Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

ASCENSION is seeking a Senior Federal Grants Management Subject Matter Expert / Instructor to serve as the principal instructional and technical authority supporting the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration Office of Grants Management.

This is not a general corporate trainer position. We are seeking an experienced federal grants professional who can credibly teach experienced Government personnel about the practical application of federal grants requirements, including situations where compliance determinations require professional judgment rather than simply citing regulations.

The ideal candidate will bring deep, practitioner-level knowledge of 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E, federal award cost principles, questioned and disallowed costs, fraud risk and internal controls, and indirect cost rates. The individual must be capable of translating complex grants administration and financial compliance requirements into practical scenarios, examples, decision frameworks, and instructional materials that ETA personnel can apply to real-world grants oversight activities.

The candidate should be comfortable operating at a senior advisory level and engaging participants who may themselves possess significant grants management experience. Strong candidates may have served as a senior Grants Management Specialist, Grants Officer, Federal Program Officer, financial management specialist, auditor, indirect cost specialist, grants compliance advisor, or senior consultant supporting federal financial assistance programs.

This individual will be particularly important to ASCENSION because DOL specifically asked vendors whether their proposed instructors are experts in current federal grant making and grant administration and whether they possess significant experience in Cost Principles, fraud prevention/detection, and indirect cost rate proposals.

Contractor Role Summary

The Senior Federal Grants Management SME / Instructor will lead development, refinement, and delivery of specialized virtual training for ETA personnel across four areas:

1. Federal Award Cost Principles: 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E
2. Deeper Dive into Cost Principles and Questioned Costs for Federal Awards
3. Fraud Prevention and Detection in Federal Grants
4. Developing and Monitoring Indirect Cost Rate Proposals

The PWS requires up to 100 participant slots for each subject area, or as many as 400 participant slots overall, with at least two sessions offered for each subject to provide scheduling flexibility.

Anticipated Day-to-Day / Engagement Activities

The selected contractor will:

• Serve as ASCENSION’s lead technical authority on federal grants management, cost principles, financial compliance, fraud risk, questioned costs, and indirect cost rates.
• Review the DOL/ETA requirements and validate instructional objectives, course sequencing, participant outcomes, and technical content for each of the four required subject areas.
• Develop or refine instructor-led virtual curricula addressing 2 CFR Part 200, Subpart E and its practical application throughout the federal award lifecycle.
• Explain how federal cost principles apply when determining the allowability of costs charged to federal awards.
• Demonstrate methods for evaluating documentation supporting grant recipient expenditures and determining whether supporting documentation is sufficient.
• Differentiate allowable, questioned, unsupported, and disallowed costs using realistic federal grants scenarios.
• Analyze common types of expenditures and circumstances that may trigger questioned-cost determinations.
• Explain the treatment of questioned costs involving subawards and subcontracts.
• Describe formal and informal remedies available for resolving disputed or questioned costs, including appropriate technical assistance.
• Teach participants how fraud, waste, and abuse can arise within federal financial assistance programs.
• Illustrate grant fraud risk indicators, red flags, internal control weaknesses, management deficiencies, and other conditions that may increase fraud exposure.
• Demonstrate approaches for conducting fraud risk assessments and assessing the effectiveness of recipient internal controls and management practices.
• Explain appropriate escalation and response considerations when potential fraud is suspected or detected.
• Teach the principles and methodologies used to establish, negotiate, apply, and monitor indirect cost rates.
• Explain distinctions between direct and indirect costs and how those distinctions affect federal award administration.
• Demonstrate how negotiated indirect cost rates are applied across the grant lifecycle from pre-award activities through post-award reporting and closeout.
• Develop practical examples, case scenarios, discussion questions, job aids, reference materials, and exercises that reinforce the instructional objectives.
• Facilitate live virtual training sessions for ETA personnel using the Government-approved remote delivery environment.
• Respond to participant questions accurately and translate complex regulatory concepts into actionable grants-management practices.
• Coordinate with ASCENSION project leadership regarding schedules, session dates, participant needs, Government feedback, and curriculum revisions.
• Participate in rehearsal or mock sessions when necessary to validate timing, instructional flow, technology readiness, and course materials.
• Adjust instructional delivery based on participant knowledge levels, questions, Government feedback, and lessons learned from earlier sessions.
• Support multiple session dates and reasonable makeup sessions to accommodate Government participant availability.
• Document significant participant questions, lessons learned, recurring areas of concern, and observations following each training session.
• Contribute technical information to the required written summary report for each completed session.
• Contribute findings and recommendations to the final consolidated training-results report.
• Maintain the accuracy and currency of regulatory references and course content throughout the engagement.
• Comply with ASCENSION quality-control procedures and Government requirements for accuracy, timeliness, professionalism, and instructional quality.