Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a part-time Strategic Communications Transformation Subject Matter Expert to support a federal strategic communications modernization effort. This role is intended for a senior communications, marketing technology, analytics, and organizational capability-building professional who can advise a government communications directorate on how to evolve from a reactive public affairs function into a proactive, data-driven strategic communications organization.

The client’s stated need is to improve integrated communications management, analytics and reporting, social media monitoring, content innovation, and staff skills development. The requirement specifically calls for a centralized communications platform, campaign performance dashboards tied to business outcomes, AI-enabled content tools, social media monitoring, graphic/video design support, data visualization, and hands-on training for communications staff.

This role is important because the client is not only looking for tools; they need expert guidance on how to align people, processes, platforms, data, and training so the communications function can become more strategic, measurable, and self-sustaining.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Strategic Communications Transformation SME will provide senior advisory support to help assess the client’s current communications capability gaps and recommend practical solutions for modernizing workflows, content production, analytics, campaign management, and staff development. The ideal candidate will understand how federal communications teams operate and will be able to translate strategic communications goals into actionable tools, workflows, performance measures, dashboards, training curricula, and implementation recommendations.

The successful candidate should be a self-directed consultant who can work in an ambiguous environment, quickly understand the client’s operating model, identify process and technology gaps, and provide recommendations that are realistic for a federal/defense environment. This person should be comfortable advising senior stakeholders, facilitating working sessions, evaluating communications tools, drafting strategic recommendations, and helping build sustainable in-house capability through knowledge transfer.

Ascension’s SME III labor category requires a Bachelor’s/Master’s degree and 10 years of experience. The LCAT is designed to provide domain and business process expertise, develop business requirements, support process reengineering, solve process and system-related problems, facilitate collaboration, and align solutions to agency mission needs and technical strategy.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Assess current communications workflows, tools, content development processes, analytics practices, and skills gaps.
• Advise on an integrated communications management approach that supports multi-channel content creation, editorial calendaring, project management, and workflow coordination.
• Recommend practical toolsets or configurations for communications planning, social media monitoring, AI-assisted writing, graphic/video design, dashboarding, and campaign performance tracking.
• Develop business requirements, process maps, use cases, capability gap findings, and implementation recommendations.
• Support the design of dashboards that connect communication activities to measurable outcomes, such as audience engagement, behavioral adoption, campaign reach, and leadership decision support.
• Facilitate stakeholder discussions with communications staff, leadership, tool owners, data owners, and implementation partners.
• Translate communications objectives into measurable KPIs, reporting structures, and management routines.
• Review or develop strategic campaign management practices, editorial governance processes, content approval workflows, and reporting cadences.
• Support training needs assessment and curriculum design for data analytics for communicators, AI integration in public relations, advanced digital media production, social media best practices, and campaign management.
• Prepare briefing materials, recommendations, decision papers, capability assessments, and implementation roadmaps.
• Provide knowledge transfer so the client can sustain new processes, tools, and measurement practices after implementation.
• Identify implementation risks, including tool adoption risk, data quality risk, workflow disruption, security/compliance constraints, and skills gaps.
• Coordinate with Ascension leadership and project team members to ensure recommendations remain aligned with scope, contract expectations, and client mission needs.