Project Manager I / Contract Quality Control Manager 2026P-0589
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ASCENSION is seeking an experienced, highly organized Project Manager I / Contract Quality Control Manager to provide fractional corporate oversight for a Department of the Air Force operations support contract supporting the 20th Attack Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri.
This individual will serve as ASCENSION’s management and quality-control focal point for contract performance. The successful candidate will help ensure that personnel remain qualified and available, required services are performed accurately and on schedule, contractual obligations are tracked, performance problems are identified early, and corrective actions are implemented before they affect Air Force operations.
The ideal candidate is a disciplined federal contractor professional who combines project management, contract administration, quality assurance, risk management, and personnel coordination skills. We are seeking someone who is comfortable operating independently, communicating with Government and corporate leadership, monitoring a small but mission-critical workforce, and escalating problems before they become performance failures.
This role is especially well suited for a professional who has supported Department of Defense, Air Force, intelligence, security, law enforcement, or other mission-critical federal programs and understands that effective contract management depends as much on disciplined follow-through, documentation, staffing continuity, and quality control as it does on project scheduling.
The individual must be able to work effectively in an environment where operational requirements can change quickly and where continuity of service is essential to the customer’s mission.
Position Summary
The Project Manager I / Contract Quality Control Manager will provide corporate project management, contract administration, quality assurance, personnel oversight, risk management, and performance monitoring for ASCENSION’s support of the 20th Attack Squadron.
The Air Force requires the contractor to coordinate the activities necessary to execute the requirement; manage the timeliness, completeness, and quality of problem identification; provide corrective action plans; identify issues promptly; effectively manage subcontractors when used; establish clear lines of authority and responsibility; and maintain customer satisfaction and professional conduct.
The position will therefore function as a bridge among ASCENSION executive leadership, assigned contractor personnel, subcontractors if applicable, and Government contract stakeholders.
Quality oversight is particularly important. The draft PWS requires the contractor to establish and maintain a quality program designed to identify and prevent service defects before performance becomes unacceptable and requires submission of the contractor’s Quality Control Plan within 15 days of award.
This position will develop and maintain the management controls necessary to satisfy those obligations while ensuring that the onsite resource supporting the 20 ATKS remains focused on mission delivery.
ASCENSION’s existing GSA labor category for Project Manager I requires a bachelor’s degree and at least five years of relevant experience and encompasses management of project quality, schedule, cost, scope, risks, client interactions, meetings, contractor activities, and deliverables.
Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities
The Project Manager I / Contract Quality Control Manager will:
- Manage ASCENSION’s overall contractual, staffing, schedule, performance, and quality oversight activities for the 20 ATKS Operations Support Services effort.
- Establish the contract management structure, responsibilities, escalation procedures, communication protocols, performance controls, and corporate oversight processes required at contract startup.
- Develop ASCENSION’s contract-specific Quality Control Plan and coordinate its submission within the required 15-day post-award timeframe.
- Monitor contract performance against PWS requirements, deliverables, performance standards, due dates, staffing requirements, and Government expectations.
- Review contractor-generated work products and recurring deliverables for completeness, accuracy, timeliness, professionalism, and contractual compliance before or following Government delivery, as appropriate.
- Maintain a contract compliance tracker identifying requirements, deliverables, responsible parties, due dates, completion status, and outstanding actions.
- Maintain a contract risk and issue register addressing operational, staffing, quality, schedule, security, subcontractor, and customer-service risks.
- Identify emerging performance problems before they affect mission delivery and develop mitigation strategies in coordination with ASCENSION leadership and assigned personnel.
- Coordinate corrective action plans when deficiencies, missed requirements, performance concerns, or quality issues are identified.
- Track corrective actions through completion and verify that corrective measures address the underlying cause rather than only the immediate symptom.
- Monitor recurring Government performance requirements, including monthly reports and other required submissions.
- Confirm that recurring contract deliverables are prepared and submitted within required timeframes.
- Coordinate with the assigned contractor employee to obtain status information required for Government reporting and weekly 20 ATKS Commander staff-meeting updates.
- Monitor staffing continuity, attendance, employee availability, training currency, qualifications, and any circumstances that could affect contract performance.
- Coordinate replacement staffing when assigned personnel resign, become unavailable, lose required qualifications, or otherwise cannot continue performance.
- Develop staffing contingency and succession measures to minimize disruption to mission-essential support.
- Support recruiting and candidate evaluation activities when replacement or surge personnel are required.
- Verify candidate qualifications against PWS education, experience, security, and technical requirements before presenting personnel for assignment.
- Coordinate personnel-change notifications and supporting documentation required for Government approval.
- Manage subcontractor activities, if subcontractors are used, including work allocation, deliverables, performance, communication, and corrective actions.
- Monitor potential organizational conflicts of interest associated with subcontractor work assignments.
- Facilitate communications among ASCENSION leadership, contractor personnel, subcontractors, and Government stakeholders.
- Prepare project status updates, management briefings, action-item trackers, risk summaries, quality reports, staffing reports, and corrective-action documentation.
- Conduct periodic quality reviews of contract records and project documentation.
- Verify that contract personnel maintain required training, administrative documentation, security-related requirements, and professional standards.
- Support contract phase-in activities and ensure operational readiness within the PWS’s 30-calendar-day maximum transition period.
- Coordinate phase-out and knowledge-transfer activities when necessary to prevent disruption of mission support.
- Maintain appropriate contract-management records and documentation in accordance with contract requirements and ASCENSION procedures.
- Escalate significant contractual, staffing, customer, quality, security, or performance risks to ASCENSION executive leadership promptly.
- Advise ASCENSION leadership regarding contract performance, resource needs, emerging risks, customer concerns, and recommended management actions.
- Apply ASCENSION’s ISO 9001-aligned quality management principles to promote documented, repeatable, measurable, and continuously improving contract-management practices.
How to Apply
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| Job Category | Project Management |
| MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS | Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in Business Administration, Project Management, Management, Public Administration, Information Technology, Operations Management, or a related discipline. | Ability to develop and maintain project trackers, compliance matrices, risk registers, corrective-action logs, quality-control documentation, schedules, and executive status reports. | Strong written and verbal communication skills. | Strong analytical, organizational, documentation, and problem-solving capabilities. |
| REQUIRED SKILLS | Minimum five years of progressively responsible project, program, contract, operations, or quality management experience. | Demonstrated experience managing project quality, schedules, risks, issues, deliverables, personnel, or customer requirements. | Demonstrated experience identifying project or contract risks and coordinating mitigation or corrective actions. |
| TECHNICAL SKILLS | Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint. |
| DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS | Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. | Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Certified Federal Contracts Manager (CFCM), or comparable credential. | Five or more years supporting DoD, Department of the Air Force, intelligence, national security, law enforcement, or classified federal programs. | Experience serving as a Contractor Program Manager, Project Manager, Deputy PM, Contract Manager, Site Lead, Quality Control Manager, or Quality Assurance Manager. | Experience developing or administering Quality Control Plans, Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan response procedures, corrective action plans, root-cause analyses, or ISO 9001-based quality processes. | Knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Department of Defense contracting practices. | Experience supporting a Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer's Representative, Program Manager, or Government technical lead. | Experience managing contract transition, staffing replacement, recruiting, onboarding, offboarding, and succession planning. | Experience overseeing personnel supporting classified facilities or Sensitive Compartmented Information environments. | Experience using Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Project, Power BI, ServiceNow, or comparable project/performance management tools. | Previous experience supporting small federal professional-services contracts where the PM provides fractional corporate oversight rather than serving as a dedicated onsite FTE. |
| SUITABILITY/SECURITY REQUIREMENT | U.S. citizenship required. | Must be capable of satisfying all applicable Department of Defense and Whiteman AFB installation-access requirements. | Must be able to comply with requirements contained in the applicable DD Form 254. | Active Secret clearance or higher is strongly preferred for recruiting purposes given the classified operating environment. | An active Top Secret/SCI clearance is preferred but should not be represented as mandatory for this corporate PM position unless the PM will access SCI, enter the SCIF in an operational capacity, or perform Unit Security Specialist functions. |