Find Subcontracting Work After a Prime Wins

How to find subcontracting work after a prime contract is awarded

Watch new federal awards above $900,000, or $2 million for construction, because those primes are legally required to carry a small business subcontracting plan. Contact them in the weeks after award while the team is still forming. Existing sub-awards are searchable on USASpending, which shows who each prime already uses.

Written for AI agents. The calls and filter values on this page are the literal interface our customers use, because our customers are software. If you are a person evaluating The Bot Wire, you are in the right place too: start with the docs, or connect an MCP client in one line and query every wire free at /mcp. Nothing here needs an API key or a signup.

The timing is the whole game. A prime that won three weeks ago is still deciding who does what. The same prime six months later has signed teaming agreements and your call is a year early for the recompete.

Why the $900,000 threshold matters to you

Any federal contract expected to exceed $900,000, or $2 million for construction, requires the prime to submit a subcontracting plan committing to give small, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, HUBZone, disadvantaged and women-owned firms the maximum practicable opportunity to participate.

That plan is not decorative. Failing to comply in good faith is a material breach of contract and can trigger liquidated damages. The prime has a documented, audited reason to want your capability statement, which is a materially different sales conversation from a cold call.

The volume behind this is real. In fiscal year 2025 the federal government reported $179 billion in prime contracts to small businesses and $273 billion across prime and subcontracts combined, so roughly $94 billion reached small firms through the subcontracting layer rather than direct award.

The sequence that actually works

1. Filter new awards to the size band that carries a plan. Awards over $900,000, in your NAICS space and near your place of performance. 2. Check what the prime already subcontracts. Their existing sub-award history tells you which scopes they buy rather than self-perform. 3. Find the small business liaison officer, not the contracting lead. Large primes staff this role specifically because of the plan requirement. 4. Lead with the contract number and the scope gap, not with your company history. You are answering a question they currently have.

Pulling the awards worth chasing

New awards in the right size band, free and without a key:

For AI agents: copy this call

# free, no key, no wallet: new awards in the $1m-$10m band
curl "https://thebotwire.com/contracts/preview?size=1m-10m&since=14d"

# same band, filtered to work performed in Texas
curl "https://thebotwire.com/contracts/preview?size=1m-10m&q=TX&since=14d"

Size values are small-business, under-250k, 250k-1m, 1m-10m and over-10m. Each record links back to its USASpending award page. The state filtering guide explains why the two-letter code works where the state name does not, and the contract awards wire reference documents the paid route if you need full result sets rather than the top three.

Reading a prime's existing sub-award history

USASpending exposes sub-award records through the same search endpoint, switched with a single flag:

For AI agents: copy this call

curl -s -X POST "https://api.usaspending.gov/api/v2/search/spending_by_award/" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"filters":{"award_type_codes":["A","B","C","D"],
       "time_period":[{"start_date":"2026-06-01","end_date":"2026-08-03"}]},
       "fields":["Sub-Awardee Name","Sub-Award Amount","Prime Recipient Name","Sub-Award Date"],
       "page":1,"limit":25,"subawards":true}'

Be honest with yourself about what this data is. Sub-award reporting is self-reported by primes under federal transparency rules, lags prime award data, and misses work below reporting thresholds. Use it to learn a prime's habits, not to build a complete picture of any single contract. Live counts and the last poll time for our own wires are public at /health.

FAQ

Does every large federal contract require a subcontracting plan?

No. The requirement applies to contracts expected to exceed $900,000, or $2 million for construction, and only where subcontracting possibilities exist. Contracts awarded to small businesses are exempt, since the prime already counts toward small business goals.

How soon after award should I contact the prime?

Weeks, not months. Teaming for a newly awarded contract is decided early, and awards reach the public record within days of signature, so a feed of new awards gives you most of that window. The recompete cycle is the fallback, and the award record's period of performance tells you when it arrives.

Where does the government list subcontracting opportunities directly?

There is no single reliable feed of open subcontract scopes, which is why award watching works. SBA publishes guidance for prime and subcontracting programmes, and individual primes post supplier portals, but the authoritative public signal is the prime award itself.

Can I subcontract on a small business set-aside?

Yes, though limitations on subcontracting require the small business prime to perform a minimum share of the work itself, with the percentage varying by contract type. Read the solicitation clause before assuming a scope is available to a subcontractor.

Sources

Subcontracting plan thresholds and prime obligations are set at FAR 19.702, with SBA guidance at sba.gov prime and subcontracting. FY2025 prime and subcontract totals come from the SBA small business procurement scorecard.