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ASCENSION is seeking an accomplished Executive Communications Specialist who can transform complex program, policy, operational, and management information into polished communications that senior Federal executives can quickly understand and use.

This position is well suited for a communications professional who combines the judgment and writing ability of an executive communications advisor with the production skills of a technical writer, editor, and presentation specialist. The successful candidate must be comfortable receiving information from multiple sources, identifying what matters most to senior leadership, organizing that information into a clear narrative, and producing executive-ready presentations, briefing packages, summaries, reports, correspondence, talking points, and other communications products.

The role is particularly important because HUD’s Executive Support Services BPA is intended to help senior leadership advance reorganization, succession planning, strategic initiatives, operational efficiency, and other executive-level priorities. HUD expects its executive support contractor to help leadership translate complex information into actionable insights and maintain effective communication with internal and external partners.

We are looking for someone who is an exceptional writer and editor, highly organized, detail-oriented, politically and organizationally aware, responsive under tight deadlines, and comfortable working with senior stakeholders. The ideal candidate does more than make documents look polished. They understand why a communication is being developed, what decision or action it must support, who will read it, and how the content should be structured for that audience.

Position Summary

The Executive Communications Specialist will support HUD executives and ASCENSION project leadership in developing, editing, coordinating, and quality-controlling high-visibility executive communications.

The position primarily supports:

Scope Area 9, Executive Briefings. HUD requires the contractor to prepare, organize, and deliver concise briefings tailored to executive leadership, synthesize complex information from portfolio activities, develop presentations and summaries, maintain content accuracy and relevance, support briefing sessions, respond to executive inquiries, and update materials as priorities evolve.

Scope Area 11, Executive Partnership Management Support. The contractor will support communications and relationship-building activities with internal stakeholders, external organizations, Government agencies, and private-sector partners, while also supporting partnership reports and recommendations.

Scope Area 13, Executive Administrative and Management Support. HUD requires support for correspondence, meetings, reports, executive communications, action-item follow-up, administrative process efficiency, and sensitive information.

The Executive Communications Specialist will therefore function as the content-development and document-quality hub between analysts, subject matter experts, project managers, executive support personnel, and HUD stakeholders. The specialist will take source materials that may be lengthy, technical, incomplete, or produced by multiple contributors and convert them into cohesive communications appropriate for senior-level review.

ASCENSION’s existing Documentation/Media Specialist category already includes responsibilities for designing presentations and collateral, reviewing and proofreading documents, drafting briefing papers and reports, preparing documents for approval and clearance, and coordinating document development with project teams. The proposed Executive Communications Specialist title appropriately focuses those capabilities on this HUD requirement.

What You Will Do

The Executive Communications Specialist is expected to perform activities such as:

• Develop executive briefings, presentation decks, executive summaries, talking points, briefing papers, decision-support materials, one-pagers, reports, memoranda, correspondence, and other leadership communications.
• Synthesize complex program, portfolio, policy, operational, acquisition, organizational, and performance information into concise executive-level narratives.
• Translate technical or detailed source information into clear language appropriate for senior executives and other non-technical audiences.
• Draft communications from outlines, meeting discussions, data, existing reports, background documentation, interviews, and subject matter expert input.
• Edit documents for clarity, organization, consistency, grammar, tone, executive readability, and alignment with established communication standards.
• Structure presentations so that key messages, decisions, risks, recommendations, and required actions are immediately apparent to executive audiences.
• Design professional PowerPoint presentations and briefing materials using clear information hierarchy, appropriate visual storytelling, and consistent formatting.
• Prepare executive correspondence and communications supporting internal and external stakeholder and partnership activities.
• Develop briefing books and approval packages by combining source documents, summaries, supporting materials, appendices, and presentation content into organized packages.
• Coordinate with project managers, analysts, subject matter experts, administrative personnel, and other contributors to collect and validate information required for executive products.
• Interview or consult with subject matter experts to clarify technical content, validate messages, resolve conflicting information, and identify key executive takeaways.
• Review source materials to identify information gaps, inconsistencies, unresolved comments, unsupported statements, or content requiring additional validation.
• Manage document versions, review cycles, comment resolution, approval workflows, and final publication packages.
• Incorporate Government comments and requested revisions into draft and final deliverables.
• Proofread all assigned deliverables before submission to identify formatting, grammatical, consistency, citation, pagination, and presentation errors.
• Apply HUD-approved templates, correspondence standards, branding conventions, writing standards, and document-control procedures.
• Format documents and presentations to ensure consistent fonts, headings, tables, graphics, page layouts, numbering, and visual hierarchy.
• Create simple charts, diagrams, process graphics, timelines, tables, and other visual elements that improve executive understanding.
• Ensure electronic documents and presentations conform to applicable Section 508 accessibility requirements.
• Maintain reusable templates, style guides, briefing formats, boilerplate language, graphics, and document-development resources.
• Track briefing deadlines, document reviews, executive comments, approval status, and outstanding communication actions.
• Support executive meetings and briefing sessions by preparing presentation materials, speaker notes, talking points, background packages, and meeting summaries.
• Capture meeting decisions, executive direction, action items, and follow-up requirements when communications support is required.
• Update briefing materials and executive communications rapidly as priorities, information, leadership direction, or portfolio conditions change.
• Protect sensitive, pre-decisional, procurement-sensitive, proprietary, and other information encountered during the performance of assigned responsibilities.
• Collaborate with project leadership to continuously improve templates, review processes, document workflows, quality-control practices, and executive communications standards.