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Everything defense contractors need to know about SAM.gov — from entity registration and UEI assignment through NAICS code selection, advanced opportunity search techniques, contract data analysis, and annual renewal. The foundational platform for winning federal work.
Cabrillo Club
Editorial Team · February 25, 2026 · 18 min read
If you want to win federal contracts, everything starts with SAM.gov. There is no shortcut, no workaround, and no alternative. The System for Award Management is the federal government's official database for vendor registration, opportunity discovery, and contract data — and if your company is not registered, you are invisible to every contracting officer in the Department of Defense.
Yet for something so foundational, SAM.gov remains one of the most misunderstood platforms in government contracting. Defense contractors routinely lose weeks to registration errors, miss critical opportunities because they never set up saved searches, and leave money on the table because they treat SAM.gov as a checkbox instead of a strategic tool.
This guide walks through everything a defense contractor needs to know about SAM.gov — from initial entity registration and UEI assignment through advanced opportunity search techniques and contract data analysis. Whether you are a first-time registrant or a seasoned GovCon professional looking to get more out of the platform, this is the resource you have been looking for.
For a broader look at how SAM.gov fits into the full lifecycle of winning federal contracts, start with our pillar guide.
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SAM.gov (the System for Award Management) is the U.S. government's primary platform for managing the lifecycle of federal awards. It consolidates what used to be multiple separate systems — the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Federal Business Opportunities site (FedBizOpps) — into a single integrated platform.
For defense contractors specifically, SAM.gov serves three critical functions:
If you are serious about building a government contracting business — especially in the defense sector — SAM.gov is not optional infrastructure. It is the foundation everything else is built on.
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The registration process has improved significantly over the past few years, but it still requires careful attention to detail. Plan for the entire process to take between two and four weeks, with most of that time consumed by entity validation. Here is how it works.
Before you can do anything in SAM.gov, you need a Login.gov account. This is the federal government's shared authentication service, and it is used across dozens of government websites.
Go to Login.gov and create an account using your business email address. You will need to set up multi-factor authentication — Login.gov supports authentication apps, security keys, PIV/CAC cards, and phone-based verification. Choose an MFA method you can reliably access, because you will need it every time you log in.
A few important notes:
Log into SAM.gov and navigate to Entity Registration. Click "Get Started" and you will be guided through a series of screens that collect information about your business. The system will ask for:
Take your time with this section. Every field you fill out incorrectly is a potential delay during validation.
The UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric identifier that has replaced the old DUNS number as the government's primary way to identify your business. The good news is that you no longer need to go to a third-party provider to get one — the UEI is generated and assigned directly within SAM.gov as part of the registration process.
When you begin your entity registration, SAM.gov will check whether your organization already has a UEI. If you had a DUNS number previously, a UEI was automatically assigned to your entity during the transition. If you are registering for the first time, SAM.gov will create and assign a new UEI during the validation process.
Your UEI will appear on your entity registration record once validation is complete. Write it down and keep it accessible — you will need it for every proposal, subcontracting agreement, and grant application you submit.
This is where many defense contractors make their first strategic mistake. Your NAICS codes are not just bureaucratic classifications — they directly determine which small business set-aside opportunities you are eligible to compete for, because size standards are defined at the NAICS code level.
The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) uses six-digit codes to categorize business activities. SAM.gov lets you select multiple NAICS codes that represent the products and services your company provides. For defense contractors, common codes include:
You should select every NAICS code that legitimately describes your company's capabilities, but do not pad your profile with codes that do not apply. Contracting officers review NAICS selections, and listing codes where you have no actual experience or capability can raise red flags.
More importantly, understand that the Small Business Administration sets different size standards for different NAICS codes. A company might qualify as a small business under one NAICS code (say, $16.5 million average annual revenue for 541511) but not under another ($47 million for 541715). Your NAICS selections directly affect your eligibility for small business set-asides, 8(a) contracts, HUBZone awards, and other preference programs. For a deeper dive on this topic, see our guide on NAICS codes.
The Representations and Certifications section (formerly ORCA) is where you make legal assertions about your business — its size status, ownership, socioeconomic classifications, and compliance with various federal requirements.
For defense contractors, pay particular attention to:
These certifications are self-reported, but they carry legal weight. False certifications can result in contract termination, suspension, debarment, and criminal prosecution under the False Claims Act. Be accurate.
If your company handles Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) or expects to work on contracts requiring cybersecurity compliance, you should also be aware of CMMC compliance requirements that increasingly intersect with contractor registration and eligibility.
After you submit your registration, SAM.gov performs entity validation — a process that cross-references the information you provided against IRS records, state incorporation databases, and other authoritative sources.
This is where most delays happen. Common validation issues include:
If validation fails, SAM.gov will send you a notification explaining the issue. Fix the discrepancy and resubmit. Each validation cycle can take several business days, so errors here compound quickly.
The Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) provides support for SAM.gov registration issues. If you are stuck in a validation loop, contact them — they can often identify the specific mismatch causing the problem.
Once validation succeeds, your entity registration becomes active. You will receive a confirmation, and your company will appear in SAM.gov search results. Contracting officers can now find you and award you contracts.
But you are not done. SAM.gov registrations must be renewed annually. Set a calendar reminder for at least 60 days before your expiration date to begin the renewal process. If your registration lapses, you cannot receive new contract awards until it is reactivated — and reactivation requires going through the validation process again.
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Registration gets you in the door. Opportunity search is how you find the contracts worth competing for. SAM.gov's contract opportunities section (which absorbed the old FedBizOpps/beta.SAM functionality) is the authoritative source for federal solicitations.
From the SAM.gov homepage, click on "Contract Opportunities" in the main navigation. You will see a search interface with several filtering options:
This is one of the most powerful features in SAM.gov that most contractors never use. Saved searches let you define your criteria once and receive automatic email notifications whenever new opportunities matching those criteria are posted.
To create a saved search:
Create multiple saved searches for different aspects of your business. For example:
The contractors who consistently win are the ones who know about opportunities earliest. Saved searches give you that early-mover advantage. When you spot a promising opportunity, it should feed directly into your capture management process.
When you click into a specific opportunity, you will find several key sections:
For defense contracts specifically, look for references to:
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Beyond opportunity search, SAM.gov provides access to federal procurement data that is invaluable for business development. The Contract Data section lets you research historical awards, analyze spending patterns, and identify key players in your market.
Smart defense contractors use SAM.gov contract data as a foundational element of their capture strategy. Here is a practical workflow:
This kind of data-driven approach to capture management separates the contractors who win consistently from those who chase everything and win nothing. If you do not yet have a formal capture process, our guide to capture management is a good starting point.
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If your company qualifies as a small business under your primary NAICS codes, SAM.gov offers several features and pathways that are specifically designed to help you compete.
The federal government has a statutory goal of awarding at least 23% of prime contract dollars to small businesses. In practice, this means a significant portion of DoD contracts are set aside for small business competition only. Use SAM.gov's set-aside filters to find:
Your entity registration profile is, in many ways, your first impression with government buyers. Make sure your core competency descriptions are clear, specific, and keyword-rich. Contracting officers and prime contractors search SAM.gov to find capable vendors — a well-written profile increases your chances of being found.
SAM.gov includes a search tool specifically designed for finding small business contractors. Prime contractors are required to meet small business subcontracting goals, and many of them use SAM.gov's Dynamic Small Business Search to find potential subcontractors and teaming partners.
Make sure your profile is complete and your NAICS codes are accurate so that primes looking for companies like yours can actually find you. This is especially important if you are trying to build past performance through subcontracting work.
The Small Business Administration provides extensive resources for small businesses pursuing federal contracts. SBA's procurement assistance programs, Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs), and mentor-protege programs all work in concert with your SAM.gov registration to help you compete.
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Your SAM.gov registration is the prerequisite, but for many defense contractors, the real leverage comes from getting on the right contract vehicles. Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs), and multiple-award IDIQs are all listed and tracked through SAM.gov.
When you find an opportunity on SAM.gov that references a specific contract vehicle, make a note of it. If you see the same vehicle referenced repeatedly in your target market, that is a strong signal that you should be pursuing a position on that vehicle.
SAM.gov's contract data also lets you see which vehicles are generating the most task order activity. A vehicle with high task order volume and a manageable number of awardees is generally more valuable than one with hundreds of awardees competing for a trickle of work.
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After working with hundreds of defense contractors on their government contracting strategies, here are the mistakes we see most often.
Your SAM.gov registration must be renewed annually. If it lapses, you cannot receive new contract awards, and you may have trouble getting paid on existing contracts. Set a reminder at least 60 days before expiration and begin the renewal process early. The renewal requires you to review and confirm all of your entity information, representations, and certifications.
The number-one cause of registration delays is information that does not match between SAM.gov and IRS records. Before you start your registration, verify your legal business name, EIN, and address with the IRS. If anything has changed recently, update your IRS records first and allow time for those changes to propagate.
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See the PlatformSome contractors list only one or two NAICS codes, missing opportunities that fall under related codes. Others list dozens of codes that have nothing to do with their actual capabilities, which dilutes their profile and raises questions about credibility. The right approach is to list every NAICS code where you have genuine capability and relevant experience, and no more.
Many contractors only pay attention to formal solicitations — the combined synopsis/solicitations and full RFPs. This is a mistake. Sources Sought notices and Requests for Information are the government's way of doing market research before writing a solicitation. Responding to these notices lets you:
If you are only looking at formal solicitations, you are already behind the contractors who engaged during market research.
Manually checking SAM.gov once a week — or worse, once a month — means you are seeing opportunities days or weeks after they are posted. In a competitive environment where response windows are often 30 days or less, that delay can be fatal. Set up saved searches with daily email notifications for your key criteria. The few minutes it takes to set this up will pay dividends for years.
Too many contractors view SAM.gov registration as a one-time administrative task to check off a list. In reality, SAM.gov should be a tool you use regularly for opportunity identification, competitive intelligence, market analysis, and teaming partner discovery. The contractors who get the most out of SAM.gov are the ones who treat it as an integral part of their business development process, not a bureaucratic hurdle.
As your company grows and diversifies, your SAM.gov profile should evolve too. If you have added new capabilities, hired key personnel with new expertise, expanded into new NAICS areas, or crossed a small business size threshold, update your registration to reflect those changes. An outdated profile means missed opportunities.
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SAM.gov does not exist in isolation. It is one piece of a larger ecosystem of tools and databases that defense contractors should be using together.
FPDS.gov provides detailed data on federal contract actions. While SAM.gov includes contract data, FPDS offers deeper granularity — individual modifications, funding actions, and detailed obligation data. Use FPDS alongside SAM.gov for thorough competitive analysis.
USASpending.gov provides a broader view of federal spending, including grants, loans, and direct payments in addition to contracts. It is particularly useful for tracking spending trends at the agency and program level.
Many DoD agencies publish their own procurement forecasts — lists of anticipated solicitations for the upcoming fiscal year. Cross-reference these forecasts with SAM.gov opportunity postings to identify upcoming opportunities before they are formally announced.
If your company is pursuing Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) or Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contracts, those opportunities are posted on separate portals but still require an active SAM.gov registration.
The Federal Acquisition Regulation and its defense supplement (DFARS) govern the rules of federal procurement. Understanding these regulations helps you interpret SAM.gov opportunity listings and ensure your representations and certifications are accurate.
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Plan for two to four weeks from the time you start the process to when your registration becomes active. The entity validation step is the most time-consuming part, typically taking 7-10 business days if your information matches IRS records. If there are discrepancies, each correction and revalidation cycle adds additional business days. Start your registration well before you need it — do not wait until you find a solicitation with a fast-approaching deadline.
Yes, SAM.gov registration is completely free. There is no fee to register, renew, or use any of SAM.gov's features. Be cautious of third-party companies that charge fees to "help" with SAM.gov registration — while some provide legitimate consulting services, others are essentially charging for something you can do yourself at no cost. The Federal Service Desk (FSD.gov) provides free support for any registration issues.
The Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) replaced the DUNS number (issued by Dun and Bradstreet) as the government's standard business identifier in April 2022. If your company had a DUNS number, a UEI was automatically assigned to your entity during the transition. New registrants receive a UEI directly from SAM.gov — there is no need to obtain a DUNS number first. Your UEI is a 12-character alphanumeric code that you will use on all federal forms and proposals.
Yes. SAM.gov supports registration for sole proprietors, individual consultants, and other non-corporate entities. You will use your Social Security Number (SSN) instead of an EIN for entity validation if you do not have an EIN. However, if you are serious about pursuing government contracts, forming a legal business entity (LLC or corporation) and obtaining an EIN is strongly recommended. It provides liability protection, looks more professional, and simplifies the administrative aspects of federal contracting.
Subcontracting opportunities are not always posted as formal solicitations on SAM.gov. However, you can use SAM.gov's contract data to identify prime contractors who have won large contracts in your technical area, then reach out to them directly about subcontracting opportunities. Additionally, large prime contractors are required to submit Small Business Subcontracting Plans for contracts over certain thresholds — these plans include goals for small business subcontracting that create real demand for small business partners. Check our guide to teaming agreements for more on structuring these relationships.
If your registration expires, your entity status changes to inactive. You will not be able to receive new contract awards, and contracting officers will not be able to find you in active entity searches. Existing contracts are generally not immediately affected, but payment processing can be disrupted. To reactivate, you will need to log in, review and update your information, and go through the validation process again. This can take the same two to four weeks as a new registration. Avoid this situation entirely by renewing at least 30-60 days before your expiration date.
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SAM.gov is far more than a registration portal. It is a business intelligence platform, a lead generation tool, and a competitive research database — all in one. The defense contractors who treat it that way consistently outperform those who view it as just another compliance requirement.
Here is your action plan:
The federal defense market represents hundreds of billions of dollars in annual contract spending. SAM.gov is your gateway to that market. Use it strategically, and you will be positioned to capture your share.
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Need help managing your GovCon pipeline? Cabrillo Club helps defense contractors streamline their business development process — from SAM.gov opportunity identification through proposal submission and contract award. Our platform brings together the tools, data, and workflows that winning contractors rely on. Contact Cabrillo Club to learn how we can help you win more federal contracts.
Defense contractors using AI-powered proposals win more contracts with the same team. See how Genesis OS makes it happen.
See the Platform
Cabrillo Club
Editorial Team
Cabrillo Club is a defense technology company building AI-powered tools for government contractors. Our editorial team combines deep expertise in CMMC compliance, federal acquisition, and secure AI infrastructure to produce actionable guidance for the defense industrial base.
