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Ascension is seeking an IT Portfolio & Governance Lead to support the Military Sealift Command (MSC) Command, Control, Communications, and Computer Systems Directorate (N6) in strengthening C4/IT governance, investment planning, portfolio visibility, and mission-aligned decision support. MSC N6 is responsible for delivering and sustaining secure C4/IT capabilities across ashore and afloat environments, including approximately 71 C4/IT programs supporting nine ashore sites and 129 ships. The IT Portfolio & Governance Lead will help ensure C4/IT investments are planned, prioritized, evaluated, and governed in a way that supports mission execution, lifecycle planning, resource alignment, and compliance with DoD, DON, and MSC policy.

This role is ideal for a detail-oriented, analytically strong portfolio management professional who understands how IT governance, investment reviews, strategic roadmaps, program schedules, performance metrics, dashboards, risk analysis, and stakeholder coordination come together to support executive decision-making. The ideal candidate should be comfortable working in a structured federal environment, translating complex C4/IT investment data into clear recommendations, and helping leadership determine which projects should continue, accelerate, change, pause, or receive additional funding.

Summary of Contractor Role

The IT Portfolio & Governance Lead will support Task Area 2, C4/IT Portfolio Management, and related Task 1 and Task 5 governance coordination. The role will help MSC N6 conduct analysis, implement and mature portfolio management policies and processes, align C4/IT investment decisions with business and strategic goals, and support the investment management roadmap and review process. The PWS states that C4/IT Portfolio Management is intended to improve decision-making, reduce risk, maximize resources, increase stakeholder value, and create repeatable governance processes.

The contractor will maintain the C4/IT Investment Management Roadmap and investment inventory, help identify priorities, dependencies, strategic drivers, schedules, milestones, and stakeholder direction, and support quarterly updates to the roadmap and inventory. The role will also facilitate investment management reviews by preparing agendas, minutes, briefs, and analyses; reviewing and prioritizing programs and requirements; developing recommendations on funding and investment decisions; and helping establish criteria to evaluate alignment with mission needs, risk, performance, and expected benefits.

This position also supports PfM process improvement by helping develop policies, procedures, justification statements, requirements packages, metrics, benchmarks, and leadership dashboards using government-approved tools such as SharePoint, Tableau, and Dataverse.

Tools / Processes Needed to Perform the Role

The candidate should be able to use or quickly learn the following tools, systems, and processes:

Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Outlook; Microsoft Project or similar scheduling tools; SharePoint for collaboration, document management, version control, and dashboards; Tableau and/or Dataverse for dashboards and data-driven portfolio views; portfolio management tools and repositories used by MSC N6; performance metrics/KPI trackers; investment inventory and roadmap templates; risk registers and issue logs; requirements package templates; meeting agenda/minute templates; document review forms; action item trackers; and DoD/DON/MSC governance, PPBE, portfolio management, and C4/IT investment review processes.

Position’s Expected Day-to-Day / Recurring Activities

• Maintain the C4/IT investment inventory by tracking current and planned investments, strategic goals, dependencies, estimated schedules, milestones, policy drivers, and stakeholder-directed priorities.
• Update the MSC N6 strategic roadmap on a quarterly basis, including changes to investments, schedules, milestones, strategic guidance, and dependencies.
• Develop tailored roadmap views for leadership and stakeholder audiences, including views by investment type, supporting branch, modernization area, communication system, or other portfolio category.
• Coordinate with MSC N6 staff, program managers, internal departments, and external stakeholders to validate investment data and understand portfolio impacts.
• Monitor DoD, DON, and MSC policy changes that may affect existing investments, investment dependencies, roadmap priorities, or required governance actions.
• Facilitate roadmap review processes using document review forms, comment trackers, change request logs, decision records, and follow-up action tracking.
• Schedule and support formal review meetings to obtain approval of roadmap products and communicate approved roadmap content to stakeholders.
• Prepare C4/IT investment management review agendas, minutes, briefs, and supporting analyses on a quarterly or as-needed basis.
• Analyze C4/IT programs, projects, and requirements against the roadmap to support prioritization and investment recommendations.
• Prepare recommendations for capabilities to be funded and for investments that should continue, accelerate, be modified, or be suspended.
• Develop evaluation criteria for investment alignment using mission need, business value, performance, risk, and expected benefit factors.
• Conduct reviews and assessments of PfM strategies, governance structures, policies, procedures, and processes to improve portfolio maturity.
• Prepare justification statements and requirements package documentation to support NWCF, TWCF, RDT&E, OPN, and OMN resource decisions.
• Develop and maintain portfolio metrics, benchmarks, dashboards, and performance trackers for MSC leadership, portfolio managers, and program managers.
• Support acquisition and portfolio planning by preparing briefing packages, white papers, supporting analyses, risk assessments, and stakeholder decision materials.
• Coordinate across internal and external stakeholders to document risks, issues, decisions, proposed mitigations, and program progress.