Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

ASCENSION is seeking an experienced Business Analyst to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Grant Programs Directorate in improving the planning, administration, oversight, and performance of federal grant programs.

The selected professional serves as a bridge between FEMA program personnel, grant-management stakeholders, data specialists, and operational teams. This person helps translate program needs into clear requirements, practical processes, reliable performance measures, standardized procedures, and decision-support products.

The ideal candidate understands how to examine a complex federal program, identify what is working and what is creating risk, and convert findings into actionable recommendations. This role is well suited for a detail-oriented, analytical professional who can work independently, organize incomplete or competing information, facilitate discussions across business lines, and develop clear products for both operational personnel and senior leadership.

Direct FEMA grants experience is highly valuable, but candidates with closely related experience in federal program administration, program evaluation, business-process improvement, audit response, performance management, or public-sector operations are also encouraged to apply.

Contractor Role Summary

The Business Analyst supports new grant-program planning, program evaluation, post-award effectiveness reviews, compliance and risk analysis, reporting requirements, audit-finding reviews, process improvement, and business-practice documentation.

The position helps FEMA determine:

• What information program personnel and leadership need.
• How program effectiveness should be measured.
• Where processes, controls, or reporting practices create risk.
• How grant-management activities can be standardized.
• What procedures, templates, dashboards, or job aids personnel need to perform their work consistently.
• How analytical findings affect future program planning and resource decisions.

The role supports PWS activities involving new program planning; development of logic models, performance measures, data-collection templates, and risk registers; assessment of program effectiveness; routine program, process, and risk analysis; reporting and dashboard requirements; review of audit findings; process improvement; and development of SOPs and job aids.

Primary Responsibilities

• ANALYZE program requirements, business operations, workflows, risks, controls, and stakeholder needs across FEMA grant programs.
• SUPPORT planning, development, coordination, and implementation activities for new or enhanced grant programs.
• ELICIT and document business, reporting, operational, and information requirements through interviews, working sessions, document reviews, and stakeholder meetings.
• DEVELOP program-evaluation materials, including logic models, performance measures, data-collection templates, evaluation frameworks, and risk registers.
• ASSESS program effectiveness using established performance measures and explain how findings may affect future program planning, policy, or resource decisions.
• CONDUCT routine program, process, compliance, internal-control, and risk analyses to identify concerns, gaps, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities.
• CLARIFY recurring information needs with FEMA personnel and end users across multiple business lines.
• TRANSLATE business needs into practical reporting designs, dashboard concepts, templates, trackers, process maps, and other visual decision-support products.
• REVIEW grant-management practices, financial and programmatic processes, audit findings, reporting requirements, and supporting documentation.
• RECOMMEND process improvements that increase efficiency, consistency, transparency, control effectiveness, and compliance.
• DOCUMENT current-state and future-state processes using workflows, process narratives, responsibility matrices, decision points, and control descriptions.
• CREATE and maintain standard operating procedures, job aids, desk guides, templates, checklists, and other operational resources.
• FACILITATE stakeholder discussions, requirements sessions, process-mapping workshops, working groups, and review meetings.
• PREPARE executive summaries, briefings, analytical reports, decision papers, findings, recommendations, and implementation materials.
• VALIDATE requirements and proposed solutions with program personnel before products are finalized.
• TRACK assumptions, requirements, risks, issues, decisions, action items, dependencies, and implementation progress.
• COORDINATE with program analysts, grants-management specialists, financial specialists, data analysts, SharePoint personnel, and project leadership.
• APPLY version control, document-management, quality-review, and records-management practices to assigned work products.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, grant-recipient, financial, and programmatic information in accordance with applicable FEMA and DHS requirements.