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Ascension is seeking a Senior Business Intelligence and Strategic Communications Analytics Lead to support a federal strategic communications modernization effort for DFAS Corporate Communications. This role is intended for a senior analytics professional who can help transform communications operations from reactive reporting into proactive, data-driven decision support.

The ideal candidate will lead enterprise analytics, develop KPI frameworks, build executive dashboards, integrate multi-source data, and help connect communication activities to measurable business outcomes. This role is important because the customer has identified a major gap in performance measurement, workflow integration, modern communications tools, and data analytics skills. The requirement specifically calls for advanced analytics that can connect communication efforts to business outcomes and behavioral adoption rates, such as measuring whether a targeted campaign increases paperless enrollment.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Business Intelligence and Strategic Communications Analytics Lead will support DFAS Corporate Communications as it evolves into a proactive, data-driven strategic communications organization. The customer’s challenge is not simply producing communications products; it is building a sustainable measurement system that shows whether communications activities are changing behavior, improving adoption, reducing confusion, and supporting agency objectives.

This role requires a senior analyst who can work with communications leaders, program stakeholders, tool owners, and technical teams to define what should be measured, determine what data is available, identify gaps in data quality or process maturity, and design dashboards that translate campaign activity into decision-ready insights. The candidate should be comfortable working in an ambiguous environment where the analytics model, data sources, workflow process, and reporting expectations may need to be built or refined during execution.

The ideal candidate will be self-driven, detail-oriented, and comfortable advising senior stakeholders. They should be able to anticipate data and reporting problems, develop practical solutions, and explain findings clearly to non-technical audiences. The role will likely require strong use of Microsoft Power BI, Excel, SharePoint, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, data visualization tools, KPI development methods, requirements gathering, dashboard design, data quality review, and business process analysis.

Expected Day-to-Day Activities

• Lead analytics discovery sessions with communications, program, and business stakeholders to identify reporting needs, data sources, performance questions, and decision points.
• Develop KPI frameworks that measure campaign reach, engagement, workflow performance, audience behavior, adoption outcomes, and communication effectiveness.
• Build executive dashboards and recurring reports that connect communication activities to measurable business outcomes.
• Integrate multi-source data from communications platforms, campaign trackers, SharePoint lists, web/social analytics, survey results, internal business data, and program performance datasets.
• Translate business questions into analytic use cases, data models, measures, and visual reporting structures.
• Assess data quality, completeness, consistency, and availability across communication and business systems.
• Recommend practical approaches for improving data collection, reporting workflows, data governance, and performance measurement.
• Support development of dashboard requirements, reporting templates, data dictionaries, metric definitions, and standard operating procedures.
• Create visual narratives, briefing decks, and analytic summaries for senior leadership review.
• Identify trends, risks, gaps, and performance patterns that affect communications planning, campaign execution, and organizational decision-making.
• Collaborate with project managers, communications specialists, content creators, trainers, and technical staff to align analytics with the broader modernization solution.
• Support knowledge transfer by documenting analytic methods, training users on dashboard interpretation, and helping build sustainable in-house measurement capability.
• Advise on data visualization best practices, dashboard usability, reporting cadence, and executive-level communication of findings.