AT&T’s Tang Pham on Innovative Contracting & Attractiveness of BAAs

Tang Pham, AT&T vice president of defense, offers a uniquely strategic lens on the evolving GovCon landscape, one shaped by his extensive experience at the intersection of government services and commercial innovation. Throughout his career, Pham has focused on building scalable and differentiated solutions that go beyond traditional staffing models, recognizing that true mission impact is achieved through adaptability and continuous innovation.

At MANTECH, Pham led the charge in harnessing and scaling intellectual property across federal agencies, helping shift the industry away from purely contract-based services. Later, as Microsoft’s general manager for national security, he championed a new approach, adapting leading-edge commercial technologies to address the complex needs of government customers.

Now at AT&T, Pham is uniting these experiences to deliver integrated solutions that combine world-class technology investment with deep mission understanding. Pham recently sat down with ExecutiveBiz for his first Spotlight interview, sharing his perspective on the global defense landscape, the transformation of federal contracting through innovative vehicles and the renewed relevance of broad agency announcements, all within the broader context of AT&T’s commitment to enabling secure, intelligent and resilient mission outcomes.

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ExecutiveBiz: What’s your outlook on the global defense landscape and what significant changes or trends are you seeing? How are those factors moving the GovCon market?

Tang Pham: We’re witnessing a fundamental shift in how innovation flows between the commercial and defense sectors. Traditionally, the commercial market would develop new technologies and only later would those innovations make their way into government applications. However, we’re shifting that direction. Critical advancements in areas like cybersecurity and AI are increasingly born out of national security needs, then adapted for commercial use.

This evolution means product development is now driven by the highest security and mission-critical standards from the outset. Companies are building solutions robust enough for national defense, which then cascade into industries such as finance and healthcare. This is not only raising the bar for innovation but also redefining competition. Differentiation now comes from proprietary intellectual property, not just talent.

We also see this shift reflected in mergers and acquisitions across the GovCon space. Rather than acquiring services to expand contracts, leading firms are investing in capabilities and product companies with unique intellectual property. The focus is on empowering exceptional teams with exclusive capabilities, driving value through both people and differentiated solutions. The result is a GovCon market that’s increasingly outcome-focused, aligning closely with how AT&T approaches its own transformation.

EBiz: How is AT&T supporting the Army Transformation Initiative and results-based contracting?

Pham: The push for contracting reform in defense is driven by one key goal: accelerating innovation to deliver mission success. Over the past decade, mechanisms such as other transaction authorities, or OTAs, and software procurement reforms have emerged to enable this agility. These models allow the government to rapidly access and adapt commercial technologies, rather than building bespoke solutions from scratch.

AT&T, while known for our leadership in consumer and commercial networking, has invested deeply in technologies that are directly relevant to federal missions, spectrum, fiber, AI-driven threat detection and network modernization. My role is to bridge these world-class capabilities into the government space, collaborating closely with agencies to tailor solutions for their unique needs.

Whereas the old model was about connecting networks in silos, today’s expectation is intelligent, secure and resilient connectivity, integrating AI, automation and continuous modernization. AT&T brings an 80-percent commercial solution, then works side-by-side with our government partners to refine the final 20-percent for mission-specific requirements. This approach aligns perfectly with the Army Transformation Initiative’s results-based contracting, delivering not just services, but real, measurable outcomes.

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EBiz: Are there innovative contracting vehicles shaping the market?

Pham: OTAs stand out as a vital tool because they emphasize demonstration and accountability. They allow us to bring AT&T’s multi-billion-dollar investments in infrastructure directly into government use cases, prove tangible mission value and ensure flexibility for all parties.

We’re also seeing renewed interest in mechanisms such as broad agency announcements, or BAAs, which function as technology grants to address specific capability gaps. BAAs foster collaboration with a broader ecosystem, including universities and non-traditional partners, accelerating the pace of digital transformation within government.

While new contracting mechanisms will undoubtedly emerge, I believe we’ll also see established models gain fresh momentum in this environment of rapid technological change.

EBiz: What’s attractive about BAAs to a big technology firm like AT&T?

Pham: The value of BAAs is the flexibility they provide. BAAs allow us to put forward concepts, white papers and ideas—even if the commercial technology isn’t fully ready for the federal space. It gives us the ability to say, “here’s a strong concept, here’s how it could apply,” and submit that as a starting point.

What makes BAAs especially powerful is that they’re not necessarily about one vendor providing a turnkey solution. Instead, they allow multiple good ideas to come together—pulling the best capabilities from different companies and combining them into a stronger solution. That’s important because at AT&T, we don’t want to claim we can do everything. What we want to do is bring our strengths to the table and pair them with the strengths of others. That’s where real digital transformation and innovation happen.

Too often in traditional contracting, the best-of-breed players end up spread across different teams and you lose the ability to bring them together. BAAs create more flexibility by saying, “here’s the problem—show us what you can contribute toward solving it.” That model opens the door for collaboration and allows the government to assemble the best mix of capabilities rather than being locked into a single vendor’s full solution.

AT&T stands uniquely positioned to help federal agencies harness commercial innovation for mission success. By combining deep investments in secure, intelligent infrastructure with a partnership-driven approach, we’re delivering solutions that not only meet today’s demands but anticipate tomorrow’s challenges. Our strategy is simple: enable mission outcomes by leveraging the best of commercial technology, tailored for the highest standards of government.