Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a detail-oriented Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I to support the National Institutes of Health’s Government Purchase Card Program. This individual will conduct targeted transaction reviews and comprehensive purchase card file reviews to determine whether NIH Cardholders and Card Approving Officials are complying with federal acquisition requirements, HHS and NIH purchase card policies, internal controls, documentation standards, and records-retention requirements.

This position is suited for an early- to mid-career compliance, audit, acquisition, accounting, or financial operations professional who can objectively evaluate transaction documentation, recognize control weaknesses, communicate findings professionally, and maintain complete and defensible review records.

The selected candidate must be comfortable reviewing high volumes of financial and procurement information while applying defined business rules consistently. NIH processes approximately 27,000 purchase card transactions each month and requires risk-based review activities across approximately 950 Cardholders and 500 Card Approving Officials located throughout 30 Institutes and Centers.

This is a non-key, full-time production role, not the contract’s Senior Consultant or Senior Manager/Director position. The analyst will work under senior personnel who retain responsibility for review methodology, quality control, escalation, and final approval.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I will support the day-to-day execution of NIH Government Purchase Card compliance reviews. The analyst will review transactional data, identify purchases requiring further examination, request and assess supporting documentation, document instances of noncompliance, monitor correspondence, draft standardized findings, and conduct follow-up reviews when corrective action must be verified.

The role requires someone who is organized, impartial, discreet, and capable of managing multiple reviews at different stages. The ideal candidate does not merely confirm whether a receipt is present. The candidate evaluates whether the complete purchase file supports the transaction, whether the individual possessed the proper authority, whether acquisition and acceptance requirements were followed, and whether the documentation establishes a clear and defensible audit trail.

The analyst will use NIH-provided business rules and applicable federal purchase card requirements while also recognizing transaction trends or risk indicators that warrant further review. Applicable authorities include the Federal Acquisition Regulation, GSA SmartPay requirements, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, HHS purchase card guidance, and the NIH Purchase Card Supplement.

The work is primarily performed remotely from a secure corporate or approved satellite office. In-person attendance may occasionally be required at NIH’s Rockledge II location in Bethesda, Maryland.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I will:

• Review purchase card transaction data using established NIH business rules, risk indicators, transaction trends, and approved review procedures.
• Analyze targeted transactions to identify unusual, high-risk, unsupported, potentially split, prohibited, or otherwise noncompliant purchases.
• Select transactions for further examination based on documented criteria and senior reviewer direction.
• Reconcile transaction files and confirm that data received from NIH or applicable bank and financial systems are complete and suitable for analysis.
• Request receipts, invoices, purchase authorizations, approvals, evidence of receipt and acceptance, and other supporting documentation from Cardholders and Card Approving Officials.
• Evaluate supporting documentation for sufficiency, accuracy, consistency, timeliness, and compliance with applicable purchase card requirements.
• Verify delegation-of-authority documentation and determine whether transactions were completed and approved by properly authorized personnel.
• Determine whether the purchase process, procurement requirements, receipt and acceptance procedures, and records-retention standards were followed.
• Document review procedures, evidence examined, conclusions reached, and instances of actual or potential noncompliance in standardized working papers.
• Draft clear, factual, and supportable findings, recommendations, correspondence, and standardized review reports.
• Monitor the NIH Purchase Card Compliance Inbox and maintain timely correspondence with Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators, and Government program personnel.
• Track requested documentation, due dates, review status, outstanding actions, Government approvals, and report issuance deadlines.
• Support completion of targeted-review reports within 45 calendar days after receipt of all requested documentation.
• Conduct risk-based Government Purchase Card file reviews covering statistically meaningful samples of Cardholder transactions.
• Apply the NIH Micro-Purchase Threshold File Documentation List, NIH Purchase Card Supplement, and other applicable review instruments.
• Participate in entrance conferences, exit briefings, Institute-level debriefings, and review-status meetings.
• Explain preliminary findings professionally and objectively while avoiding unsupported conclusions or accusatory language.
• Prepare Institute-level summaries showing recurring findings, trends, control weaknesses, and opportunities for corrective action.
• Perform follow-up reviews to determine whether Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, or Institute personnel implemented required corrective actions.
• Identify recurring documentation deficiencies, unusual purchasing patterns, internal-control weaknesses, or emerging compliance risks for escalation to senior reviewers.
• Support special reviews, convenience-check analyses, disputed-transaction research, data calls, and other purchase card inquiries.
• Contribute review statistics, outstanding issues, findings status, and supporting links for monthly and annual contract reports.
• Maintain sensitive transaction information and review documentation only within approved Government or secure contractor systems.
• Protect nonpublic Government information and report suspected security or privacy incidents through the required escalation process.
• Complete required HHS and NIH information security, privacy, records-management, and role-based training.
• Follow Ascension’s ISO 9001:2015 quality procedures, including standardized templates, independent review, document control, version control, and corrective-action tracking.