Ascension is seeking a seasoned IT Systems Administrator / Senior Database Management Specialist to administer, secure, maintain, and support enterprise database and related systems for Montgomery County Public Schools. The selected contractor will help MCPS maintain reliable access to critical technology services by protecting data, controlling system access, monitoring availability, resolving technical issues, and supporting upgrades, backups, recovery activities, and system improvements.

This position is best suited for an experienced database professional who can work independently, quickly assess technical conditions, and make sound recommendations in a complex public-sector technology environment. The ideal candidate combines hands-on database administration experience with an understanding of enterprise systems, data security, availability, disaster recovery, and technical documentation.

MCPS intends to use the resulting Master Agreement to acquire specialized personnel across the full systems development life cycle, including enterprise application support, infrastructure maintenance, system integration, data center operations, information security, and technical support.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The contractor will serve as a senior technical resource responsible for the administration and support of database management systems and associated enterprise infrastructure. The individual will monitor database health and availability, manage users and permissions, maintain backup and recovery processes, troubleshoot incidents, support upgrades and patches, and help ensure that database environments remain secure, available, accurate, and recoverable.

The contractor may support SQL-based databases, cloud-hosted or on-premises systems, enterprise applications, reporting platforms, integrations, and data-transfer processes. Depending on the assignment, the position may also support Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, Student Information Systems, Oracle Integration Cloud, business intelligence solutions, and other MCPS platforms.

The successful candidate must be:

• Self-directed and capable of working with limited supervision.
• Methodical, organized, and attentive to technical details.
• Skilled at diagnosing performance, access, availability, and data-integrity problems.
• Comfortable supporting production systems where disruptions may affect school and administrative operations.
• Able to balance planned maintenance, user requests, project activities, and unexpected incidents.
• Effective at communicating technical risks and recommended actions to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Prepared to work within established change-control, security, privacy, documentation, and escalation procedures.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The contractor will:

• Administer enterprise database platforms, database instances, related services, and supporting infrastructure.
• Monitor database availability, storage utilization, system logs, scheduled jobs, replication processes, and performance indicators.
• Configure database users, roles, permissions, schemas, security settings, and access controls in accordance with least-privilege principles.
• Implement approved database changes, configuration updates, service packs, patches, and version upgrades.
• Develop and maintain backup, restoration, disaster-recovery, and continuity procedures.
• Execute routine backups and periodically validate the recoverability and integrity of backup data.
• Troubleshoot database connectivity, query performance, locking, capacity, integration, authentication, and application-support issues.
• Analyze root causes of incidents and recommend corrective and preventive actions.
• Optimize database objects, queries, indexes, stored procedures, jobs, and configurations to improve reliability and performance.
• Maintain database security procedures, audit records, access documentation, and configuration baselines.
• Support the migration, conversion, cleansing, validation, loading, and reconciliation of data between enterprise systems.
• Execute approved data uploads, including HDL/HSDL processes where required for Oracle Fusion Cloud assignments.
• Assist application developers, analysts, system administrators, security personnel, and vendors in diagnosing cross-platform issues.
• Coordinate planned maintenance and release activities to minimize disruption to MCPS operations.
• Participate in performance, load, stress, failover, recovery, and readiness testing.
• Review database architecture and technical designs for performance, security, maintainability, and recoverability.
• Document system configurations, database inventories, data flows, troubleshooting procedures, recovery steps, and operational dependencies.
• Develop Standard Operating Procedures, runbooks, technical guides, change records, and knowledge-transfer materials.
• Respond to incidents, service requests, security findings, and system alerts within established response expectations.
• Escalate critical outages, security events, data-loss risks, and unresolved technical issues through the proper MCPS channels.
• Protect student, employee, financial, operational, and other sensitive information in accordance with MCPS requirements.
• Comply with change-management, configuration-management, quality assurance, privacy, security, and records-management procedures.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports summarizing work performed, deliverables completed, issues encountered, risks identified, and hours expended.
• Provide technical guidance and knowledge transfer to MCPS personnel and other contractor resources.
• Support after-hours maintenance or urgent restoration activities when authorized by the applicable Statement of Work.

Systems, Tools, and Processes

The contractor may be expected to work with some combination of the following:

Database and data platforms

• Microsoft SQL Server
• Oracle Database
• PostgreSQL or MySQL
• Azure SQL Database or other cloud-hosted databases
• SQL Server Management Studio
• Oracle Enterprise Manager
• SQL Developer
• SQL, T-SQL, or PL/SQL
• Extract, transform, and load tools
• Database monitoring and diagnostic utilities

Enterprise and integration environments

• Oracle Fusion Cloud HCM, ERP, or EPM
• Oracle Integration Cloud
• Infor Lawson
• Student Information Systems
• Microsoft Power BI
• Microsoft Power Automate
• Microsoft Azure
• Windows Server
• Linux
• Active Directory or identity-management platforms
• ServiceNow or comparable service-management systems

Methods and operating processes

• Incident, problem, change, release, and configuration management
• Database performance monitoring and tuning
• Role-based access control and least-privilege administration
• Backup, restoration, disaster recovery, and continuity planning
• Data migration, validation, reconciliation, and quality control
• Root-cause analysis
• System Development Life Cycle practices
• Agile/Scrum and DevOps support
• Technical documentation and version control
• Quality assurance and Independent Verification and Validation support

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Change Manager to lead organizational change management activities supporting Montgomery County Public Schools’ technology modernization, enterprise application, process-improvement, and workforce transformation initiatives.

The ideal candidate will bring senior-level expertise in organizational development, stakeholder engagement, communications, training, readiness assessment, adoption planning, and organizational transition. This individual must be capable of helping MCPS employees, leaders, technical teams, and other stakeholders understand, prepare for, adopt, and sustain changes resulting from new systems, redesigned processes, updated policies, organizational realignments, or technology-enabled ways of working.

The Change Manager will be expected to operate as both a strategic advisor and a hands-on practitioner. The successful candidate will know how to translate technical or programmatic changes into clear impacts on people, roles, processes, and day-to-day activities. This role is especially important because MCPS may use the contract to support enterprise cloud platforms, custom application modernization, intelligent automation, business intelligence, data initiatives, information security, electronic document management, and workforce training across a large and diverse school system.

Ascension is looking for a professional who is:

• Self-directed and comfortable working in evolving or ambiguous environments.
• Skilled at building trust with executives, managers, technical teams, educators, administrative personnel, and end users.
• Able to anticipate adoption barriers and develop practical solutions before those barriers affect implementation.
• Organized, responsive, and capable of managing multiple stakeholder groups, deliverables, and deadlines.
• An effective facilitator who can navigate differing viewpoints and build consensus.
• Comfortable presenting sensitive findings, resistance risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Committed to accessibility, confidentiality, equity, and user-centered implementation.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Change Manager will plan, lead, coordinate, and evaluate organizational change activities associated with MCPS technology and business transformation efforts. The individual will conduct stakeholder and change-impact analyses, assess organizational readiness, develop change-management and communication strategies, coordinate training and knowledge-transfer activities, support leadership engagement, and measure adoption after implementation.

This professional will work closely with project managers, business analysts, system developers, trainers, communications personnel, technical leads, and MCPS process owners. The Change Manager will help ensure that project success is not measured solely by whether a system or process was deployed, but also by whether the affected workforce understands the change, possesses the necessary skills, uses the solution as intended, and sustains the new operating practices.

Assignments may involve:

• Enterprise system implementations or upgrades.
• Business-process reengineering and workflow automation.
• Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint, Power BI, or Microsoft Copilot adoption.
• Oracle Fusion Cloud or other enterprise application initiatives.
• Data governance and reporting transformations.
• Cybersecurity, privacy, or access-control changes.
• Policy and procedural changes.
• Organizational restructuring or workforce transitions.
• Training, communications, and user-adoption programs.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Senior Change Manager will:

• Develop comprehensive organizational change-management strategies aligned with project objectives, implementation schedules, risks, and MCPS priorities.
• Conduct stakeholder analyses to identify impacted groups, decision-makers, influencers, champions, potential detractors, and communication needs.
• Assess the organizational, procedural, technological, cultural, and workforce impacts of proposed changes.
• Evaluate organizational readiness through interviews, surveys, focus groups, workshops, document reviews, and operational observations.
• Create change-impact assessments identifying how systems, processes, policies, roles, responsibilities, skills, and performance expectations will change.
• Identify adoption barriers, resistance risks, stakeholder concerns, knowledge gaps, and dependencies that could affect implementation.
• Design stakeholder engagement plans appropriate to executives, managers, technical teams, administrative offices, school-based personnel, and end users.
• Develop targeted communication plans, key messages, executive briefings, frequently asked questions, talking points, newsletters, announcements, presentations, and implementation updates.
• Translate technical information into clear, audience-appropriate language that explains what is changing, why the change is necessary, when it will occur, and how users will be affected.
• Coordinate communication activities with project leadership, MCPS communications personnel, business owners, technical teams, and training specialists.
• Facilitate stakeholder interviews, leadership sessions, readiness workshops, focus groups, working groups, town halls, and change-champion meetings.
• Establish change-champion or super-user networks to strengthen peer communication, issue identification, and local adoption.
• Develop adoption plans that define expected behaviors, implementation milestones, user responsibilities, support mechanisms, and success measures.
• Coordinate training needs assessments and align training content, timing, delivery methods, and audience segmentation with identified change impacts.
• Collaborate with instructional designers and trainers to ensure training addresses actual job responsibilities and system-use scenarios.
• Prepare managers and supervisors to communicate changes, answer employee questions, reinforce expectations, and support their teams during transition.
• Integrate change-management milestones into project plans, integrated master schedules, risk registers, issue logs, and implementation roadmaps.
• Track change-management risks, assumptions, dependencies, decisions, action items, stakeholder concerns, and mitigation activities.
• Measure communication reach, training participation, readiness, user sentiment, system adoption, process compliance, and post-implementation performance.
• Analyze quantitative and qualitative feedback to determine whether the change is achieving intended results.
• Recommend corrective actions when adoption, readiness, communications, training, or stakeholder engagement results fall below expectations.
• Support pilot implementations, phased deployments, go-live activities, transition periods, and post-implementation stabilization.
• Document lessons learned, implementation findings, sustainment requirements, and recommendations for future initiatives.
• Develop standard operating procedures, job aids, transition guides, change playbooks, governance materials, and knowledge-transfer documentation.
• Ensure communications, training materials, and other public-facing deliverables comply with applicable accessibility requirements.
• Protect confidential employee, student, operational, and project information in accordance with MCPS privacy and security requirements.
• Prepare weekly productivity and status reports describing activities completed, deliverables, risks, decisions, upcoming milestones, and hours worked.
• Advise MCPS leadership on organizational readiness, stakeholder alignment, adoption risks, workforce impacts, and change-sustainment strategies.

Anticipated Deliverables

Depending on the task order, deliverables may include:

• Organizational Change Management Plan.
• Stakeholder Analysis and Engagement Plan.
• Change-Impact Assessment.
• Organizational Readiness Assessment.
• Communication Strategy and Communication Calendar.
• Training Needs Assessment.
• Adoption and Transition Plan.
• Resistance-Management Plan.
• Change Champion Network Plan.
• Leadership Briefing Materials.
• Frequently Asked Questions and User Communications.
• Change Risk and Issue Register.
• Adoption Metrics and Performance Dashboard.
• Go-Live Readiness Assessment.
• Post-Implementation Adoption Report.
• Lessons-Learned Report.
• Sustainment and Knowledge-Transfer Plan.
• Standard operating procedures, job aids, and user guidance.

Tools, Processes, and Methodologies

Candidates should be comfortable working with tools and methods such as:

• Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Forms.
• SharePoint for communications, knowledge management, document control, and stakeholder resources.
• Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, or comparable scheduling and work-management tools.
• Power BI or Excel for adoption metrics, readiness reporting, survey analysis, and dashboards.
• Power Automate for communication, approval, notification, and tracking workflows.
• Survey and feedback tools, such as Microsoft Forms or SurveyMonkey.
• Project-management practices aligned with PMBOK.
• Agile, Scrum, hybrid, or traditional implementation environments.
• Prosci ADKAR, Kotter, Lewin, Bridges, or comparable change-management frameworks.
• Stakeholder mapping, change-impact analysis, readiness assessment, resistance management, and benefits realization.
• Risk, issue, action-item, and decision tracking.
• Process mapping using Visio, Lucidchart, or comparable tools.
• Accessibility review using Microsoft Accessibility Checker and applicable Section 508 or Non-Visual Access practices.

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Process Manager / Senior Business Process Management Subject Matter Expert to lead complex business process assessments, workflow documentation, business process reengineering, performance measurement, controls development, and continuous improvement initiatives supporting Montgomery County Public Schools.

The successful candidate will help MCPS evaluate how work is currently performed, identify inefficiencies and control weaknesses, design practical future-state processes, and establish repeatable procedures and performance measures. This role is important to MCPS’s objective of acquiring specialized professional and IT expertise that supports strategic planning, system modernization, enterprise applications, intelligent automation, data-informed decision-making, and the full System Development Life Cycle.

Ascension is looking for a senior professional who can move effectively between strategy and implementation. The ideal candidate will be able to facilitate discussions with executives, business owners, technical teams, and end users; analyze complex and sometimes inconsistent operating practices; translate stakeholder needs into documented requirements and workflows; and guide teams through the adoption of standardized processes.

This position is well suited for someone who is:

• Analytical, organized, and highly attentive to detail.
• Comfortable operating in environments where requirements may initially be incomplete or ambiguous.
• Skilled at anticipating process, control, data, and implementation risks.
• Capable of managing several priorities and stakeholder groups concurrently.
• Confident facilitating discussions and constructively challenging inefficient practices.
• Able to develop practical solutions that can be implemented, measured, and sustained.
• Committed to protecting sensitive student, employee, operational, and organizational information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Process Manager will lead or support business process management initiatives across MCPS administrative, technology, financial, human capital, student support, and other operational environments. The individual will assess current-state operations, document workflows, identify bottlenecks and control gaps, define business and functional requirements, and develop future-state processes that improve consistency, accountability, service delivery, data quality, and management visibility.

The Process Manager may support enterprise applications and workflows associated with Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, student information systems, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, electronic document management platforms, and other MCPS systems. Assignments may include manual process improvement, technology-enabled process redesign, workflow automation planning, policy and procedure development, performance measurement, organizational change support, and implementation monitoring.

The role requires more than producing diagrams. The Process Manager must understand the business purpose behind each process, determine whether the process is properly controlled, evaluate how data moves between participants and systems, and recommend improvements that are realistic within the customer’s operating environment.

The RFP specifically identifies process analysis, workflow redesign, automated workflows, performance reporting, risk management, project management, document management, SOP development, and continuous improvement as relevant areas of support. It also requires services to follow applicable project management, accessibility, security, privacy, and regulatory standards.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead current-state process assessments through stakeholder interviews, workshops, document reviews, system demonstrations, observation, surveys, and data analysis.
• Define the objectives, scope, participants, inputs, outputs, systems, decision points, dependencies, controls, risks, and performance expectations associated with each process.
• Document current-state and future-state workflows using process maps, swimlane diagrams, value-stream maps, decision models, procedures, requirements documents, and supporting narratives.
• Analyze workflows to identify bottlenecks, duplicated activities, excessive handoffs, manual workarounds, unclear ownership, control deficiencies, data-quality problems, and automation opportunities.
• Design future-state processes that simplify workflows, clarify accountability, improve internal controls, reduce unnecessary steps, and support consistent service delivery.
• Facilitate business process improvement and business process reengineering sessions with executives, process owners, subject matter experts, technical teams, and end users.
• Elicit and document business, functional, data, reporting, security, accessibility, and integration requirements.
• Translate operational needs into clear process requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, workflow rules, and implementation recommendations.
• Develop process inventories, responsibility assignment matrices, standard operating procedures, desk guides, job aids, templates, checklists, governance documents, and control narratives.
• Establish process performance measures, key performance indicators, service-level measures, baselines, targets, data definitions, and reporting methods.
• Evaluate process performance using quantitative and qualitative data, root-cause analysis, trend analysis, control assessments, and stakeholder feedback.
• Develop business controls that address authorization, segregation of duties, data validation, approvals, records management, exception handling, and auditability.
• Recommend workflow automation opportunities using tools such as Microsoft Power Automate, Power Apps, SharePoint, electronic forms, document management platforms, and enterprise applications.
• Collaborate with application developers, systems analysts, security specialists, testers, data professionals, and project managers to ensure redesigned processes are accurately implemented.
• Support requirements traceability from business need through process design, configuration, development, testing, deployment, and user acceptance.
• Review proposed system configurations, forms, workflows, reports, and automation solutions for alignment with approved business processes.
• Assist with test scenario development and user acceptance testing to validate that implemented solutions support the approved future-state process.
• Assess organizational and workforce impacts resulting from process, policy, role, system, or technology changes.
• Develop implementation roadmaps, transition plans, process-control plans, training recommendations, communication materials, and adoption measures.
• Monitor implementation progress and process results to determine whether changes are producing the intended outcomes.
• Identify implementation risks, stakeholder concerns, process deviations, and unresolved decisions, and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
• Conduct lessons-learned sessions and post-implementation reviews to identify opportunities for further improvement.
• Prepare concise reports, executive briefings, recommendations, decision papers, and presentations for MCPS leadership.
• Maintain version control, review histories, approvals, and repositories for process documentation and related work products.
• Produce accurate weekly productivity reports summarizing completed activities, deliverables, issues, risks, decisions, and hours expended, as required by the contract.
• Ensure deliverables comply with applicable MCPS privacy, security, records-management, accessibility, and data-handling requirements.
• Protect student, employee, operational, financial, and other sensitive information in accordance with FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, MCPS policy, and applicable task-order requirements.
• Perform other process management, business analysis, workflow improvement, governance, or implementation-support activities assigned under an MCPS Statement of Work.

Anticipated Tools and Methodologies

Candidates should have experience with several of the following:

Process and Analysis Tools

• Microsoft Visio
• Lucidchart
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Miro or comparable workshop tools
• Business process modeling tools
• Requirements traceability matrices
• Process inventories and control matrices
• RACI or responsibility assignment matrices

Technology and Collaboration Platforms

• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Power Automate
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Microsoft Power BI
• ServiceNow or comparable workflow platforms
• Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar work-management tools
• Electronic document and records-management platforms
• Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, or comparable enterprise systems

Methods and Frameworks

• Business Process Management
• Business Process Improvement
• Business Process Reengineering
• Business Process Model and Notation
• Lean
• Six Sigma
• Root-cause analysis
• Value-stream mapping
• Agile and Scrum
• Systems Development Life Cycle
• PMBOK-aligned project management
• Change management
• Process performance measurement
• Internal-control design
• Continuous improvement
• Capability maturity assessments

Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior IT Project Manager / Task Leader to lead complex information technology, modernization, system integration, data, cybersecurity, infrastructure, and professional-services projects supporting Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).

The successful candidate will provide disciplined project leadership across the full System Development Life Cycle and will be accountable for planning, scheduling, budgeting, risk management, quality, stakeholder coordination, performance monitoring, and delivery. This position is especially important because MCPS intends to use the contract as an enterprise-wide vehicle for acquiring specialized IT services through future Statements of Work and Requests for Resumes.

Ascension is looking for a highly organized, analytical, and self-directed leader who can bring structure to complex or evolving assignments. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working with technical specialists, business owners, school-system stakeholders, vendors, and executive leadership while maintaining visibility into project scope, schedule, cost, risks, dependencies, quality, and performance.

The candidate should be capable of anticipating problems, developing practical solutions, resolving competing priorities, and communicating project status clearly. This individual must also understand that work performed in a public-school environment requires sound judgment, confidentiality, accessibility, data privacy awareness, and sensitivity to the needs of students, educators, administrators, and other stakeholders.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior IT Project Manager / Task Leader will lead one or more MCPS technology initiatives from planning through implementation, transition, and closeout. Assignments may involve enterprise cloud applications, software development, systems modernization, intelligent automation, business intelligence, data science, GIS, infrastructure, cybersecurity, web systems, electronic document management, training, or related IT consulting services.

The Project Manager will translate task-order requirements into an actionable project management approach, establish governance and reporting processes, coordinate multidisciplinary teams, and ensure that technical work remains aligned with MCPS priorities. The role will apply Project Management Body of Knowledge principles and may incorporate Agile, Scrum, DevOps, iterative development, or hybrid delivery methods depending on the nature of the assignment.

The position may serve as the primary day-to-day interface among Ascension, MCPS project leadership, technical teams, subcontractors, and other stakeholders. The Project Manager will be expected to maintain accurate project records; prepare weekly productivity and performance reports; oversee deliverable reviews; manage issues, risks, changes, and dependencies; and ensure that work products satisfy contractual, technical, quality, security, privacy, and accessibility requirements.

MCPS specifically requires project management services to follow PMBOK-aligned practices, including disciplined schedule, budget, and performance reporting. The solicitation also requires weekly electronic productivity reports and identifies senior or lead personnel as potential Task Leaders when they possess appropriate supervisory or project-leadership experience.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Lead project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, transition, and closeout activities for assigned MCPS technology initiatives.
• Develop and maintain the project management plan, integrated master schedule, work breakdown structure, milestones, dependencies, resource plan, and deliverable calendar.
• Translate Statements of Work, technical requirements, and customer priorities into actionable tasks, assignments, acceptance criteria, and performance measures.
• Establish project governance processes, communication protocols, decision-making authorities, escalation paths, and reporting cadences.
• Coordinate the work of technical specialists, developers, analysts, cybersecurity personnel, quality assurance staff, trainers, vendors, and subcontractors.
• Monitor project scope, schedule, budget, staffing, quality, risks, issues, changes, and performance against approved baselines.
• Identify schedule conflicts, technical dependencies, resource constraints, delivery risks, and emerging issues before they affect project outcomes.
• Develop risk registers, issue logs, action-item trackers, decision logs, change-control records, and mitigation or contingency plans.
• Facilitate project kickoff meetings, status reviews, technical working sessions, sprint reviews, risk meetings, stakeholder briefings, and lessons-learned sessions.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports summarizing tasks completed, deliverables produced, hours expended, risks, issues, decisions, and upcoming activities.
• Present concise project-status briefings, dashboards, recommendations, and decision materials to MCPS leadership and other stakeholders.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and maintain alignment among business owners, technical teams, executive sponsors, users, and external partners.
• Review deliverables for completeness, consistency, accessibility, technical quality, and compliance before submission to MCPS.
• Coordinate peer reviews, quality-control reviews, Independent Verification and Validation activities, and corrective-action follow-up when required.
• Apply PMBOK, Agile, Scrum, DevOps, SDLC, change-management, and quality-management practices appropriate to each assignment.
• Ensure project activities comply with MCPS security, privacy, accessibility, records-management, and data-protection requirements.
• Support compliance with FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, ADA Section 508, Non-Visual Access requirements, and applicable State IT security standards.
• Oversee project documentation, configuration control, version management, acceptance records, meeting records, and knowledge-transfer materials.
• Coordinate staffing adjustments and personnel substitutions while maintaining continuity and compliance with MCPS approval requirements.
• Mentor project team members and reinforce accountability, clear communication, collaborative problem-solving, and timely execution.
• Resolve performance, coordination, and delivery problems using documented corrective actions and escalation procedures.
• Support implementation, release readiness, user acceptance, training, organizational transition, and post-deployment stabilization.
• Maintain confidentiality and protect MCPS systems, student information, employee information, project documentation, and other sensitive data.

Customer Problems This Position Is Expected to Address

The Senior IT Project Manager / Task Leader will help MCPS:

• Coordinate complex projects involving multiple technical domains and stakeholder groups.
• Maintain clear ownership, accountability, and visibility across project activities.
• Prevent schedule slippage, uncontrolled scope growth, cost overruns, and unresolved technical dependencies.
• Integrate business, technical, security, privacy, quality, accessibility, and training requirements into one coordinated delivery approach.
• Improve executive visibility through accurate reporting, dashboards, risk analysis, and decision support.
• Ensure that technical solutions are tested, documented, accessible, secure, maintainable, and ready for operational use.
• Facilitate timely decision-making and resolution of issues that could affect schools, administrative offices, employees, or students.
• Establish repeatable project processes and documentation that MCPS can continue using after an assignment is completed.

Tools and Processes Likely to Be Used

The specific tools will be established by each task order, but candidates should be prepared to work with:

• Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Azure DevOps, or comparable scheduling and work-management tools.
• Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Power BI or comparable project and performance-reporting platforms.
• ServiceNow or other IT service-management and workflow tools.
• Risk registers, issue logs, decision logs, action trackers, change-request forms, and deliverable registers.
• Agile/Scrum ceremonies, sprint planning, product backlogs, Kanban boards, and release planning.
• PMBOK-based project-management processes.
• SDLC, DevOps, CI/CD, configuration-management, quality-assurance, and IV&V processes.
• Section 508 and Non-Visual Access review procedures.
• Root-cause analysis, corrective-action planning, lessons learned, and continuous-improvement methods.

Ascension is seeking a senior-level Quality Assurance Consultant who can establish and lead a disciplined quality-management and testing approach for complex enterprise technology initiatives.

The Senior QA Consultant will go beyond executing tests. This individual will define quality standards, establish metrics, develop testing methodologies, conduct root-cause analysis, support Independent Verification and Validation, and provide an objective assessment of whether applications, integrations, infrastructure components, or technology-enabled processes are ready for implementation.

The ideal candidate will combine hands-on testing knowledge with the judgment needed to identify systemic quality risks, challenge unsupported readiness claims, and recommend corrective action. The consultant should be capable of communicating with developers, business owners, project managers, technical leads, vendors, executives, and nontechnical users.

The RFP requires a bachelor’s degree and eight years of QA experience, including five years applying statistical methods. Senior QA responsibilities include QA metrics, root-cause analysis, IV&V, and quality-methodology development.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Quality Assurance Consultant will establish a repeatable quality framework across one or more MCPS projects. This may include quality planning, requirements reviews, test governance, risk-based testing, statistical analysis, defect-trend analysis, quality audits, accessibility reviews, performance testing, and release-readiness assessments.

The individual should be self-directed, appropriately skeptical, and comfortable working in environments where requirements, system dependencies, or acceptance criteria may initially be incomplete. The consultant must be able to distinguish isolated defects from broader process failures and determine whether a proposed solution addresses the underlying cause.

The Senior QA Consultant may serve as a task leader and provide technical direction to testers, developers, analysts, and business representatives.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Establish project-level QA strategies, quality-management plans, standards, procedures, templates, metrics, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead the development and execution of master test plans covering functional, integration, regression, performance, security, accessibility, and user-acceptance testing.
• Design risk-based testing approaches that concentrate resources on mission-critical, high-impact, and high-likelihood failure areas.
• Conduct independent reviews of requirements, designs, configurations, interfaces, source-code documentation, test evidence, and implementation plans.
• Perform Independent Verification and Validation assessments of system functionality, security, performance, accessibility, and implementation readiness.
• Develop QA scorecards, defect metrics, trend analyses, control charts, sampling methods, and other statistical measures.
• Analyze defect patterns, escaped defects, recurring failures, and process breakdowns.
• Facilitate root-cause analysis sessions and document corrective and preventive actions.
• Evaluate whether corrective actions address root causes and reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
• Define entry criteria, exit criteria, defect-severity standards, acceptance thresholds, and release-readiness measures.
• Review vendor-generated test plans and results for completeness, independence, repeatability, and sufficiency.
• Assess testing coverage against business requirements, technical specifications, privacy obligations, security controls, and accessibility standards.
• Coordinate performance, load, stress, resilience, and disaster-recovery testing.
• Lead defect-triage meetings and advise stakeholders on defect severity, business impact, remediation priority, and release risk.
• Report quality status, unresolved risks, exceptions, trends, and recommendations to project and executive leadership.
• Mentor junior testers and provide technical direction on testing methods, documentation, automation, and quality controls.
• Support process-improvement and lessons-learned activities across the SDLC.
• Maintain objective evidence supporting system acceptance, deployment decisions, audits, and post-implementation reviews.
• Ensure testing and quality-management activities align with applicable MCPS, State of Maryland, privacy, security, and accessibility requirements.
• Prepare weekly productivity and performance reports required under the contract.

Ascension is seeking a highly experienced Senior Systems Security Specialist to help Montgomery County Public Schools protect its enterprise applications, networks, infrastructure, data, and technology services from cybersecurity threats and unauthorized access.

The successful candidate will analyze and define security requirements for complex, high-level applications; conduct security and privacy risk assessments; evaluate vulnerabilities; support secure identity and access management; and advise technical teams on the implementation of enterprise and multilevel security controls.

This role is important because MCPS technology environments support more than 159,000 students, approximately 25,800 employees, and numerous administrative, instructional, financial, human capital, student information, cloud, and infrastructure systems. The Senior Systems Security Specialist will help ensure that these systems are designed, configured, integrated, tested, and maintained in a manner that protects sensitive student, employee, financial, operational, and institutional information.

Ascension is looking for an individual who combines deep technical security expertise with sound judgment, professional discretion, and the ability to translate complex cybersecurity risks into practical recommendations for executives, project managers, system owners, developers, administrators, and end users.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Systems Security Specialist will provide cybersecurity engineering, risk management, and security requirements support throughout the System Development Life Cycle. The position will evaluate security controls and system architectures; identify vulnerabilities and threats; define remediation requirements; and support the secure implementation of applications, cloud platforms, infrastructure, databases, identity services, web systems, and enterprise integrations.

The specialist may support vulnerability assessments, penetration-testing activities, intrusion detection and monitoring, endpoint security, identity and access management, disaster recovery planning, application security reviews, and Independent Verification and Validation. The role may also advise development and infrastructure teams on secure configurations, role-based access, data protection, logging, encryption, source-code security, and system readiness before production deployment.

The ideal candidate will be:

• Self-directed and capable of working in a complex environment with limited supervision.
• Detail-oriented, analytical, and highly protective of sensitive information.
• Skilled at identifying the root causes of security risks rather than merely documenting symptoms.
• Comfortable challenging insecure designs or practices while maintaining productive working relationships.
• Able to prioritize multiple assessments, incidents, remediation activities, and project deadlines.
• Experienced in presenting technical findings to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Prepared to work in an educational environment governed by student privacy, accessibility, public-sector security, and records-management requirements.

The RFP specifically identifies information-system security as a functional area covering vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, intrusion detection monitoring, endpoint security, and identity management. It also requires contractors to consider FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, SOC 2, State IT security policies, and applicable HIPAA requirements.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Senior Systems Security Specialist will:

• Analyze business, technical, privacy, and operational requirements to identify applicable security requirements and controls.
• Define security requirements for complex, enterprise-level applications, cloud platforms, databases, integrations, infrastructure components, and web-based systems.
• Conduct cybersecurity risk assessments and document threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood, potential impact, existing safeguards, residual risk, and recommended treatments.
• Evaluate system architectures, application designs, data flows, trust boundaries, interfaces, APIs, and integrations for security weaknesses.
• Perform or coordinate vulnerability assessments, configuration reviews, penetration tests, and application-security testing.
• Review vulnerability scan and penetration-test findings for accuracy, severity, exploitability, business impact, and remediation priority.
• Develop security assessment reports, plans of action, remediation recommendations, risk registers, control matrices, and executive summaries.
• Support identity and access management activities, including role-based access control, account provisioning, privileged-access management, authentication, authorization, and access recertification.
• Assess system roles and permissions to identify excessive access, segregation-of-duties conflicts, inactive accounts, and unauthorized privileges.
• Recommend technical and administrative safeguards for protecting student, employee, financial, operational, and other sensitive information.
• Advise application developers, system engineers, cloud administrators, database administrators, and project managers on secure-by-design practices.
• Integrate security requirements into project plans, system requirements, design documents, acceptance criteria, test plans, and release-readiness reviews.
• Review proposed changes, upgrades, patches, integrations, and system configurations for cybersecurity impact.
• Validate remediation evidence and determine whether vulnerabilities and security findings have been adequately resolved.
• Support Independent Verification and Validation activities that evaluate system security, functionality, compliance, and production readiness.
• Monitor or assist with evaluating security events, alerts, endpoint data, system logs, and intrusion-detection information.
• Investigate suspected security incidents or control failures and assist with documenting findings, containment actions, corrective measures, and lessons learned.
• Support immediate escalation and formal documentation of security incidents or unauthorized disclosures involving MCPS information.
• Develop or update cybersecurity policies, standards, procedures, security plans, operating instructions, and incident-response documentation.
• Assess disaster recovery, business continuity, backup, recovery, and resilience controls for critical systems and data.
• Evaluate third-party products, services, subcontractors, and solution architectures for security and privacy risks.
• Review applicable SOC 2 reports and supporting security documentation when required.
• Coordinate with system owners, privacy personnel, project teams, quality-assurance staff, vendors, and MCPS security representatives.
• Facilitate security review meetings, risk discussions, technical working sessions, and remediation-status reviews.
• Brief project leadership and senior stakeholders on significant risks, security posture, remediation progress, and decisions requiring management acceptance.
• Maintain accurate assessment records, supporting evidence, decisions, approvals, and remediation status.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports documenting completed activities, deliverables, issues, risks, decisions, and labor hours.
• Protect all MCPS information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, retention, transmission, or use.
• Comply with MCPS, Maryland, federal, contractual, privacy, accessibility, and cybersecurity requirements.

Anticipated Tools and Technologies

The exact technology stack will depend on the individual MCPS task order. Candidates should have experience with several of the following:

Security and Vulnerability Management

• Tenable Nessus or Tenable Security Center
• Qualys
• Rapid7 InsightVM
• Burp Suite
• OWASP testing tools
• Nmap
• Wireshark
• Microsoft Defender
• Endpoint detection and response platforms
• Security information and event management platforms
• Intrusion detection and prevention systems

Identity and Access Management

• Microsoft Entra ID / Azure Active Directory
• Active Directory
• Single Sign-On
• Multi-factor authentication
• Privileged-access management
• Role-based access control
• Public Key Infrastructure
• Access-governance and recertification processes

Cloud, Application, and Infrastructure Security

• Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services security services
• Oracle Fusion Cloud security roles and controls
• Oracle Integration Cloud
• Web application firewalls
• API security controls
• Secure software-development practices
• CI/CD security scanning
• Database security
• Encryption and key-management technologies
• Backup, restoration, and disaster-recovery platforms

Documentation and Collaboration

• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• Excel
• PowerPoint
• Word
• Visio
• ServiceNow
• Jira, Azure DevOps, or comparable issue-tracking platforms

Security Processes and Frameworks

The successful candidate should be able to apply or work within:

• NIST Cybersecurity Framework
• NIST Risk Management Framework
• NIST Special Publication 800-53
• NIST Special Publication 800-30
• NIST Special Publication 800-61
• NIST Secure Software Development Framework
• CIS Critical Security Controls
• CIS Benchmarks
• OWASP Top 10
• SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria
• Zero Trust security principles
• Secure SDLC practices
• Configuration and change management
• Vulnerability and patch management
• Incident response
• Business continuity and disaster recovery
• Risk acceptance and exception management

Ascension is seeking a Senior Technical Analyst / Senior Computer Systems Analyst to provide advanced systems analysis, technical planning, application design, integration analysis, and implementation support for Montgomery County Public Schools.

The ideal candidate will be able to evaluate complex application environments, understand how business processes, data, software, interfaces, and infrastructure work together, and translate customer needs into clear technical requirements and practical implementation solutions. This individual will serve as a bridge among MCPS business stakeholders, application developers, database specialists, cybersecurity personnel, quality assurance teams, vendors, and project leadership.

This role is important because MCPS operates a large, diverse technology environment supporting students, educators, administrators, and business operations. The selected professional must be able to identify technical risks, resolve ambiguous requirements, assess system dependencies, and help MCPS implement reliable, secure, accessible, and maintainable systems.

Ascension is particularly interested in a candidate who is:

• Analytical, methodical, and attentive to technical and operational details.
• Comfortable working independently with limited supervision.
• Skilled at clarifying incomplete or conflicting requirements.
• Able to anticipate integration, data, security, and performance problems.
• Organized enough to manage multiple assignments, dependencies, and deadlines.
• Confident communicating with both technical personnel and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Capable of explaining complex system issues in clear, decision-oriented language.
• Committed to protecting student, employee, and institutional information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Technical Analyst will analyze system architecture, application functionality, interfaces, data requirements, technical specifications, implementation issues, and system performance. The position will support the analysis and design of complex applications and major system installations and may provide technical direction to development, integration, data, testing, and implementation teams.

The contractor will examine existing and proposed systems, document current and future-state requirements, evaluate technical alternatives, and recommend solutions that align with MCPS business objectives, security controls, privacy obligations, accessibility standards, and technology architecture.

Depending on the task order, the position may support enterprise platforms such as Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, student information systems, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform solutions, databases, web applications, APIs, business intelligence tools, or custom-developed applications. The analyst may also support legacy modernization, data conversion, system integration, cloud migration, workflow automation, quality assurance, and production-readiness assessments.

The RFP specifically identifies the Senior Computer Systems Analyst as a professional who provides technical direction for software development, analyzes complex applications, and prepares milestone and technical-status reports for major system installations. It requires a bachelor’s degree and at least eight years of complex application analysis and design experience, including experience with database management systems and multiple programming languages.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Analyze existing applications, business processes, system architectures, databases, interfaces, integrations, and technical dependencies.
• Elicit functional, technical, data, security, performance, accessibility, and operational requirements from MCPS stakeholders.
• Translate business needs into system requirements, use cases, process flows, interface definitions, data mappings, acceptance criteria, and technical specifications.
• Evaluate current-state systems and identify gaps, limitations, duplication, performance issues, security risks, and modernization opportunities.
• Develop current-state and future-state diagrams showing system components, interfaces, data movement, dependencies, and user interactions.
• Recommend technically feasible solutions that balance business value, security, accessibility, implementation complexity, maintainability, and cost.
• Provide technical direction and clarification to application developers, engineers, database specialists, testers, vendors, and implementation teams.
• Review proposed system designs, application configurations, database structures, APIs, integrations, and technical documentation for completeness and consistency.
• Analyze interface requirements between cloud-hosted, on-premises, third-party, and internally developed applications.
• Define data requirements, conversion rules, validation criteria, reconciliation procedures, and exception-handling processes.
• Support system modernization, application migration, data conversion, software implementation, integration, and deployment activities.
• Investigate system defects, performance degradation, data discrepancies, interface failures, and implementation issues.
• Perform root-cause analysis and coordinate corrective actions with the appropriate technical teams.
• Assess solution impacts across applications, databases, users, workflows, security controls, reporting processes, and support operations.
• Prepare alternatives analyses, decision papers, technical recommendations, risk assessments, and implementation-readiness findings.
• Develop milestone reports, technical-status reports, issue logs, risk registers, requirements traceability matrices, and implementation trackers.
• Facilitate requirements workshops, design reviews, technical working sessions, defect reviews, and implementation-readiness meetings.
• Coordinate with project managers to monitor scope, schedule, dependencies, risks, issues, decisions, and technical deliverables.
• Support functional, integration, regression, performance, load, stress, security, accessibility, and user-acceptance testing.
• Validate that implemented solutions satisfy approved requirements, technical specifications, security controls, and acceptance criteria.
• Document system configurations, workflows, interfaces, operating procedures, support procedures, and knowledge-transfer materials.
• Maintain version control, change history, decision records, and traceability across requirements and technical documentation.
• Ensure technical deliverables comply with MCPS privacy, security, data ownership, records-management, and accessibility requirements.
• Apply Agile, Scrum, DevOps, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery practices based on the requirements of the assigned task order.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports summarizing activities, deliverables, accomplishments, issues, risks, and hours worked, as required under the MCPS contract.

Problems the Position Is Expected to Address

The Senior Technical Analyst may be called upon to resolve or support:

• Incomplete, ambiguous, or conflicting system requirements.
• Poorly documented legacy applications.
• Misalignment between business processes and system functionality.
• Data-quality, data-mapping, and data-conversion problems.
• Failed or unreliable interfaces between enterprise systems.
• Application performance and scalability concerns.
• Security, privacy, role-based access, and identity-management issues.
• System implementations that do not fully satisfy user needs.
• Lack of traceability between requirements, design, testing, and deployment.
• Technical risks affecting schedule, cost, quality, or production readiness.
• Inconsistent technical documentation and configuration records.
• Accessibility barriers affecting users with disabilities.
• Communication gaps between program stakeholders and technical teams.
• Production defects requiring structured root-cause analysis.
• Modernization decisions involving legacy replacement, integration, cloud adoption, or workflow automation.

Anticipated Tools and Technologies

Actual tools will depend on the task order. Candidates should have experience with several of the following:

Systems and Requirements Analysis

• Microsoft Visio or comparable process-modeling tools
• Lucidchart or similar diagramming platforms
• Azure DevOps
• Jira and Confluence
• Requirements traceability matrices
• Use cases and user stories
• Business process models and workflow diagrams
• Data-flow and entity-relationship diagrams
• Interface-control documents
• Functional and technical design specifications

Enterprise and Application Technologies

• Oracle Fusion Cloud applications
• Oracle Integration Cloud
• Infor Lawson
• Student information systems
• Microsoft 365
• SharePoint
• Microsoft Power Platform
• ServiceNow
• Web-based and client-server applications
• REST and SOAP APIs
• Microservices architectures
• Single Sign-On and identity-management solutions

Data and Reporting

• SQL and relational database-management systems
• Oracle Database, SQL Server, or comparable platforms
• Data mapping and conversion tools
• Microsoft Excel
• Power BI or Tableau
• Data-validation and reconciliation methods
• ETL and data-integration concepts

Development and Testing

• Familiarity with two or more programming or scripting environments, such as Java, Python, .NET/C#, JavaScript, PowerShell, or SQL
• Git or comparable source-control systems
• CI/CD concepts and pipelines
• Test-management and defect-tracking tools
• Functional, integration, regression, performance, and user-acceptance testing methods

Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior Business Systems Analyst to support Montgomery County Public Schools’ enterprise technology, application modernization, systems integration, and business-process improvement initiatives.

The selected professional will serve as the bridge between MCPS business stakeholders, technical teams, system administrators, developers, vendors, and end users. This individual will determine what users and programs need from an information system, translate those needs into clear functional and technical requirements, evaluate current workflows, and help ensure that technology solutions are properly designed, configured, tested, documented, and accepted.

This position is well suited for a senior analyst who understands both business operations and enterprise information systems. The ideal candidate can lead requirements discussions with nontechnical stakeholders, communicate effectively with software engineers and database professionals, and convert complex or sometimes ambiguous customer needs into practical, testable solutions.

MCPS is establishing a master agreement through which individual Statements of Work and Requests for Resumes may be issued for custom development, systems integration, enterprise application support, modernization, automation, data services, and staff augmentation. The role may therefore support one or more assignments during the contract term rather than one continuously funded position.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Business Systems Analyst will elicit, analyze, validate, and document business, functional, system, data, interface, security, accessibility, and reporting requirements for complex applications and technology initiatives. The analyst will assess existing business processes and systems, identify gaps and dependencies, develop functional specifications and process models, support system configuration and development, and coordinate testing and user acceptance.

Depending on the specific assignment, the analyst may support enterprise platforms such as Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, student information systems, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform applications, custom web applications, databases, integrations, dashboards, or legacy-system modernization efforts. The MCPS scope covers the full System Development Life Cycle and includes application support, engineering and modernization, intelligent automation, data science, security, web systems, document management, training, and technical documentation.

The successful candidate will be:

• Detail-oriented and disciplined in requirements documentation.
• Comfortable working with stakeholders who have different priorities and levels of technical knowledge.
• Skilled at identifying incomplete, conflicting, or unstated requirements.
• Self-directed and capable of progressing work with limited supervision.
• Organized enough to manage several requirements, decisions, issues, and deliverables concurrently.
• Able to anticipate downstream impacts involving integrations, data, security, testing, training, and change management.
• Committed to protecting student, employee, and operational information.
• Prepared to work in an environment where priorities and task-order needs may evolve.

Position Responsibilities

The Senior Business Systems Analyst is expected to perform activities such as the following:

• Elicit business, functional, technical, data, reporting, interface, security, privacy, and accessibility requirements through interviews, workshops, observations, document reviews, surveys, and facilitated working sessions.
• Analyze existing applications, databases, workflows, policies, operating procedures, and system interfaces to identify gaps, risks, duplication, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities.
• Translate business needs into functional specifications, system requirements, user stories, use cases, acceptance criteria, process models, data requirements, and configuration documentation.
• Document current-state and future-state processes using process maps, workflow diagrams, decision tables, requirements traceability matrices, and supporting narratives.
• Facilitate requirements-validation sessions with business owners, subject matter experts, developers, architects, database specialists, cybersecurity personnel, testers, and end users.
• Reconcile conflicting stakeholder requirements and help decision-makers evaluate priorities, tradeoffs, dependencies, costs, risks, and expected outcomes.
• Evaluate proposed systems, enhancements, configurations, interfaces, and automation opportunities against documented business and technical requirements.
• Support system design and configuration activities by clarifying requirements and providing functional guidance to developers and technical teams.
• Coordinate requirements across applications, databases, APIs, cloud platforms, reporting tools, and on-premises environments.
• Develop functional specifications for application modules, workflows, role-based permissions, integrations, reports, dashboards, notifications, forms, and data-conversion activities.
• Maintain requirements baselines, decision logs, issue logs, change requests, traceability records, and version-controlled documentation.
• Assess the impact of proposed requirement or configuration changes on scope, schedule, data, interfaces, security, testing, training, and end-user operations.
• Prepare test scenarios, test conditions, expected results, and user-acceptance criteria in coordination with quality assurance and testing personnel.
• Support functional, integration, regression, performance, accessibility, and user-acceptance testing.
• Coordinate user acceptance testing, including test planning, participant preparation, issue tracking, defect clarification, retesting, and acceptance documentation.
• Validate that delivered capabilities satisfy approved requirements before implementation or production release.
• Analyze defects and implementation issues to distinguish between requirement gaps, configuration problems, software defects, data issues, and user-training needs.
• Support data mapping, data conversion, data validation, reconciliation, and migration activities.
• Identify opportunities to improve or automate processes through tools such as Microsoft Power Automate, Power Apps, SharePoint, Power BI, workflow platforms, and enterprise application functionality.
• Develop reports, dashboards, status summaries, milestone updates, and briefing materials for project leadership and stakeholders.
• Prepare or contribute to system documentation, standard operating procedures, job aids, user guides, release notes, and training materials.
• Ensure requirements and deliverables account for ADA Section 508 and Non-Visual Access requirements.
• Apply appropriate Agile, Scrum, hybrid, or traditional SDLC practices based on the assignment.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, demonstrations, retrospectives, design reviews, change-control meetings, and release-readiness reviews.
• Monitor assigned milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, and action items.
• Report weekly progress, completed tasks, hours expended, upcoming work, risks, and impediments as required by MCPS.
• Protect MCPS information in accordance with FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, MCPS policies, and applicable security requirements.
• Collaborate effectively with MCPS employees, other contractors, software vendors, implementation partners, and third-party service providers.
• Recommend practical solutions that balance user needs, technical feasibility, security, accessibility, maintainability, cost, and implementation risk.

Anticipated Tools and Methods

The specific technology stack will be established by each task order. Candidates should be prepared to work with a combination of:

• Microsoft 365, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, and SharePoint
• Azure DevOps, Jira, ServiceNow, or comparable requirements and work-management platforms
• Microsoft Power Platform, including Power BI, Power Apps, and Power Automate
• SQL and relational database concepts
• Oracle Fusion Cloud, Oracle Integration Cloud, Infor Lawson, or comparable enterprise platforms
• Student information, human capital, financial, document-management, and reporting systems
• Requirements traceability matrices
• User stories, use cases, acceptance criteria, and functional specifications
• Business process modeling and workflow mapping
• Agile/Scrum, DevOps, Waterfall, and hybrid SDLC approaches
• Test-management, defect-tracking, and user-acceptance processes
• Data mapping, interface specifications, and API documentation
• Section 508 and Non-Visual Access validation methods

Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior Application Developer to serve as an Applications Development Expert supporting Montgomery County Public Schools’ enterprise technology, application modernization, systems integration, and custom software development initiatives.

The selected professional will lead or provide high-level technical direction for complex application development efforts across the full System Development Life Cycle. The Senior Application Developer will help MCPS modernize legacy applications, design secure and maintainable solutions, integrate cloud and on-premises systems, implement microservices and application programming interfaces, and establish reliable DevSecOps and continuous integration/continuous delivery practices.

This role is well suited for a hands-on senior developer who can move between architecture, coding, integration, testing, troubleshooting, documentation, and technical leadership. The ideal candidate will understand that application development in a large public-school environment requires more than writing code. Solutions must be scalable, accessible, secure, supportable, well documented, and designed to protect sensitive student and employee information.

MCPS identifies the Applications Development Expert as the technical lead and mentor for complex enterprise-wide software solutions and integrations. The minimum RFP qualification is a bachelor’s degree and seven years of IT industry experience, including three years serving as a high-level technical expert.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Application Developer will design, develop, modernize, integrate, test, deploy, and support enterprise applications that enable MCPS business, administrative, instructional, financial, human capital, and student-service operations.

The contractor will collaborate with MCPS technical teams, business analysts, project managers, security personnel, quality assurance specialists, system administrators, vendors, and business stakeholders to translate functional needs into secure and sustainable technical solutions. Assignments may include modernizing legacy applications; creating web, cloud, mobile, or data-driven solutions; designing APIs and microservices; implementing automated build and deployment pipelines; integrating enterprise platforms; and resolving complex production issues.

The successful candidate must be:

• Self-directed and comfortable working with limited supervision.
• Capable of leading technically complex assignments from concept through deployment.
• Skilled at anticipating integration, security, performance, accessibility, and maintainability concerns.
• Able to balance multiple priorities in an environment where individual task orders may vary in scope, urgency, technology, and duration.
• Comfortable explaining technical concepts to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Committed to protecting student, employee, financial, and institutional data.
• Disciplined in documenting code, decisions, configurations, interfaces, and deployment procedures.

The position may function as a technical lead or Task Leader and may provide mentoring, code-review, design-review, and troubleshooting support to other developers.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Senior Application Developer will:

• Lead the design, development, modernization, integration, testing, deployment, and maintenance of complex enterprise applications.
• Analyze business, functional, security, data, accessibility, and performance requirements and translate them into technical designs.
• Develop applications and services using technologies such as Java, Python, C#, .NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, and related frameworks.
• Modernize legacy applications by refactoring code, replacing obsolete components, improving application architecture, and migrating capabilities to supported platforms.
• Design RESTful APIs, microservices, reusable components, integration services, and data-exchange mechanisms.
• Integrate cloud-based and on-premises applications, databases, identity services, enterprise systems, and third-party platforms.
• Configure and maintain automated CI/CD pipelines for building, testing, scanning, packaging, and deploying software.
• Apply Agile, Scrum, DevOps, DevSecOps, and secure SDLC practices throughout application delivery.
• Create solution architecture diagrams, technical specifications, interface-control documents, data mappings, deployment instructions, and system-support documentation.
• Conduct peer reviews, code reviews, design reviews, unit testing, integration testing, and defect-resolution activities.
• Support performance, load, stress, regression, security, and accessibility testing in coordination with quality assurance personnel.
• Identify application defects, performance bottlenecks, security weaknesses, integration failures, and technical debt.
• Troubleshoot complex production and nonproduction issues and perform root-cause analysis.
• Implement role-based access, secure authentication, authorization, encryption, input validation, logging, monitoring, and error-handling controls.
• Ensure developed solutions comply with MCPS information-security, privacy, source-code, data-ownership, and configuration-management requirements.
• Build accessible applications that support keyboard navigation, screen readers, appropriate semantic structures, and applicable ADA Section 508 and Maryland Non-Visual Access requirements.
• Maintain source code, configuration files, build scripts, technical documentation, and version histories in approved repositories.
• Participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, demonstrations, retrospectives, release planning, and technical working sessions.
• Estimate development effort, identify dependencies, communicate technical risks, and support development of realistic delivery schedules.
• Mentor junior and mid-level developers in coding standards, design patterns, testing, debugging, security, documentation, and deployment practices.
• Coordinate with business analysts and end users to validate requirements and confirm that delivered functionality addresses the underlying business need.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity, infrastructure, database, enterprise architecture, and quality assurance teams before production deployment.
• Monitor application health and recommend improvements for reliability, scalability, performance, maintainability, and user experience.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports summarizing work completed, deliverables, hours, risks, issues, and upcoming activities.
• Transfer technical knowledge to MCPS staff through walkthroughs, demonstrations, technical documentation, and mentoring.
• Protect all MCPS data and immediately escalate suspected security incidents, unauthorized access, or data exposure.

Expected Technical Environment

Depending on the individual task order, the Senior Application Developer may work with:

• Java, Python, C#, .NET, ASP.NET, JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML, and CSS.
• SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, or comparable relational databases.
• REST APIs, SOAP services, JSON, XML, message queues, and integration middleware.
• Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Oracle Cloud, or hybrid-cloud environments.
• Azure DevOps, GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, or comparable CI/CD platforms.
• Git-based version control and branching strategies.
• Docker, Kubernetes, or other containerization and orchestration technologies.
• Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and enterprise web platforms.
• Automated unit, integration, regression, performance, and security-testing tools.
• Static application security testing, dependency scanning, vulnerability scanning, and code-quality tools.
• Agile/Scrum collaboration and work-management platforms.
• Accessibility tools such as Axe, WAVE, Lighthouse, JAWS, NVDA, or VoiceOver.

Specific technologies will depend on the MCPS task order. Candidates are not necessarily expected to possess expert-level experience with every tool listed.

Ascension is seeking a capable and solution-oriented Application Developer / Software Engineer to design, develop, configure, test, document, integrate, and maintain software applications supporting Montgomery County Public Schools.

The selected professional will help MCPS modernize applications, improve system interoperability, automate business processes, and maintain reliable software solutions across its enterprise technology environment. The role supports MCPS’s broader need for custom development, system integration, application modernization, and staff augmentation across the full System Development Life Cycle.

The ideal candidate combines hands-on programming skills with disciplined software engineering practices. This individual should be able to understand business and technical requirements, translate them into maintainable software, troubleshoot complex issues, and work effectively with analysts, architects, testers, security personnel, and customer stakeholders.

The position is well suited for a developer who:

• Works independently while remaining collaborative and responsive.
• Produces clear, reusable, and well-documented code.
• Can operate effectively when requirements evolve.
• Anticipates technical risks and proposes practical solutions.
• Balances development speed with security, accessibility, quality, and maintainability.
• Can communicate technical concepts to both technical and nontechnical stakeholders.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Application Developer will support the development and maintenance of applications, interfaces, APIs, database components, and reusable software modules. The position may support new application development, legacy system modernization, software integration, database-driven applications, web applications, workflow automation, and production maintenance.

MCPS identifies Engineering and Modernization as a primary functional area covering the full development lifecycle for custom applications. Examples include legacy-system modernization, microservices and API design, CI/CD pipeline implementation, and deployment using Agile, Scrum, and DevOps methodologies in environments such as Python, Java, and .NET.

The developer may be assigned through a Statement of Work or Request for Resumes after award of the Master Agreement. Therefore, the exact technology stack, schedule, work location, and project duration will depend on the applicable task order.

The contractor will be expected to help MCPS:

• Convert functional and technical requirements into working software.
• Integrate cloud-based, on-premises, and enterprise applications.
• Improve the maintainability and reusability of existing systems.
• Resolve software defects and application performance issues.
• Support controlled application releases.
• Maintain accurate technical and system documentation.
• Apply software quality, data privacy, security, and accessibility standards.
• Protect student, employee, and institutional information.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Analyze business requirements, technical specifications, workflows, interfaces, and existing application architecture.
• Design software components, database structures, APIs, interfaces, services, and reusable application modules.
• Develop secure, maintainable, and scalable applications using the programming languages and frameworks specified by the task order.
• Configure application settings, development environments, integrations, and supporting database components.
• Write SQL queries, stored procedures, data-access logic, scripts, and database transactions.
• Build integrations between cloud-based, on-premises, and third-party enterprise systems.
• Develop RESTful APIs, web services, microservices, or other interface components when required.
• Modernize legacy applications by refactoring code, replacing outdated components, and improving system architecture.
• Review system specifications and evaluate existing subsystems and software components for reuse.
• Create unit tests, test scripts, test data, and automated testing routines.
• Execute unit, integration, regression, accessibility, performance, and user-acceptance support activities.
• Diagnose software defects, interface failures, data issues, performance bottlenecks, and production incidents.
• Resolve defects and document root causes, corrective actions, workarounds, and preventive measures.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily stand-ups, demonstrations, and retrospectives.
• Maintain source code, version histories, development branches, release notes, and configuration records.
• Support CI/CD pipelines, code deployment, release management, and environment promotion activities.
• Conduct peer code reviews and incorporate technical and quality-review comments.
• Document application architecture, source code, interfaces, database structures, installation procedures, configuration requirements, and support processes.
• Apply MCPS security, data privacy, records-management, and source-code requirements.
• Ensure applications and deliverables comply with ADA Section 508 and applicable Non-Visual Access requirements.
• Collaborate with product owners, project managers, business analysts, database specialists, cybersecurity personnel, testers, trainers, and technical writers.
• Prepare weekly productivity reports documenting completed work, current tasks, issues, deliverables, and labor hours.
• Provide technical demonstrations, knowledge-transfer sessions, and implementation support to MCPS personnel.
• Protect MCPS data in accordance with FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, and applicable MCPS policies.

Ascension is seeking a detail-oriented and analytical Reporting Analyst to support the implementation and ongoing optimization of WSSC Water’s Online Content Library for Employees initiative. The Reporting Analyst will play a critical role in transforming learning activity data into meaningful insights that enable leadership, managers, and administrators to understand employee engagement, training effectiveness, compliance status, and workforce development outcomes.

The ideal candidate is a data-driven professional who understands how to collect, analyze, visualize, and communicate workforce learning information through dashboards, reports, and performance metrics. The candidate should have experience developing business intelligence solutions that translate complex datasets into actionable insights for executive decision-making.

This position is ideal for an individual who enjoys solving business problems through data, building intuitive dashboards, identifying trends, and helping organizations improve operational performance through measurable outcomes.

The successful candidate will bring experience supporting enterprise reporting environments, data analytics initiatives, learning management systems (LMS), human capital management (HCM) reporting, or workforce analytics. The individual must be comfortable working with stakeholders to understand reporting needs, define metrics, validate data accuracy, and deliver clear executive-level reporting products.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Reporting Analyst will support WSSC Water’s learning technology environment by developing, maintaining, and enhancing reporting capabilities that provide visibility into employee training activities, utilization trends, compliance requirements, and learning outcomes.

The role will support the creation of dashboards, KPI frameworks, automated reports, and analytical products that help WSSC Water measure adoption of the online content library and optimize employee development programs.

The Reporting Analyst will collaborate with the Project Manager, Client Success Manager, Learning Platform Administrator, and WSSC stakeholders to:

• Define reporting requirements and business intelligence needs.
• Develop dashboards and visualization products.
• Analyze learning utilization and performance data.
• Validate reporting accuracy and data integrity.
• Identify trends, opportunities, and areas requiring improvement.
• Translate analytical findings into actionable recommendations.

This role directly supports WSSC Water’s objective of gaining measurable visibility into employee learning activities and outcomes through reporting, analytics, and performance measurement capabilities.

Ascension’s approach aligns with our demonstrated capabilities in data analysis, reporting, analytics, dashboard development, KPI development, and performance measurement solutions supporting federal and public-sector customers. Ascension has delivered similar analytics and reporting capabilities through engagements supporting DHS/FPS, FEMA, and DOE/CESER, including workforce dashboards, KPI development, data visualization, and management reporting solutions.

Position Responsibilities / Anticipated Activities

The Reporting Analyst will:

• Develop dashboards, scorecards, and reporting products to measure employee learning participation, completion rates, utilization trends, compliance status, and learning outcomes.
• Analyze learning data from LMS, HCM, and enterprise reporting systems to identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for improving workforce development outcomes.
• Design KPI frameworks and performance measurement methodologies aligned with organizational learning objectives.
• Create executive-level reports, presentations, and visualization products that communicate insights clearly to leadership and stakeholders.
• Configure reporting solutions using business intelligence and visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Excel, and related analytics platforms.
• Validate data accuracy, completeness, and consistency across integrated learning and enterprise systems.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather reporting requirements, define metrics, and translate business needs into analytical solutions.
• Develop automated reporting processes to reduce manual reporting effort and improve reporting timeliness.
• Monitor learning engagement metrics and identify opportunities to increase employee adoption and utilization of available training resources.
• Support data integration activities by reviewing data exchanges between LMS, HRIS, and reporting environments.
• Prepare analytical summaries, findings, and recommendations to support continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain reporting documentation, data definitions, dashboard specifications, and reporting procedures.
• Support user acceptance testing (UAT) for dashboards, reports, and analytics enhancements.

Ascension is seeking a Training, Change Management & User Adoption Specialist to support the successful implementation and adoption of WSSC Water’s enterprise online learning content library. This role is critical to ensuring that WSSC Water employees, managers, and administrators successfully transition to and effectively utilize a modern digital learning environment that supports workforce development, compliance training, technical skills development, leadership development, and organizational knowledge sharing.

The ideal candidate is a strategic learning professional who combines instructional design expertise, organizational change management experience, stakeholder engagement skills, and workforce adoption strategies. The successful candidate understands that implementing a learning platform is not only a technology deployment effort—it is a people transformation initiative requiring effective communication, training, engagement, and sustained adoption.

The candidate will support Ascension’s delivery team in helping WSSC Water maximize the value of its online learning ecosystem by developing training strategies, administrator enablement materials, communications campaigns, user adoption plans, and change management activities that improve employee engagement and learning outcomes.

This individual should be comfortable working with business leaders, HR/Learning & Development teams, technical teams, administrators, and end users to translate organizational goals into practical learning experiences and adoption strategies.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Training, Change Management & User Adoption Specialist will support implementation and ongoing optimization activities associated with WSSC Water’s online content library solution.

The role will focus on:

• Developing and executing change management strategies to support employee adoption.
• Designing administrator and end-user training programs.
• Creating communications materials, job aids, user guides, FAQs, and adoption resources.
• Supporting stakeholder engagement activities throughout implementation.
• Facilitating training sessions, workshops, demonstrations, and knowledge transfer activities.
• Supporting learning pathway development and workforce engagement initiatives.
• Measuring adoption effectiveness through feedback collection, participation metrics, and continuous improvement recommendations.

The specialist will apply proven change management methodologies and adult learning principles to ensure WSSC Water employees understand the value of the learning platform, know how to use the available resources, and integrate digital learning into their professional development activities.

This role directly supports Ascension’s capabilities in strategic communications, change management, training curriculum development, workforce development, and program support. Ascension’s relevant experience includes DHS/FPS and FEMA workforce development efforts involving curriculum development, training facilitation, communications products, stakeholder engagement, and organizational change support.

Primary Responsibilities / Expected Activities

The Training, Change Management & User Adoption Specialist will:

Training Strategy & Curriculum Development

• Develop training strategies aligned with WSSC Water’s workforce development objectives and implementation roadmap.
• Design administrator training programs to enable effective management of learning content, users, reporting, and platform capabilities.
• Develop end-user training materials including user guides, quick reference guides, job aids, FAQs, tutorials, and instructional resources.
• Apply adult learning principles and instructional design methodologies to create engaging learning experiences.
• Develop role-based training materials tailored for administrators, managers, supervisors, and employees.
• Support virtual, instructor-led, and self-paced training delivery approaches.

Change Management & Adoption Support

• Develop and execute change management plans supporting successful platform adoption.
• Assess stakeholder impacts and identify adoption risks, barriers, and mitigation strategies.
• Create communication plans supporting awareness, engagement, and sustained utilization.
• Develop communications products including:
  • Executive announcements
  • Employee newsletters
  • Adoption campaigns
  • Training announcements
  • FAQs
  • User communications
• Support stakeholder engagement sessions with HR, learning leaders, managers, and end users.
• Apply structured change management practices to support organizational readiness.

User Adoption & Engagement

• Develop strategies to increase employee engagement with digital learning resources.
• Support creation of learning campaigns and promotional activities.
• Monitor adoption metrics and recommend improvements.
• Collect user feedback through surveys, focus groups, interviews, and feedback sessions.
• Identify opportunities to improve learner experience and platform utilization.

Training Delivery & Facilitation

• Facilitate virtual and in-person training sessions.
• Conduct administrator enablement sessions.
• Support train-the-trainer activities.
• Facilitate workshops, demonstrations, and stakeholder meetings.
• Provide coaching and knowledge transfer to WSSC Water personnel.

Documentation & Continuous Improvement

• Develop and maintain training documentation and process materials.
• Support development of standard operating procedures (SOPs), workflows, and operational guides.
• Maintain training materials through platform updates and organizational changes.
• Recommend continuous improvement opportunities based on user feedback and performance data.

Ascension is seeking a technically skilled Integration & Technical Support Specialist to support the successful implementation, integration, and ongoing operation of an enterprise online learning content library solution for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC Water). This role will serve as a critical technical liaison between WSSC Water stakeholders, Ascension’s program team, and OpenSesame’s learning technology specialists to ensure seamless connectivity between the learning platform and WSSC Water’s enterprise technology ecosystem.

The ideal candidate is a systems integration professional who understands how enterprise applications exchange data, how users authenticate securely, and how technology solutions are adopted within complex organizations. This individual will support technical coordination activities involving Learning Management Systems (LMS), Human Capital Management (HCM)/Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, APIs, data exchange workflows, and system troubleshooting.

The successful candidate will bring a combination of technical expertise, analytical thinking, communication skills, and problem-solving ability. This position requires someone who can translate technical requirements into actionable implementation activities, coordinate across technical and business stakeholders, anticipate integration challenges, track issues through resolution, and help ensure WSSC Water receives a reliable, user-friendly learning technology solution.

This position is especially important because WSSC Water is seeking more than access to training content; they require an integrated learning ecosystem that connects employee development, training records, reporting, and workforce capability management. The Integration & Technical Support Specialist will help ensure that the solution operates effectively within WSSC Water’s existing enterprise environment.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Integration & Technical Support Specialist will provide technical implementation support, integration coordination, and operational assistance for WSSC Water’s Online Content Library for Employees program.

The position will support:

• LMS and HRIS integration coordination
• Data exchange validation and troubleshooting
• Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Teams compatibility activities
• Single Sign-On (SSO) implementation coordination
• Technical issue tracking and resolution management
• System testing and user acceptance testing (UAT)
• Technical documentation development and maintenance
• Communication between WSSC Water technical teams and platform providers

This role supports Ascension’s responsibility as the prime contractor to manage enterprise integration activities while leveraging OpenSesame’s platform-specific expertise for learning content connectors and integration capabilities.

Ascension will lead enterprise coordination, requirements alignment, stakeholder communication, testing management, issue tracking, and technical governance. OpenSesame will provide specialized platform knowledge related to learning content integration, connectors, and LMS/HCM interoperability. This approach aligns with Ascension’s demonstrated experience supporting SharePoint, ServiceNow, Microsoft technologies, business process automation, data management, and enterprise transformation initiatives.

Position Responsibilities / Expected Activities

The Integration & Technical Support Specialist will:

• Coordinate technical implementation activities between WSSC Water, Ascension, OpenSesame, and other enterprise technology stakeholders.
• Analyze technical requirements related to LMS, HRIS, ERP, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, authentication, and data exchange processes.
• Support integration planning activities including technical discovery sessions, interface discussions, workflow reviews, and implementation planning.
• Coordinate validation of LMS/HRIS integration activities, including user provisioning, learning assignment synchronization, completion tracking, and reporting workflows.
• Support configuration and testing of Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities and secure authentication processes.
• Review technical documentation, integration specifications, API documentation, and configuration requirements.
• Coordinate system testing activities, including test case development, test execution, defect tracking, and validation of corrective actions.
• Maintain technical issue logs, risks, action trackers, and implementation status reports.
• Facilitate technical meetings with WSSC Water IT personnel, business stakeholders, and vendor technical teams.
• Document system configurations, integration workflows, technical procedures, and operational support processes.
• Support troubleshooting activities by analyzing reported issues, coordinating root cause analysis, and tracking resolution activities.
• Support Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and Teams integration discussions to ensure alignment with organizational collaboration tools.
• Assist with data validation activities to confirm accuracy, completeness, and consistency of exchanged information.
• Support development of technical reports, dashboards, and implementation status updates for project leadership.
• Provide technical input into knowledge transfer activities and administrator training support.
• Assist with continuous improvement activities by identifying opportunities to improve system performance, user experience, and operational efficiency.

Ascension is seeking an experienced Program Manager to serve as the primary leader responsible for successful contract execution, customer relationship management, and overall program delivery. The Program Manager will provide executive-level oversight to ensure contractual commitments are achieved through effective planning, performance management, risk mitigation, quality assurance, stakeholder engagement, and coordination of project resources.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned government consulting professional with demonstrated experience managing complex federal, state, or public-sector programs. The successful candidate will be comfortable operating in a mission-focused environment, engaging directly with government leadership, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, resolving challenges proactively, and ensuring consistent delivery of high-quality products and services.

This role is critical to ensuring the customer receives measurable value through disciplined program governance, transparent communication, effective resource management, and continuous improvement.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Program Manager will serve as the central point of accountability for contract performance and will oversee all aspects of program execution, including:

• Contract governance and performance management
• Customer relationship management
• Integrated project planning and execution
• Schedule and milestone management
• Risk identification, mitigation, and escalation
• Quality assurance and continuous improvement
• Subcontractor coordination and oversight
• Executive reporting and communications
• Stakeholder engagement and meeting facilitation

The Program Manager will establish and maintain the management framework necessary to ensure the program achieves customer objectives, complies with contractual requirements, and delivers consistent operational excellence.

This position directly supports Ascension’s core capabilities in Strategic Advisory and Program Support, Program/Project Management, Business Process Improvement, Stakeholder Engagement, Performance Management, and Data-Driven Reporting.

Position Responsibilities / Expected Activities

The Program Manager will:

• Lead overall contract execution activities and serve as the primary point of contact between Ascension and the customer.
• Develop and maintain program management plans, execution strategies, governance frameworks, and operational procedures.
• Manage integrated project schedules, milestones, deliverables, dependencies, and resource allocation.
• Monitor contract performance against established objectives, service-level expectations, quality standards, and performance metrics.
• Coordinate communications among government stakeholders, project teams, leadership, and subcontractor personnel.
• Facilitate recurring program reviews, status meetings, working groups, and executive briefings.
• Prepare program dashboards, status reports, risk summaries, performance reports, and leadership presentations.
• Identify emerging risks, issues, and constraints and develop mitigation strategies to maintain successful execution.
• Implement quality assurance processes to validate deliverable accuracy, completeness, and compliance.
• Oversee subcontractor performance, ensuring alignment with contractual requirements and customer expectations.
• Manage change control activities, including assessing impacts to schedule, scope, resources, and deliverables.
• Support continuous improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities to streamline processes, improve reporting, and increase operational efficiency.
• Maintain program documentation, decision logs, action trackers, and organizational knowledge repositories.
• Ensure compliance with customer policies, contractual requirements, and applicable government regulations.

Ascension is seeking an experienced Business Process Improvement & Change Management Analyst to support a mission-critical organizational improvement initiative with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC). The ideal candidate will help facilitate collaborative workshops, analyze customer service processes, document current-state operations, identify improvement opportunities, and support the transition toward improved workflows, governance practices, and employee adoption.

This role is ideal for a detail-oriented process improvement professional who enjoys working directly with stakeholders, facilitating productive discussions, translating complex operational challenges into clear documentation, and developing practical recommendations that improve organizational performance.

The successful candidate will bring experience in:

• Business process improvement (BPI)
• Business process mapping and analysis
• Organizational change management
• Workshop facilitation
• Stakeholder engagement
• Process documentation and SOP development
• Change adoption planning
• Continuous improvement methodologies

The candidate should be comfortable working with cross-functional teams, managing ambiguity, asking thoughtful questions, identifying root causes, and converting stakeholder feedback into actionable recommendations.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Business Process Improvement & Change Management Analyst will support Ascension’s facilitation team by providing analytical, documentation, and organizational improvement expertise throughout the Operation True North engagement.

The consultant will help WSSC Customer Service Department stakeholders:

• Understand current-state processes and operational challenges;
• Identify process inefficiencies, communication gaps, and workflow barriers;
• Develop future-state process recommendations;
• Establish sustainable improvement practices;
• Create documentation and governance materials;
• Support employee engagement and adoption of organizational improvements.

The consultant will serve as the bridge between facilitated discussions and actionable business improvements by transforming workshop conversations into structured outputs, including process maps, recommendations, SOP documentation, implementation trackers, and change management artifacts.

Ascension’s approach aligns with WSSC’s requirement to facilitate constructive dialogue, identify process and policy pain points, support collaborative problem solving, and apply change management approaches to improve adoption of identified improvements.

Key Responsibilities / Expected Activities

The consultant will:

• Facilitate structured discussions and workshops focused on identifying current-state processes, operational challenges, and improvement opportunities.
• Conduct business process analysis to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, handoffs, redundancies, and workflow challenges.
• Develop current-state and future-state process maps using business process improvement methodologies.
• Document stakeholder inputs, decisions, agreements, risks, and improvement recommendations.
• Analyze customer service workflows and identify opportunities to improve consistency, efficiency, and customer experience.
• Support collaborative design sessions to develop practical process improvements.
• Apply organizational change management principles, including ADKAR concepts, to support awareness, engagement, adoption, and sustainability.
• Develop change management recommendations, implementation roadmaps, and adoption strategies.
• Prepare workshop summaries, meeting documentation, and executive-level readouts.
• Develop SOPs, procedures, process documentation, job aids, and governance recommendations.
• Maintain implementation trackers documenting milestones, owners, timelines, and measures of success.
• Support cross-functional working groups by organizing action items, monitoring progress, and identifying barriers.
• Analyze participant feedback and lessons learned to identify additional improvement opportunities.
• Assist in preparing final reports summarizing findings, recommendations, and implementation considerations.