opportunity has estimated solicitation dates in FY2026 and is selected by Deltek’s team of expert analysts based on either the total expected contract value or the anticipated ceiling value.

Unrestricted Federal Opportunities for 2026

Unrestricted federal opportunities are available to the broadest group of contractors. These federal opportunities may last for multiple years, be available to multiple providers of goods and services, and be worth a significant amount of potential contracting revenue. It is worth paying attention to unrestricted federal opportunities even if your business does not plan on competing to get on the contract. The highest-profile federal procurements often go a long way towards shaping the broader federal government contracting market. Subcontracting and teaming opportunities abound on this list and are a great option if you cannot prime.

While each of the top 20 unrestricted opportunities are worth billions of dollars, our research identified the top overall contract vehicle as the VA’s Community Care Next Generation (CCN Next Gen) contract, which plans to further streamline and enhance community care processes and services for veterans.

Federal Set-Aside Opportunities for 2026

The federal government aims to set aside a significant amount of its overall prime contracting dollars for businesses who fit into one of several set-aside categories. Just because a company fits into the category of a small business, or is qualified as an 8(a) business, does not mean they aren’t able to get in on some of the major contracting opportunities. The top 10 federal set-aside opportunities for FY2026 total tens of billions of dollars in value, are associated with several different federal agencies, and are tied to a variety of industry categories, with many of them owned or planned to be operated by the GSA.

Deltek’s research identified a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) contract vehicle as the top overall federal set-aside opportunity for FY2026: Solutions for Intelligence Analysis (SIA 3). This is an established vehicle, originally awarded under both full and open and small business competition; however this FY2026 opportunity is an on-ramp, exclusive to small businesses.

Next Steps for Government Contractors

After identifying the top opportunities available in federal government contracting, the next step is information gathering. Even if your A/E/C firm isn’t a perfect fit for many or any of these opportunities, it’s still crucial to know where the federal government is planning on spending in FY2026, and how policy changes and budget shifts are reshaping procurement.

If your company is targeting these unrestricted or set-aside federal opportunities, or just preparing its contracting strategy for the year ahead, you may want to arm yourself with spending trends within your target markets, procurement patterns anticipated for the coming year, and detailed intelligence to help you build a strong pipeline.