Project Manager 2026P-0555
Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!
ASCENSION is seeking an experienced Project Manager – FEMA Grants Program Support to lead the planning, coordination, execution, and delivery of individual orders issued under the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Grant Programmatic, Administration, and Technical Services BPA.
The ideal candidate is an organized, responsive, and mission-focused project manager who understands how to translate broad federal program objectives into structured work plans, measurable milestones, compliant deliverables, and actionable reporting. This role supports FEMA’s Grants Programs Directorate through project planning, grant lifecycle coordination, performance tracking, stakeholder engagement, risk management, communications, training coordination, and transition activities.
The position is intended for a professional who works effectively in a changing federal environment, anticipates problems before they affect performance, and can manage several priorities with limited day-to-day direction. The successful candidate brings strong project controls, written communication, facilitation, and client-service skills, along with the judgment needed to distinguish contractor responsibilities from decisions reserved for Government personnel.
FEMA identifies the position as requiring a bachelor’s degree and at least five years of experience. The solicitation anticipates approximately 13,440 hours annually across this labor category, indicating that the BPA may require multiple order-level project managers rather than one individual performing all estimated hours.
Summary of the Contractor Role
The Project Manager serves as the primary contractor lead for an assigned FEMA order. The individual organizes and directs order activities from initiation through completion, establishes project controls, coordinates contractor personnel, and maintains visibility into schedule, scope, quality, risks, actions, and deliverables.
The role supports FEMA requirements involving:
- Order planning, milestones, grant lifecycle activities, risk, and compliance
- Status reporting, project trackers, process improvement, communications, and training coordination
- Executive briefings, events, meeting facilitation, and action-item management
- Order transition and knowledge transfer
- Deliverable planning, submission, review, and corrective action
- Contractor project management and quality control
Although the individual works closely with FEMA program personnel and the Contracting Officer’s Representative, this is a non-personal-services role. The Project Manager directs contractor personnel and performs within the authorized scope of the order; only the Contracting Officer may modify contractual scope, funding, schedule, or terms.
ASCENSION’s GSA Project Manager I labor category closely aligns with this role. It covers management of project quality, schedule, cost, and scope; client meetings and presentations; coordination of consulting staff; risk identification and mitigation; and project-management support across federal operational missions.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
The Project Manager performs activities such as the following:
- Lead assigned FEMA orders from kickoff and transition through execution, acceptance, and closeout.
- Develop order-level project management plans, work breakdown structures, schedules, milestone calendars, staffing plans, and deliverable registers.
- Translate performance requirements into clearly assigned tasks, deadlines, dependencies, review points, and acceptance criteria.
- Coordinate contractor staff supporting grant administration, program analysis, communications, reporting, training, financial review, data analysis, and administrative activities.
- Monitor scope, schedule, labor utilization, deliverable quality, risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, and corrective actions.
- Maintain project trackers, risk and issue registers, decision logs, action-item logs, staffing records, and performance dashboards.
- Facilitate kickoff meetings, status meetings, working sessions, stakeholder interviews, briefings, after-action reviews, and lessons-learned sessions.
- Prepare weekly, monthly, quarterly, and ad hoc status reports that clearly identify accomplishments, upcoming activities, decisions required, risks, and mitigation actions.
- Coordinate the development and timely submission of reports, briefings, training products, communications materials, data products, and other order deliverables.
- Review deliverables for completeness, accuracy, consistency, accessibility, traceability, and compliance before submission to FEMA.
- Identify emerging schedule, staffing, quality, and compliance risks and implement practical mitigation or recovery plans.
- Track Government comments and ensure that required revisions are completed, validated, and resubmitted by the established deadline.
- Support grant lifecycle activities, including planning, monitoring, reporting, documentation, stakeholder coordination, and administrative closeout.
- Manage contractor onboarding, task assignment, workload balancing, staff communication, and performance feedback.
- Coordinate training sessions, workshops, stakeholder events, briefing schedules, and related logistics when required by the order.
- Apply configuration management, document control, naming conventions, version history, and records-retention procedures.
- Maintain professional and responsive communication with FEMA program personnel, the order-level COR, the BPA Manager, and ASCENSION leadership.
- Escalate requests that may affect contractual scope, staffing, cost, schedule, or performance requirements to the BPA Manager and Contracting Officer.
- Support transition-in and transition-out activities, including access coordination, knowledge transfer, document inventories, open-action reconciliation, and continuity planning.
- Protect sensitive Government and program information in accordance with contract, system-access, records-management, and cybersecurity requirements.
- Perform other order-related project management duties within the authorized scope.
How to Apply
CLICK HERE TO APPLY & SUBMIT YOUR RESUMEJob Features
| Job Category | Project Management |
| MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS | Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. | Strong written communication skills, including the ability to prepare reports, briefings, meeting materials, and executive-level summaries. | Strong meeting facilitation, stakeholder coordination, presentation, and client-service skills. |
| REQUIRED SKILLS | At least five years of relevant project or program management experience. | Experience managing projects involving multiple workstreams, stakeholders, deadlines, and deliverables. | Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining project schedules, milestone plans, status reports, risk registers, issue logs, and action trackers. |
| TECHNICAL SKILLS | Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint. |
| DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS | Competitive candidates may also possess: | Project Management Professional certification. | Certified Associate in Project Management certification. | Agile, Scrum, Lean Six Sigma, Prosci, ITIL, or similar professional certification. | Experience supporting FEMA, DHS, or another federal grant-making or emergency-management organization. | Knowledge of the federal grants lifecycle, including planning, application support, monitoring, reporting, compliance, closeout, and audit readiness. | Experience managing task orders, call orders, indefinite-delivery vehicles, or blanket purchase agreements. | Experience with Federal Acquisition Regulation concepts, contractor–Government roles, non-personal-services boundaries, and COR communications. |Familiarity with FEMA preparedness, mitigation, recovery, resilience, or grants programs. | Experience coordinating training, technical assistance, stakeholder outreach, workshops, or large meetings. |
| SUITABILITY/SECURITY REQUIREMENT | The Solicitation does not identify a specific clearance level. |