Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension, LLC is seeking an experienced Senior Business Transformation Consultant to help senior federal executives evaluate complex organizational challenges, improve operating performance, and implement practical transformation initiatives.

This role is intended for a seasoned management consultant who can move comfortably between strategy and execution. The selected professional will work with executives, program leaders, analysts, acquisition professionals, workforce stakeholders, and technical teams to translate strategic priorities into actionable plans, measurable performance improvements, and sustainable operating practices.

The ideal candidate brings broad federal management consulting experience across several disciplines, including organizational transformation, operational efficiency, portfolio analytics, policy and governance, succession planning, executive communications, procurement support, and leadership training. The consultant must be capable of evaluating ambiguous or evolving requirements, structuring the problem, developing evidence-based recommendations, and helping stakeholders implement the resulting solution.

The position supports HUD’s objective of strengthening its operational capabilities, promoting efficiency, implementing reorganization and succession-planning initiatives, and maintaining alignment between departmental operations and HUD’s long-term mission.

Position Summary

The Senior Business Transformation Consultant provides strategic, analytical, and implementation support for HUD executive initiatives. The consultant assesses current operating conditions, identifies performance gaps, analyzes business and portfolio data, and recommends solutions that improve organizational effectiveness, accountability, resource utilization, and decision-making.

Assignments may span multiple HUD Executive Support Services BPA scope areas, including:

• Executive-level advisory consulting
• Operational efficiency
• Enterprise transformation
• Portfolio performance analytics and reporting
• Regulatory assessment and policy formulation
• Succession planning
• Executive briefings
• Governance, compliance, and assurance
• Executive partnership management
• Procurement consulting
• Executive training

The role requires someone who is self-directed, diplomatic, analytical, organized, and comfortable operating in an environment where priorities may change quickly. The consultant must know how to distinguish between symptoms and root causes, develop realistic recommendations, and help stakeholders carry those recommendations through implementation.

Because this is a non-personal services contract, the consultant will remain under Ascension’s supervision and direction. The individual will provide analysis, advice, and implementation support but will not perform inherently governmental functions or make policy, funding, acquisition, or management decisions on behalf of HUD.

Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• ADVISE executive and program stakeholders on strategic initiatives, organizational performance, operational risks, resource allocation, and transformation priorities.
• ASSESS current organizational structures, business processes, workflows, governance models, internal controls, and performance-management practices.
• ANALYZE quantitative and qualitative information to identify trends, performance gaps, redundancies, bottlenecks, risks, and improvement opportunities.
• DEVELOP actionable recommendations, implementation roadmaps, business cases, decision papers, operating models, and transformation strategies.
• TRANSLATE strategic objectives into measurable initiatives, milestones, performance indicators, work plans, and reporting requirements.
• FACILITATE executive interviews, working sessions, focus groups, process-mapping sessions, planning meetings, and stakeholder workshops.
• DOCUMENT current-state and future-state processes using process maps, responsibility matrices, standard operating procedures, decision frameworks, and supporting narratives.
• DESIGN performance measurement frameworks, executive dashboards, scorecards, data-collection processes, and portfolio reporting structures.
• SYNTHESIZE complex program, policy, financial, workforce, acquisition, and operational information into concise executive-level findings.
• PREPARE executive briefings, presentations, talking points, decision memoranda, white papers, status reports, and recommendations.
• EVALUATE proposed regulations, policies, operating procedures, or organizational changes for mission, workforce, compliance, cost, and implementation impacts.
• SUPPORT succession-planning activities by identifying critical roles, assessing workforce risks, documenting competency needs, and developing leadership-continuity strategies.
• ADVISE stakeholders on federal procurement strategy, requirements development, market research, acquisition planning, performance measures, and contract-management considerations when assigned to procurement-related task orders.
• DEVELOP change-management, stakeholder-engagement, communication, implementation, and training plans for approved transformation initiatives.
• MONITOR implementation progress, performance indicators, risks, dependencies, decisions, and corrective actions.
• VALIDATE the accuracy, completeness, traceability, and executive usability of reports, analyses, briefings, and other deliverables.
• INCORPORATE HUD comments and revise draft deliverables within required review and acceptance periods.
• MAINTAIN organized project files, source documentation, decision records, version histories, assumptions, and analytical work products.
• PROTECT sensitive, proprietary, personally identifiable, and controlled information in accordance with applicable federal and HUD requirements.
• COLLABORATE with Ascension leadership and multidisciplinary team members to ensure consistent, timely, and quality-controlled delivery.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Executive Consultant / Deputy BPA Program Manager to serve as the agency-designated alternate to the BPA Program Manager for HUD’s Executive Support Services BPA.

The ideal candidate is a senior management consultant and trusted executive advisor who combines broad federal consulting experience with the practical ability to manage contract operations, guide multidisciplinary teams, analyze complex organizational challenges, and translate executive priorities into actionable plans and measurable results.

This individual will support HUD senior leadership across strategic initiatives, executive advisory services, enterprise transformation, regulatory and policy analysis, succession planning, governance and compliance, procurement strategy, executive training, and portfolio management. The role is particularly important because the selected individual must be prepared to assume the Program Manager’s contractual and operational responsibilities whenever the primary Program Manager is unavailable.

Ascension is seeking someone who can move comfortably between two responsibilities:

1. Executive consulting and thought leadership, including researching issues, evaluating alternatives, and developing evidence-based recommendations for senior federal leaders; and
2. BPA program management, including directing task-order performance, coordinating contractor personnel, monitoring quality and schedule, managing risks, and communicating with the Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer’s Representative, and HUD program leadership.

The successful candidate will be credible in executive settings, disciplined in contract management, highly responsive, politically aware without being political, and capable of exercising sound judgment in an environment involving sensitive information, competing priorities, workforce constraints, and evolving federal initiatives.

Position Summary

The Senior Executive Consultant / Deputy BPA Program Manager supports the successful management and delivery of HUD’s Executive Support Services BPA and associated task orders. The position serves as Ascension’s designated alternate point of contact and must have the authority, availability, and technical knowledge necessary to act for the primary BPA Program Manager.

In the executive consulting capacity, the individual will research and analyze complex business, organizational, financial, operational, workforce, governance, procurement, and policy matters. The consultant will convert findings into practical recommendations, implementation roadmaps, executive briefings, decision papers, risk assessments, and performance-management tools.

In the Deputy BPA Program Manager capacity, the individual will help ensure that Ascension delivers accurate, timely, responsive, and high-quality services across the BPA’s fourteen scope areas. The role will support staffing coordination, task-order planning, quality control, performance reporting, issue resolution, risk management, stakeholder communications, and corrective-action management.

HUD’s requirement is performance-based and emphasizes outcomes rather than prescribing how the contractor performs the work. The Deputy BPA Program Manager must therefore establish disciplined internal processes while preserving the flexibility required to respond to changing task-order priorities. HUD will monitor contractor performance through monthly reviews, documentation inspections, customer feedback, performance reports, and corrective-action processes.

The role supports HUD’s broader objective of enhancing operational capabilities, improving efficiency, supporting reorganization and succession-planning efforts, and aligning executive initiatives with HUD’s mission and long-term objectives.

Anticipated Day-to-Day and Periodic Responsibilities

• Serve as Ascension’s agency-designated Alternate Contract/Project Manager and assume the primary Program Manager’s responsibilities during absences, schedule conflicts, emergencies, or other periods requiring alternate coverage.
• Maintain sufficient familiarity with all active task orders, staffing assignments, deliverables, schedules, risks, financial conditions, performance issues, and customer priorities to act without an extended transition period.
• Advise HUD executives on strategic initiatives, organizational priorities, operational challenges, resource utilization, risk mitigation, and enterprise-wide improvement opportunities.
• Research complex business, management, financial, workforce, behavioral science, governance, policy, operations research, procurement, and organizational transformation matters.
• Analyze qualitative and quantitative information to identify trends, root causes, risks, dependencies, performance gaps, and viable courses of action.
• Develop evidence-based recommendations, decision memoranda, executive summaries, briefing materials, strategic plans, implementation roadmaps, and supporting analyses.
• Translate broad executive objectives into defined workstreams, milestones, deliverables, performance indicators, ownership assignments, and decision points.
• Support HUD strategic initiatives by identifying, prioritizing, and planning high-impact projects that improve operational effectiveness and mission delivery.
• Guide enterprise transformation activities involving organizational change, process modernization, technology adoption, workforce alignment, communications, and change management.
• Evaluate existing operating practices and recommend process improvements that reduce duplication, improve workflow efficiency, strengthen internal controls, and optimize resource use.
• Support succession-planning activities, including workforce assessments, identification of critical positions, leadership-continuity planning, talent-development strategies, and progress-monitoring mechanisms.
• Assess governance structures, internal controls, compliance processes, and risk-management practices and recommend improvements that strengthen accountability and transparency.
• Research proposed regulations and policy changes, assess operational impacts, benchmark practices, and assist in preparing policy recommendations.
• Provide executive procurement advisory support, including acquisition strategy, market research, requirements development, procurement planning, evaluation considerations, contract-management issues, and executive-level acquisition briefings.
• Support executive training initiatives addressing leadership competencies, strategic decision-making, executive communications, enterprise risk, organizational transformation, stakeholder engagement, workforce management, and public accountability.
• Prepare concise executive briefings that synthesize complex information into clear findings, options, risks, recommendations, and requested decisions.
• Facilitate executive meetings, strategic-planning sessions, governance forums, working groups, stakeholder interviews, and decision-making sessions.
• Coordinate with the Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer’s Representative, HUD Project Manager, executive stakeholders, Ascension leadership, task-order managers, subcontractors, and contractor personnel.
• Monitor task-order performance against approved scope, schedule, staffing, deliverable, quality, and financial requirements.
• Review monthly status reports, project plans, risk registers, issue logs, action-item trackers, problem-notification reports, deliverable schedules, and portfolio-performance information.
• Identify emerging technical, financial, personnel, schedule, quality, or managerial risks and promptly elevate matters requiring Government or Ascension executive attention.
• Ensure that personnel receive direction through authorized contractor-management channels and that contractor performance remains consistent with the PWS’s non-personal-services requirements.
• Review deliverables for analytical completeness, factual accuracy, grammatical quality, responsiveness to HUD comments, Section 508 compliance, and alignment with task-order acceptance criteria.
• Manage corrective-action planning when performance deficiencies, customer complaints, schedule concerns, or quality issues are identified.
• Support development and maintenance of Ascension’s Quality Control Plan, including procedures for self-inspection, deliverable review, performance measurement, issue escalation, and continuous improvement.
• Analyze monthly performance information and recommend corrective or preventive actions based on trends, customer feedback, quality findings, and task-order results.
• Maintain confidentiality and protect Government records, controlled unclassified information, acquisition-sensitive information, personnel information, and other restricted materials.
• Support continuity of operations and orderly task-order transition activities, including knowledge transfer, records turnover, staffing continuity, and transition-out planning.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Contract/Project Manager / BPA Program Manager to serve as the senior operational leader and primary contractor point of contact for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Executive Support Services Blanket Purchase Agreement.

The selected professional will be responsible for managing Ascension’s performance across the BPA and any awarded task orders supporting HUD’s executive leadership. The work may encompass strategic initiatives, portfolio management, enterprise transformation, operational efficiency, executive advisory services, performance analytics, succession planning, governance, compliance, procurement support, executive briefings, administrative support, and executive training.

This is an agency-designated Key Personnel position. The individual must be an employee of Ascension and possess sufficient authority to act on daily contract matters. HUD requires the Contract/Project Manager to have the technical knowledge and organizational standing necessary to receive assignments, guidance, and direction from the Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer’s Representative, and Government Program Manager. A subcontractor employee cannot fill this position.

The ideal candidate is a disciplined federal program manager who can establish structure in a dynamic task-order environment, anticipate performance risks, coordinate multidisciplinary consulting teams, and translate complex program information into concise, decision-ready communications for senior government stakeholders. This person should be comfortable balancing contract compliance, delivery quality, staffing, schedule, cost, customer relationships, and executive expectations without requiring extensive supervision.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Contract/Project Manager serves as Ascension’s principal operational representative for the HUD Executive Support Services BPA. The position provides centralized leadership for contract mobilization, task-order planning, staffing, execution, quality control, performance reporting, issue resolution, and transition activities.

The Program Manager will manage the overall BPA while providing oversight for individual task orders issued across HUD’s 14 executive support scope areas. The role will coordinate project schedules, resources, risks, deliverables, meetings, corrective actions, and communications across Ascension personnel, subcontractors, task leads, quality reviewers, and HUD stakeholders.

The individual will establish and maintain a practical management system that gives Ascension and HUD timely visibility into:

• Task-order status and milestones
• Staffing and resource utilization
• Deliverable schedules and acceptance status
• Technical, financial, personnel, and management risks
• Quality-control results and corrective actions
• Decisions, action items, dependencies, and emerging concerns
• Portfolio-level performance indicators and trends

HUD’s PWS requires project management for the overall BPA and all awarded task orders. It also requires the contractor to support kickoff and status meetings, maintain adequate staffing, develop a Quality Control Plan, address rejected or deficient deliverables, and provide an orderly transition at contract completion.

HUD’s QASP further emphasizes contractor responsibility for the quality, timeliness, responsiveness, and customer satisfaction associated with all work, including work performed by subcontractors. The Contract/Project Manager may also participate in performance reviews addressing assessment data, trends, corrective actions, projected workload, issues, and recommendations for improved efficiency.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Contract/Project Manager will:

• Serve as Ascension’s primary operational point of contact for the HUD Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer’s Representative, Government Program Manager, and other authorized Government representatives.
• Exercise full authority on Ascension’s behalf for daily contract operations, within the limits of the contract and Ascension’s delegated corporate authority.
• Lead post-award mobilization and participate in the kickoff conference anticipated within ten business days following contract award.
• Establish the governance, communication, reporting, escalation, and decision-making structure for the overall BPA and subsequent task orders.
• Develop and maintain an integrated BPA management framework covering scope, schedule, staffing, cost, quality, risks, issues, dependencies, deliverables, and stakeholder communications.
• Review each task-order solicitation and translate its requirements into an executable staffing, delivery, quality, and performance-management plan.
• Develop detailed project plans for awarded task orders, including milestones, responsible personnel, dependencies, deliverables, review cycles, risks, and acceptance activities.
• Coordinate task-order kickoff meetings to align objectives, responsibilities, schedules, deliverables, quality standards, and communication protocols.
• Assign and oversee qualified personnel while maintaining continuity, adequate coverage, and appropriate separation between Government and contractor supervisory responsibilities.
• Manage multidisciplinary personnel supporting strategic planning, portfolio management, organizational transformation, data analytics, policy, compliance, acquisition, executive communications, training, and administrative services.
• Monitor project and portfolio performance against contractual scope, schedule, quality, cost, and customer-service expectations.
• Prepare executive-level monthly status reports summarizing accomplishments, upcoming activities, risks, issues, decisions, staffing conditions, key metrics, and required Government actions.
• Organize and facilitate recurring status meetings with HUD representatives and Ascension task-order leads.
• Communicate significant technical, financial, staffing, schedule, quality, or management concerns promptly to authorized Government and Ascension leadership.
• Maintain risk, issue, action-item, decision, change, staffing, and deliverable trackers.
• Anticipate potential performance barriers and implement corrective or preventive actions before they adversely affect HUD’s mission, schedule, or deliverables.
• Develop and administer Ascension’s Quality Control Plan in coordination with the designated Quality Control Lead or qualified reviewers.
• Verify that work products are accurate, complete, grammatically correct, professionally presented, supported by appropriate analysis, and responsive to HUD’s requirements.
• Ensure deliverables are reviewed internally before submission and comply with applicable Section 508 and HUD accessibility requirements.
• Coordinate revisions in response to HUD comments and ensure rejected or deficient work is corrected within required timeframes and without avoidable cost or schedule impact.
• Analyze performance data, customer feedback, quality findings, schedule trends, and corrective actions to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Support Government performance reviews and respond to Corrective Action Reports, customer complaints, or other formal performance documentation when necessary.
• Maintain appropriate contractor–Government boundaries and prevent the appearance of personal services or performance of inherently governmental functions.
• Control scope and ensure requests that may affect price, schedule, staffing, terms, or conditions are elevated to the Contracting Officer rather than implemented without authorization.
• Coordinate authorized contractor travel and verify compliance with task-order requirements, the Federal Travel Regulation, and applicable cost limitations.
• Protect Government records, data, sensitive information, and contractor work products in accordance with contract requirements and Ascension policies.
• Maintain contract documentation, meeting records, project plans, performance reports, quality records, correspondence, and supporting files in an organized and auditable repository.
• Use Microsoft 365 tools—including Teams, SharePoint, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Project, Planner, and Power BI—as appropriate for collaboration, scheduling, reporting, document management, and performance visibility.
• Coordinate with Ascension’s executive leadership, contracts, finance, recruiting, human resources, and quality-management functions.
• Manage subcontractor performance and verify that subcontractor work meets the same quality, schedule, security, and contractual requirements applicable to Ascension.
• Support task-order pricing, staffing estimates, labor-hour forecasting, resource planning, and burn-rate monitoring when requested.
• Designate and coordinate with the approved Alternate Contract/Project Manager to maintain uninterrupted leadership coverage.
• Lead transition-out planning and knowledge transfer, including documentation, open actions, records, procedures, staffing information, and coordination with any successor contractor.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension LLC is seeking a dependable and professional Front Desk / Data Entry Specialist to support the Military & Family Readiness Center at Hanscom Air Force Base.

The selected candidate serves as the first point of contact for military members, families, visitors, and other customers. This role requires strong customer service, attention to detail, accurate data entry, sound judgment, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a professional military environment.

Responsibilities

• Answer incoming telephone calls and route customers to the appropriate staff member.
• Greet visitors and determine the purpose of each visit.
• Provide routine information regarding available programs, services, classes, and procedures.
• Schedule customers for classes, workshops, and appointments.
• Send class and appointment reminders.
• Enter customer, attendance, scheduling, and program information into Government systems.
• Review data for accuracy, completeness, and timely submission.
• Prepare monthly client-usage and data-entry reports.
• Maintain customer sign-in records and front-desk materials.
• Protect personally identifiable, Privacy Act, and other sensitive information.
• Maintain a professional, organized, and customer-ready reception area.
• Complete required Government security, system-access, and workplace training.

Ascension is seeking an experienced Emergency Management Training & Curriculum Subject Matter Expert III to support FEMA’s National Training and Education Division (NTED) Training Partners Program (TPP). The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in emergency management doctrine, all-hazards preparedness, training program evaluation, curriculum analysis, and instructional quality assurance.

This position is designed for a seasoned emergency management professional who can independently evaluate training materials, assess alignment with FEMA preparedness objectives, provide recommendations for curriculum improvement, and advise stakeholders on training effectiveness. The SME III will serve as a trusted advisor who applies practical emergency management experience, analytical judgment, and knowledge of national preparedness frameworks to improve the quality and effectiveness of FEMA-sponsored training programs.

The successful candidate should have experience reviewing emergency management training products, validating instructional content, assessing training delivery methods, participating in evaluation boards, and translating subject matter expertise into actionable recommendations.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Emergency Management Training & Curriculum SME III provides specialized emergency management expertise supporting FEMA NTED’s Training Partners Program. The contractor will evaluate all-hazards training curricula, conduct quality reviews of training delivery, participate in training review boards, and provide recommendations that improve consistency, effectiveness, and alignment with FEMA preparedness objectives.

The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented and analytical emergency management professional who understands national preparedness programs, adult learning principles, instructional methodologies, and emergency response training requirements. The individual must be comfortable operating independently, collaborating with government stakeholders, reviewing complex training materials, and developing clear recommendations supported by professional judgment.

The SME III will support FEMA’s mission by ensuring training programs meet established standards through structured reviews, validation activities, documentation, and continuous improvement recommendations.

Primary tools and processes may include:

• FEMA preparedness doctrine and training frameworks
• All-hazards curriculum review methodologies
• Training evaluation criteria and scoring methodologies
• Quality assurance review processes
• Review boards and stakeholder evaluation sessions
• Microsoft Office tools (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams)
• Document review and collaboration platforms

Position Responsibilities / Expected Activities

• Review all-hazards emergency management curricula to evaluate technical accuracy, completeness, instructional alignment, and applicability to FEMA training objectives.
• Evaluate training materials, instructor guides, lesson plans, exercises, and supporting documentation for compliance with established standards.
• Analyze training delivery approaches and identify opportunities to improve instructional effectiveness and learner outcomes.
• Participate in curriculum review boards, evaluation panels, and stakeholder discussions to provide expert recommendations.
• Assess training products against emergency management doctrine, operational requirements, and applicable preparedness frameworks.
• Validate curriculum revisions and updates to ensure content remains accurate, relevant, and mission aligned.
• Provide subject matter expertise and recommendations to FEMA program managers and stakeholders.
• Document findings, observations, recommendations, and improvement opportunities through written assessments and review products.
• Collaborate with instructional designers, training developers, government personnel, and other SMEs to resolve curriculum issues.
• Support quality assurance activities associated with FEMA-sponsored training programs.
• Prepare briefing materials, evaluation summaries, review comments, and decision-support documentation.
• Facilitate discussions with stakeholders to identify training gaps, improvement opportunities, and corrective actions.
• Apply emergency management expertise to support continuous improvement of national preparedness training initiatives.

ASCENSION is seeking an experienced Public Health Quality Improvement Consultant to lead the development of a comprehensive Quality Improvement Plan and the update of a five-year Strategic Plan for a Maryland local health department.

The consultant will serve as ASCENSION’s primary subject matter expert and single point of contact for the engagement. This individual will work directly with the customer’s Health Planner, Health Officer, Director of Administration, executive leadership, and Quality Improvement Advisory Committee to assess the organization’s current quality improvement capacity, establish a sustainable quality improvement framework, and align strategic priorities with applicable Maryland public health initiatives and accreditation expectations.

This opportunity is well suited for a senior public health consultant who can independently move between organizational assessment, strategic planning, performance management, facilitation, technical writing, accreditation readiness, and training. The successful candidate must be able to convert broad organizational goals, stakeholder input, policies, metrics, and accreditation requirements into practical plans, governance processes, performance measures, and implementation tools.

ASCENSION is particularly interested in candidates who are thoughtful facilitators, disciplined project managers, strong technical writers, and credible advisors to public health executives. The consultant must be comfortable working in an environment where information may be incomplete, stakeholder perspectives may differ, and recommendations must remain practical within the customer’s available resources.

Contractor Role Summary

The Public Health Quality Improvement Consultant will plan and execute the full scope of the quality improvement and strategic planning engagement. The consultant will begin by reviewing existing plans, policies, performance-management practices, organizational documentation, and relevant public health metrics. The consultant will then assess the customer’s quality improvement infrastructure, governance, workforce readiness, organizational culture, and accreditation needs.

Using the assessment findings, the consultant will develop a written Quality Improvement Plan addressing governance, leadership and staff responsibilities, standardized quality improvement methodology, project selection and prioritization, performance measurement, reporting, communications, documentation, and integration with the customer’s Performance Management System.

The consultant will also update the existing Strategic Plan and align it with the State Health Improvement Plan, Community Health Improvement Plan, Achieving Health Care Efficiency through Accountable Design initiative, Workforce Development Plan, Quality Improvement Plan, and Public Health Accreditation Board requirements.

The individual will be responsible for managing the project schedule, facilitating stakeholder discussions, preparing monthly reports, maintaining decision and action logs, developing draft and final deliverables, responding to consolidated customer comments, and delivering one training session to the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee.

Because ASCENSION proposes a single-subject-matter-expert delivery model, the consultant must possess sufficient experience to manage the engagement with limited supervision while recognizing when issues require escalation to ASCENSION leadership.

Primary Objectives

The consultant will help the customer:

• Establish a formal and sustainable framework for continuous quality improvement.
• Define clear quality improvement governance, authority, roles, and accountability.
• Assess organizational quality improvement capacity, infrastructure, culture, and readiness.
• Develop practical criteria for selecting, prioritizing, executing, and documenting improvement projects.
• Strengthen performance measurement, reporting, and management practices.
• Align the Quality Improvement Plan with Public Health Accreditation Board requirements.
• Update the Strategic Plan to reflect current state and local public health priorities.
• Prepare leadership and the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee to implement and sustain the plans.
• Produce clear, complete, accurate, and acceptance-ready deliverables.

Day-to-Day and Project-Based Activities

The selected consultant will:

• Serve as ASCENSION’s primary liaison to the customer’s Health Planner and coordinate routine project communications.
• Lead the project kickoff meeting and confirm objectives, stakeholder roles, decision authority, schedule, deliverables, and review procedures.
• Develop and maintain a detailed project work plan covering assessment, stakeholder engagement, plan development, review, training, and finalization activities.
• Maintain project schedules, action-item logs, decision logs, risk registers, document inventories, and deliverable trackers.
• Conduct monthly progress meetings and additional focused working sessions with customer leadership and designated stakeholders.
• Review existing strategic plans, quality documents, policies, procedures, performance reports, workforce plans, organizational materials, and accreditation documentation.
• Assess the customer’s current quality improvement capacity, infrastructure, governance, workforce knowledge, organizational culture, and implementation readiness.
• Design interview guides, document-review tools, maturity-assessment criteria, facilitation materials, and structured data-collection instruments.
• Interview leadership, program representatives, Quality Improvement Advisory Committee members, and other designated stakeholders.
• Facilitate discussions to identify organizational priorities, performance barriers, quality improvement opportunities, risks, and resource constraints.
• Analyze qualitative and quantitative information to identify strengths, gaps, root causes, dependencies, and improvement opportunities.
• Document current-state findings and translate assessment results into practical recommendations.
• Develop a quality improvement governance structure that defines committee membership, authority, responsibilities, meeting cadence, escalation pathways, and decision-making protocols.
• Establish standardized quality improvement processes using methods such as Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.
• Define criteria for identifying, evaluating, prioritizing, approving, documenting, monitoring, and closing quality improvement projects.
• Develop performance measures, key performance indicators, reporting processes, data-review routines, and accountability practices.
• Create communication strategies for sharing quality improvement priorities, progress, results, lessons learned, and organizational expectations.
• Integrate the Quality Improvement Plan with the customer’s Performance Management System, Strategic Plan, and Workforce Development Plan.
• Crosswalk Quality Improvement Plan provisions and supporting documentation against applicable Public Health Accreditation Board requirements.
• Identify documentation and process improvements that support accreditation readiness.
• Update strategic priorities, objectives, initiatives, measures, and implementation considerations within the existing five-year Strategic Plan.
• Align the updated Strategic Plan with the State Health Improvement Plan, Community Health Improvement Plan, AHEAD initiative, and Quality Improvement Plan.
• Draft clear, logically organized, and implementation-ready Quality Improvement and Strategic Plans.
• Incorporate customer comments while maintaining version control, traceability, and consistency across related documents.
• Prepare monthly progress reports linked to the approved work plan and completed activities.
• Document hours, accomplishments, deliverables, and supporting information required for monthly invoicing.
• Develop training materials, job aids, presentation slides, examples, and implementation tools for the Quality Improvement Advisory Committee.
• Deliver one interactive training session addressing the approved plan, governance model, quality improvement methodology, performance measures, and associated processes.
• Evaluate participant understanding through discussion, exercises, knowledge checks, or feedback instruments, as appropriate.
• Perform detailed self-review and quality-control checks before submitting deliverables to ASCENSION and the customer.
• Verify that deliverables are complete, factually supported, properly formatted, clearly written, and responsive to customer acceptance criteria.
• Protect customer information and comply with applicable Maryland data-security, confidentiality, records-management, accessibility, and information-technology requirements.
• Escalate schedule, performance, stakeholder, data, or acceptance risks to ASCENSION leadership promptly.
• Support orderly project closeout, final document transfer, records disposition, and knowledge transfer.

Ascension is seeking a senior strategic-planning professional who can independently lead a complex, time-sensitive consulting engagement involving:

• Local economic and tourism development;
• Government and community stakeholder engagement;
• Economic and labor-market research;
• Strategic prioritization;
• Action and implementation planning;
• Performance-measure development;
• Executive-level facilitation; and
• Preparation and presentation of a formal public-sector strategic plan.

The selected consultant must be comfortable working with County officials, appointed commission members, businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, workforce partners, tourism stakeholders, community leaders, and regional organizations.

This individual should be an organized and decisive project leader who can work with limited supervision, anticipate project risks, reconcile differing stakeholder perspectives, and maintain momentum through multiple review and approval cycles. The position requires strong judgment, political awareness, facilitation skills, analytical discipline, and the ability to convert complex information into clear recommendations suitable for public presentation and adoption.

Ascension’s existing capabilities include strategic planning, program analysis, stakeholder facilitation, data analysis, performance-measure development, project coordination, and organizational improvement. The Project Lead will apply these capabilities specifically within the economic and tourism development domain.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Strategic Planning Project Lead will have primary responsibility for planning, managing, and developing the 2027 Economic & Tourism Development Strategic Plan.

The consultant will review the County’s 2022 plan and its implementation status; assess available resources, constraints, and opportunities; analyze current economic and tourism data; facilitate stakeholder and community engagement; evaluate Kent County against selected peer jurisdictions; and develop recommendations across five required strategic areas:

1. Business attraction and competitiveness;
2. Business retention and expansion;
3. Entrepreneurship and small-business development;
4. Workforce development; and
5. Tourism development.

The Project Lead will author the strategic plan, while Kent County’s Economic and Tourism Development staff will provide data, stakeholder coordination, review, input, and refinement. The County expects the consultant—not County staff—to perform the day-to-day drafting and lead the development of the final product.

The completed plan must include a mission and shared vision, priority goals, short-term and medium-term strategies, actionable recommendations, responsible parties, required resources, implementation timeframes, and performance measures. The final plan will be presented to the Kent County Commissioners for adoption.

Day-to-Day and Project Activities

The Strategic Planning Project Lead will:

• Lead project initiation, kickoff activities, scope confirmation, and development of the detailed project work plan.
• Develop and maintain the project schedule, milestones, review dates, decision points, dependencies, and deliverable status.
• Review the 2022 Economic & Tourism Development Strategic Plan, implementation progress, existing County studies, regional plans, and related economic-development materials.
• Assess completed initiatives, ongoing activities, lessons learned, existing performance measures, and unresolved priorities from the previous strategic plan.
• Coordinate data requests and research activities with Kent County’s Department of Economic and Tourism Development.
• Analyze economic, demographic, workforce, industry, business, and tourism data from sources such as ESRI, Lightcast, Tourism Impact Studies, the USDA Census of Agriculture, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, and Eastern Shore Business Sentiment Surveys.
• Select three to five appropriate peer counties or jurisdictions based on rural characteristics, economic composition, industry mix, demographic profile, and tourism assets.
• Compare Kent County’s competitive position, assets, infrastructure, workforce, business environment, tourism resources, and economic-development practices against selected peer jurisdictions.
• Identify three to five priority business sectors supported by a documented, data-based rationale.
• Evaluate Kent County’s existing business-attraction practices and identify opportunities involving infrastructure, zoning, permitting, prospect engagement, and other business-climate improvements.
• Assess current business-retention and expansion activities, including business visitation, supply-chain opportunities, communications, responsiveness, workforce constraints, infrastructure, and regulatory barriers.
• Map the entrepreneurship and small-business support ecosystem, including available lenders, mentors, educational institutions, technical-assistance providers, the Small Business Development Center, and other business-support resources.
• Evaluate current and anticipated workforce needs by industry, occupation, skill, and education level.
• Analyze workforce barriers involving housing, transportation, childcare, digital access, labor availability, employee retention, and alignment between employers and education or training providers.
• Assess tourism assets and gaps involving lodging, amenities, recreation, wayfinding, visitor services, waterfront experiences, events, cultural offerings, and high-value visitor segments.
• Develop and execute a scalable stakeholder engagement plan in coordination with County staff.
• Facilitate interviews, workshops, stakeholder sessions, community meetings, partner discussions, and leadership meetings.
• Prepare agendas, interview guides, discussion questions, presentation materials, meeting summaries, decision logs, and action-item trackers.
• Engage approximately 15–30 stakeholders representing businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, regional partners, public agencies, and local leadership.
• Synthesize stakeholder input while distinguishing recurring themes, isolated opinions, factual findings, policy considerations, and feasible recommendations.
• Reconcile competing stakeholder priorities and facilitate agreement around strategic direction and implementation priorities.
• Develop a clear mission and shared vision for Kent County’s economic and tourism development activities.
• Formulate realistic goals, strategies, and action plans for each of the five required planning areas.
• Organize recommendations into short-term priorities covering years one and two and medium-term priorities covering years three through five.
• Define responsible parties, implementation partners, resource requirements, dependencies, risks, expected outcomes, and performance measures.
• Author interim and final strategic-plan products, including supporting matrices, summaries, appendices, and presentation materials.
• Manage County review and approval cycles at the 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% completion points.
• Incorporate comments and resolve conflicting edits while protecting the consistency and integrity of the plan.
• Present draft recommendations to County leadership and final recommendations to the Kent County Commissioners.
• Maintain organized project records, data references, interview notes, version histories, decision records, and supporting research.
• Ensure all deliverables are accurate, professionally written, internally consistent, accessible, and completed no later than February 28, 2027.

Anticipated Tools and Processes

The Project Lead should be comfortable using or directing work performed through:

• Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint;
• Project schedules, milestone trackers, action-item logs, and risk registers;
• Economic and workforce datasets, including ESRI and Lightcast;
• Public datasets such as QCEW and USDA Census of Agriculture data;
• Survey, interview, workshop, and focus-group protocols;
• Qualitative coding and stakeholder-theme analysis;
• Peer-jurisdiction benchmarking;
• Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats analysis;
• Environmental scanning;
• Logic models or results frameworks;
• Strategy prioritization matrices;
• Implementation roadmaps;
• Performance-measure and KPI frameworks;
• Document version control and formal review-resolution processes; and
• Virtual and hybrid meeting platforms.

Experience with Power BI, Tableau, GIS-based analysis, survey tools, or economic-development research platforms is helpful but is not required unless the candidate proposes to use them as part of the planning methodology.

Ascension, LLC is seeking a highly analytical and detail-oriented Economic Research and Data Analyst to support the development of Kent County, Maryland’s 2027 Economic and Tourism Development Strategic Plan.

The selected consultant will collect, organize, validate, analyze, and interpret economic, demographic, workforce, business, industry, and tourism data. The analyst will transform quantitative and qualitative information into defensible findings, visualizations, performance measures, and recommendations that Kent County can use to guide economic and tourism development decisions over the next five years.

This role is important because the strategic plan must be grounded in current research and credible evidence—not general assumptions. The analyst’s work will support the identification of priority industries, competitive advantages, workforce needs, business-development barriers, tourism opportunities, and realistic measures for evaluating implementation progress.

The ideal candidate is an experienced economic researcher who understands how local governments use data to make decisions. The individual must be comfortable working with incomplete or differently structured datasets, reconciling information from multiple sources, documenting assumptions, identifying limitations, and explaining technical findings to nontechnical stakeholders.

Kent County requires the plan to address business attraction and competitiveness, business retention and expansion, entrepreneurship and small-business development, workforce development, and tourism development. It must include actionable short- and medium-term strategies, objectives, and performance measures.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Economic Research and Data Analyst will serve as the project’s primary quantitative research resource. Working under the direction of the Strategic Planning Project Lead, the analyst will establish the analytical foundation for the strategic plan and support the conversion of data into practical, evidence-based recommendations.

The analyst will evaluate Kent County’s economic identity and competitive position, assess industry and workforce conditions, compare Kent County with appropriate peer jurisdictions, and identify trends affecting business growth and tourism. The role will also support the analysis of stakeholder interviews, community meetings, business discussions, and partner input.

Kent County will provide certain data sources it already licenses or possesses, including Tourism Impact Studies, ESRI information, and Lightcast reports. The consultant team must compile other publicly available sources, including USDA Agricultural Census and Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data. Independent economic modeling is not required unless proposed as a value-added enhancement.

The successful candidate must be:

• Self-directed and able to complete assignments with limited supervision.
• Organized and disciplined in maintaining data traceability.
• Skilled at distinguishing reliable findings from unsupported conclusions.
• Comfortable working within a firm-fixed-price environment.
• Able to manage competing research needs and milestone deadlines.
• Responsive to review comments and changing analytical priorities.
• Capable of communicating statistical or economic findings in plain language.
• Careful not to overstate what the available data supports.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

The Economic Research and Data Analyst will:

• Collect economic, demographic, workforce, business, industry, agricultural, infrastructure, and tourism data from County-provided and publicly available sources.
• Review the 2022 Economic and Tourism Development Strategic Plan, implementation information, existing studies, County plans, regional strategies, and related background materials.
• Develop a structured data inventory identifying each source, period covered, geographic level, methodology, limitations, and intended analytical use.
• Validate source data for completeness, consistency, duplication, missing values, and apparent anomalies before incorporating findings into the strategic plan.
• Analyze employment, wages, labor-force characteristics, population trends, industry concentration, business composition, workforce availability, and other relevant economic indicators.
• Assess Kent County’s current economic conditions, business environment, competitive position, and emerging opportunities.
• Identify three to five potential priority sectors using defensible indicators such as employment concentration, growth, wages, supply-chain relationships, local assets, infrastructure requirements, workforce availability, and market opportunity.
• Compare Kent County with approximately three to five peer counties or jurisdictions selected based on rural profile, economic composition, industry mix, tourism characteristics, and other relevant factors.
• Evaluate business attraction and competitiveness factors, including infrastructure, zoning, permitting, workforce, property availability, business costs, access to markets, and institutional support.
• Assess business-retention and expansion conditions, including workforce barriers, infrastructure constraints, County responsiveness, communications, supply-chain opportunities, and business-support practices.
• Map the entrepreneurship and small-business support ecosystem, including available lenders, mentors, technical-assistance providers, educational institutions, and Small Business Development Center resources.
• Analyze current and projected workforce needs by industry and occupation, including skills, education, training, labor availability, and barriers involving housing, transportation, childcare, and digital access.
• Evaluate tourism-related data concerning visitor activity, lodging, amenities, recreation, attractions, waterfront assets, wayfinding, events, cultural resources, and high-value visitor groups.
• Integrate quantitative research with qualitative findings from stakeholder interviews, community meetings, business discussions, and County leadership sessions.
• Code and categorize stakeholder comments to identify recurring themes, differences among stakeholder groups, and issues requiring further validation.
• Create charts, tables, maps, dashboards, summary exhibits, and data visualizations suitable for inclusion in technical reports, executive briefings, and public-facing materials.
• Develop concise data summaries explaining what each finding means for County strategy, rather than merely presenting statistics.
• Support the development of strategic goals, action plans, resource requirements, implementation priorities, and short-term and medium-term recommendations.
• Design practical performance measures, baseline indicators, targets, data sources, reporting frequencies, and responsible parties for tracking plan implementation.
• Draft technical report sections describing research methods, economic conditions, peer benchmarking, industry findings, workforce analysis, tourism analysis, and supporting conclusions.
• Maintain source citations, research notes, analytical assumptions, calculation methods, file versions, and data lineage sufficient for independent quality review.
• Conduct quality-control reviews to confirm that narrative findings agree with source data, charts, tables, maps, and calculations.
• Respond to County and project-team comments during the 25%, 50%, 75%, and final review cycles.
• Support preparation of presentation materials for the Economic and Tourism Development Commission, County staff, stakeholders, and the Board of County Commissioners.

Analytical Tools and Processes

The analyst should be proficient with a combination of the following tools and methods:

• Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, formulas, data validation, lookups, charts, Power Query, and structured workbooks.
• Power BI, Tableau, or comparable business-intelligence and visualization software.
• ESRI ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, or comparable geographic-information-system tools.
• Lightcast, QCEW, U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, USDA Agricultural Census, and related public datasets.
• Data-cleaning, normalization, reconciliation, and quality-control techniques.
• Descriptive statistics, trend analysis, peer benchmarking, industry analysis, and workforce analysis.
• Qualitative coding and thematic analysis for interviews and stakeholder comments.
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint for technical reporting and executive communication.
• Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, or comparable collaboration and document-management platforms.
• Version control, source tracking, analytical review checklists, and reproducible calculation methods.

The County does not require independent forecasting or advanced economic modeling. Accordingly, candidates do not need to be econometricians, but they must be capable of conducting rigorous applied economic analysis and translating the results into strategic recommendations.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer II to support the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program. This position is designed for an early- to mid-career compliance, audit, procurement, or financial operations professional who can independently review Government Purchase Card transactions and supporting documentation, identify exceptions, document findings, and communicate professionally with cardholders, Card Approving Officials, and NIH Institute and Center personnel.

The successful candidate will help NIH protect public funds and reduce the risk of improper, unauthorized, unsupported, or inadequately documented purchase card transactions. NIH administers approximately 950 cardholders and 500 Card Approving Officials across 30 Institutes and Centers and processes approximately 27,000 purchase card transactions each month. The contractor is required to support targeted transaction reviews, comprehensive purchase card file reviews, special reviews, disputed-transaction monitoring, convenience-check analysis, and program reporting.

Ascension is seeking someone who combines analytical discipline with sound professional judgment. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, organized, dependable, comfortable working with financial and procurement records, and able to manage multiple reviews with different deadlines. The candidate must be able to recognize incomplete or inconsistent documentation, ask focused follow-up questions, distinguish procedural errors from potentially higher-risk activity, and maintain an objective and professional posture throughout the review process.

This is not solely a data-entry or administrative position. It requires the ability to evaluate evidence against established criteria, explain findings clearly, maintain defensible working papers, and protect sensitive Government information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer II supports the production-level execution of NIH Government Purchase Card compliance reviews. The analyst reviews transaction data and purchase files using NIH business rules, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, GSA SmartPay requirements, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, HHS purchase card guidance, the NIH Purchase Card Supplement, and other applicable policies.

Working under senior oversight, the analyst assists with reviewing targeted transactions identified through data mining and risk-based selection. The analyst also supports comprehensive virtual reviews of Cardholder and Card Approving Official files, including review scheduling, entrance-conference preparation, documentation requests, evidence evaluation, preliminary findings, exit briefings, standardized review letters, Institute and Center summaries, and follow-up reviews.

The position requires strong documentation and correspondence management. Review findings must be traceable to the applicable requirement, supported by evidence, written objectively, and maintained in Government-authorized repositories. Reports for targeted reviews are generally required within 45 calendar days after receiving all requested supporting documentation. Comprehensive file-review reports are also generally required within 45 calendar days of the review unless another date is approved by the Government.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

• Obtain monthly purchase card transaction files from authorized NIH or bank systems and confirm that required data elements are present.
• Reconcile transaction files, identify missing or inconsistent records, and document data-quality issues requiring resolution.
• Apply NIH-approved business rules, risk indicators, and transaction trends to support the identification of purchases requiring additional review.
• Analyze purchase card transactions for indicators such as split purchases, restricted items, inadequate competition or price support, unusual merchants, questionable timing, missing approvals, incomplete receipts, or potential misuse.
• Review supporting documentation to determine whether each transaction demonstrates proper authorization, funding, purchase justification, receipt and acceptance, reconciliation, approval, and records retention.
• Evaluate purchase card files against the NIH Micro-Purchase Threshold File Documentation List, NIH Purchase Card Supplement, HHS guidance, GSA SmartPay requirements, and other applicable policies.
• Document compliant and noncompliant conditions in standardized review worksheets, working papers, findings logs, and review reports.
• Maintain complete, accurate, organized, and audit-ready electronic review files in Government-authorized repositories.
• Request additional documentation or clarification from Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, and Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators when submitted evidence is incomplete or unclear.
• Monitor review correspondence through the NIH Purchase Card Compliance Inbox and track open requests, responses, due dates, and unresolved matters.
• Prepare standardized emails and letters describing recommendations, documentation deficiencies, and instances of noncompliance.
• Support risk-based selection of statistically significant purchase card samples for comprehensive file reviews.
• Assist with preparing proposed review schedules for NIH approval before contacting Cardholders or Card Approving Officials.
• Coordinate entrance-conference materials and participate in discussions with Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators regarding upcoming reviews and known concerns.
• Participate in virtual entrance conferences, review meetings, exit briefings, Institute-level debriefings, and internal quality-control discussions.
• Explain preliminary findings objectively and provide the policy or documentation basis supporting each finding.
• Prepare individual Cardholder and Card Approving Official review reports for senior review and Government approval.
• Compile Institute or Center-level summaries that identify recurring findings, trends, potential control weaknesses, and recommended corrective actions.
• Conduct follow-up reviews to determine whether required corrective actions have been completed and adequately documented.
• Support special reviews involving disputed transactions, convenience checks, unusual purchase activity, inquiries, or Government data calls.
• Calculate review statistics and maintain trackers showing review status, response timeliness, findings, corrective actions, and completion dates.
• Contribute accurate content and supporting links for monthly activity reports and the annual NIH-wide purchase card activity report.
• Identify emerging transaction patterns, recurring documentation deficiencies, and opportunities to improve business rules, review procedures, training, or internal controls.
• Escalate suspected fraud, misuse, abuse, sensitive-data exposure, or other significant concerns through approved supervisory and Government reporting channels without independently making unsupported allegations.
• Protect non-public Government information, financial data, personally identifiable information, and procurement-sensitive records in accordance with NIH and HHS security requirements.
• Complete required HHS information security, privacy, records management, and role-based training before accessing Government information and annually thereafter.
• Follow Ascension’s ISO 9001:2015 quality procedures, including use of approved templates, peer review, version control, corrective-action tracking, and deliverable quality checks.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a detail-oriented Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I to support the National Institutes of Health’s Government Purchase Card Program. This individual will conduct targeted transaction reviews and comprehensive purchase card file reviews to determine whether NIH Cardholders and Card Approving Officials are complying with federal acquisition requirements, HHS and NIH purchase card policies, internal controls, documentation standards, and records-retention requirements.

This position is suited for an early- to mid-career compliance, audit, acquisition, accounting, or financial operations professional who can objectively evaluate transaction documentation, recognize control weaknesses, communicate findings professionally, and maintain complete and defensible review records.

The selected candidate must be comfortable reviewing high volumes of financial and procurement information while applying defined business rules consistently. NIH processes approximately 27,000 purchase card transactions each month and requires risk-based review activities across approximately 950 Cardholders and 500 Card Approving Officials located throughout 30 Institutes and Centers.

This is a non-key, full-time production role, not the contract’s Senior Consultant or Senior Manager/Director position. The analyst will work under senior personnel who retain responsibility for review methodology, quality control, escalation, and final approval.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I will support the day-to-day execution of NIH Government Purchase Card compliance reviews. The analyst will review transactional data, identify purchases requiring further examination, request and assess supporting documentation, document instances of noncompliance, monitor correspondence, draft standardized findings, and conduct follow-up reviews when corrective action must be verified.

The role requires someone who is organized, impartial, discreet, and capable of managing multiple reviews at different stages. The ideal candidate does not merely confirm whether a receipt is present. The candidate evaluates whether the complete purchase file supports the transaction, whether the individual possessed the proper authority, whether acquisition and acceptance requirements were followed, and whether the documentation establishes a clear and defensible audit trail.

The analyst will use NIH-provided business rules and applicable federal purchase card requirements while also recognizing transaction trends or risk indicators that warrant further review. Applicable authorities include the Federal Acquisition Regulation, GSA SmartPay requirements, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, HHS purchase card guidance, and the NIH Purchase Card Supplement.

The work is primarily performed remotely from a secure corporate or approved satellite office. In-person attendance may occasionally be required at NIH’s Rockledge II location in Bethesda, Maryland.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer I will:

• Review purchase card transaction data using established NIH business rules, risk indicators, transaction trends, and approved review procedures.
• Analyze targeted transactions to identify unusual, high-risk, unsupported, potentially split, prohibited, or otherwise noncompliant purchases.
• Select transactions for further examination based on documented criteria and senior reviewer direction.
• Reconcile transaction files and confirm that data received from NIH or applicable bank and financial systems are complete and suitable for analysis.
• Request receipts, invoices, purchase authorizations, approvals, evidence of receipt and acceptance, and other supporting documentation from Cardholders and Card Approving Officials.
• Evaluate supporting documentation for sufficiency, accuracy, consistency, timeliness, and compliance with applicable purchase card requirements.
• Verify delegation-of-authority documentation and determine whether transactions were completed and approved by properly authorized personnel.
• Determine whether the purchase process, procurement requirements, receipt and acceptance procedures, and records-retention standards were followed.
• Document review procedures, evidence examined, conclusions reached, and instances of actual or potential noncompliance in standardized working papers.
• Draft clear, factual, and supportable findings, recommendations, correspondence, and standardized review reports.
• Monitor the NIH Purchase Card Compliance Inbox and maintain timely correspondence with Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators, and Government program personnel.
• Track requested documentation, due dates, review status, outstanding actions, Government approvals, and report issuance deadlines.
• Support completion of targeted-review reports within 45 calendar days after receipt of all requested documentation.
• Conduct risk-based Government Purchase Card file reviews covering statistically meaningful samples of Cardholder transactions.
• Apply the NIH Micro-Purchase Threshold File Documentation List, NIH Purchase Card Supplement, and other applicable review instruments.
• Participate in entrance conferences, exit briefings, Institute-level debriefings, and review-status meetings.
• Explain preliminary findings professionally and objectively while avoiding unsupported conclusions or accusatory language.
• Prepare Institute-level summaries showing recurring findings, trends, control weaknesses, and opportunities for corrective action.
• Perform follow-up reviews to determine whether Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, or Institute personnel implemented required corrective actions.
• Identify recurring documentation deficiencies, unusual purchasing patterns, internal-control weaknesses, or emerging compliance risks for escalation to senior reviewers.
• Support special reviews, convenience-check analyses, disputed-transaction research, data calls, and other purchase card inquiries.
• Contribute review statistics, outstanding issues, findings status, and supporting links for monthly and annual contract reports.
• Maintain sensitive transaction information and review documentation only within approved Government or secure contractor systems.
• Protect nonpublic Government information and report suspected security or privacy incidents through the required escalation process.
• Complete required HHS and NIH information security, privacy, records-management, and role-based training.
• Follow Ascension’s ISO 9001:2015 quality procedures, including standardized templates, independent review, document control, version control, and corrective-action tracking.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Senior Data Analytics, Systems, and Risk Consultant to support the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program. This role is designed for an experienced analyst who can transform high-volume financial transaction data into defensible risk findings, identify potentially improper or noncompliant purchase-card activity, and help NIH strengthen oversight of a program that processes approximately 27,000 transactions per month.

The ideal candidate combines advanced data analytics with sound business judgment, knowledge of financial controls, and the ability to work within a regulated federal environment. This person must be capable of examining an entire transaction population, applying Government-provided and independently developed business rules, identifying anomalies, and translating analytical results into clearly documented review decisions.

This is not solely a reporting or dashboard position. The consultant must understand how data, business rules, supporting documentation, system access, internal controls, and regulatory requirements interact. The position is central to NIH’s ability to monitor purchase-card activity, target high-risk transactions, conduct risk-based reviews, protect Government information, and provide reliable program-level reporting.

The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, intellectually curious, methodical, and comfortable questioning incomplete or inconsistent data. The individual must be self-directed while also knowing when to elevate ambiguous transactions, potential control failures, information-security concerns, or significant compliance risks to the Senior Manager, Program Manager, or COR.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Data Analytics, Systems, and Risk Consultant will lead the analytical and technical components of NIH purchase-card transaction screening and compliance-review support. The consultant will acquire monthly purchase-card data from authorized Government or bank systems, validate file completeness, reconcile control totals, standardize data elements, and prepare the transaction population for analysis.

Using NIH-provided business rules, applicable purchase-card policies, transaction trends, and professional judgment, the consultant will screen 100% of the NIH purchase-card transaction population. The role will identify suspicious, unusual, or high-risk transactions requiring further review and will support the selection of statistically significant samples for targeted transaction reviews and broader Cardholder and Card Approving Official file reviews.

The consultant will document business rules, analytical assumptions, data sources, selection criteria, exceptions, and review results sufficiently to support management review and potential audit scrutiny. The individual will also help assess supporting purchase documentation, record instances of noncompliance, track corrective actions, and prepare analytical content for monthly reports, annual summaries, briefings, and Institute- or Center-level debriefings.

The role requires coordination with NIH Purchase Card Program personnel, Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institute and Center Purchase Card Coordinators, the Senior Manager, and other contractor personnel. All data must be stored and handled through authorized systems and in accordance with NIH and HHS security requirements.

Ascension’s Business Data Analyst III labor category requires a bachelor’s degree and at least six years of experience. Its responsibilities include data aggregation, analysis and reporting; business-rule development; workflow improvement; dashboard creation; and the use of low-code or no-code tools to improve operational processes.

Position Objectives

The consultant will help NIH:

• Screen the complete monthly transaction population consistently and efficiently.
• Identify transactions presenting elevated risk of misuse, noncompliance, fraud, waste, or abuse.
• Improve the accuracy, transparency, and repeatability of purchase-card compliance reviews.
• Maintain traceable business rules and defensible transaction-selection methodologies.
• Protect sensitive financial, procurement, personnel, and program information.
• Provide actionable reporting on review findings, recurring trends, and systemic control weaknesses.
• Support timely completion of targeted reviews, file reviews, follow-up reviews, and annual reporting.
• Transition analytical methods, data structures, documentation, and institutional knowledge to NIH or a successor contractor when required.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

• Acquire monthly purchase-card transaction data from authorized NIH, banking, financial-management, or reporting systems.
• Validate incoming data files for completeness, expected record counts, required fields, date ranges, duplicates, missing values, formatting anomalies, and control-total discrepancies.
• Reconcile transaction data against available source-system totals and document unresolved variances before analysis begins.
• Cleanse and standardize merchant names, merchant category codes, cardholder identifiers, transaction dates, dollar amounts, Institute or Center information, and other relevant attributes.
• Maintain secure analytical datasets, working files, review evidence, and reports in Government-approved systems such as SharePoint, secure shared drives, and authorized NIH mailboxes.
• Apply NIH-provided business rules to 100% of the approximately 27,000 monthly purchase-card transactions.
• Develop additional risk indicators based on Government purchase-card requirements, GSA SmartPay practices, transaction patterns, recurring findings, and emerging risks.
• Detect anomalies such as split purchases, duplicate charges, prohibited or questionable merchant activity, unusual purchase timing, transactions near applicable thresholds, missing credits, excessive frequency, and other high-risk patterns.
• Evaluate false positives, rule effectiveness, data limitations, and materiality before recommending transactions for further review.
• Recommend targeted transactions and statistically appropriate samples for compliance review using documented, repeatable, and risk-based selection methods.
• Present the proposed analytical tool, business rules, transaction-selection methodology, and material changes to the NIH Purchase Card Program Manager and COR.
• Review business rules with NIH quarterly and revise logic, thresholds, reference tables, and documentation based on Government direction and observed transaction trends.
• Generate suspicious-transaction, high-risk transaction, exception, and review-selection reports for management consideration.
• Coordinate analytical handoffs to compliance reviewers, including transaction-level rationale, relevant risk indicators, supporting data, and recommended documentation requests.
• Examine supporting transaction documentation to determine whether purchases are adequately supported and consistent with applicable policy and business rules.
• Document confirmed noncompliance, analytical observations, data-quality issues, unresolved questions, and recommendations in standardized working papers.
• Track targeted reviews, file reviews, document requests, responses, outstanding items, follow-up actions, and report status.
• Support follow-up reviews to determine whether corrective actions were completed and whether identified risks remain.
• Analyze review findings across Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institutes and Centers, merchant categories, transaction types, and time periods.
• Identify recurring trends, systemic control weaknesses, training needs, and opportunities to improve business rules or oversight procedures.
• Prepare analytical tables, charts, dashboards, briefing slides, and written summaries for monthly status reports, annual reports, entrance conferences, exit briefings, and Institute-level debriefings.
• Contribute data-mining results, review statistics, outstanding issues, report links, and trend analyses to the monthly activity report due on the first business day of each month.
• Develop analytical content for the annual year-end purchase-card activity report covering NIH’s 30 Institutes and Centers.
• Support special reviews, disputed-transaction analysis, convenience-check analysis, data calls, and responses to internal or external oversight inquiries.
• Coordinate with technical and security personnel regarding data access, system configuration, analytical-tool approval, access controls, and NIH certification and accreditation requirements.
• Protect Government data through authorized access controls, approved storage locations, encryption, and secure transfer practices.
• Report suspected information-security or privacy incidents immediately in accordance with applicable NIH and HHS requirements.
• Maintain version-controlled data dictionaries, rule catalogs, query logic, field mappings, analytical procedures, user instructions, and change histories.
• Develop transition documentation covering analytical models, data structures, business rules, file locations, reports, system dependencies, and operating procedures.
• Brief the Senior Manager, NIH Program Manager, COR, and other stakeholders on significant findings, analytical limitations, emerging risks, and recommended actions.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Senior Government Purchase Card Compliance, Policy, and Training Consultant to support the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program. This position is intended for an experienced compliance, internal audit, acquisition, or financial-management professional who can independently evaluate purchase-card transactions and files, interpret federal regulations, develop defensible findings, update program policy, and translate compliance requirements into practical training and guidance.

The successful candidate will serve as proposed key personnel and a senior functional resource supporting the oversight of a Government Purchase Card program with approximately 950 cardholders, 500 Card Approving Officials, 30 NIH Institutes and Centers, approximately 27,000 monthly transactions, and more than $266 million in annual purchase-card spending.

This position is well suited for a professional who combines:

• Government purchase-card, acquisition, financial, audit, or internal-control expertise.
• Strong analytical judgment and attention to transactional detail.
• The ability to interpret policies and apply them consistently to complex or unusual purchases.
• Excellent written communication and the confidence to brief cardholders, approving officials, coordinators, and Government program leadership.
• Experience developing policies, compliance reports, training materials, and corrective-action recommendations.
• The professional maturity to work independently in a remote environment while protecting sensitive Government information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Government Purchase Card Compliance, Policy, and Training Consultant will lead and perform risk-based reviews of NIH purchase-card activity to identify improper, unsupported, suspicious, or otherwise noncompliant transactions. The consultant will help evaluate 100 percent of purchase-card transaction data through data mining, business rules, trend analysis, and targeted review techniques. The role will also support comprehensive electronic file reviews of cardholders and Card Approving Officials selected through a risk-based methodology.

The consultant will obtain and reconcile transaction data, assess the completeness and sufficiency of supporting documentation, document findings, conduct entrance and exit briefings, prepare standardized review reports, and monitor corrective-action follow-up. Review conclusions must be accurate, consistent, well supported, and issued within the required timeframes.

In addition to compliance reviews, the consultant will help NIH maintain current purchase-card policies, refresher training, new cardholder and approving-official training materials, briefing presentations, responses to internal and external oversight organizations, and special analyses such as convenience-check reviews or disputed-transaction support. The role requires familiarity with federal internal controls, acquisition requirements, charge-card risk management, records retention, fraud indicators, and adult-learning principles.

The ideal candidate is self-directed, highly organized, objective, and comfortable managing multiple reviews simultaneously. The individual must be able to distinguish administrative errors from material compliance concerns, communicate difficult findings professionally, and recommend corrective actions that reduce risk without unnecessarily disrupting program operations.

Primary Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

• Analyze approximately 27,000 monthly purchase-card transactions using Government-provided data, approved business rules, risk indicators, and trend-analysis techniques.
• Review purchase-card transaction data to identify suspicious, high-risk, unusual, split, unsupported, restricted, or potentially noncompliant purchases.
• Develop and periodically refine transaction-screening rules based on federal purchase-card regulations, GSA SmartPay guidance, NIH business rules, identified trends, and lessons learned.
• Validate the completeness, accuracy, and reconcilability of transaction data before performing compliance analysis.
• Select transactions and cardholder files for targeted or comprehensive review using documented, risk-based, and statistically supportable methods.
• Request receipts, approvals, purchase justifications, delegations, funding documentation, evidence of receipt and acceptance, and other supporting records from cardholders and approving officials.
• Evaluate whether supporting documentation sufficiently demonstrates compliance with purchase-card policies, procurement regulations, delegated authority, receipt and acceptance requirements, and records-retention standards.
• Document findings, evidence, conclusions, recommendations, and instances of noncompliance in standardized working papers and review templates.
• Prepare clear, accurate, and defensible review reports within the required 45-calendar-day reporting period.
• Conduct entrance conferences, exit briefings, and Institute-level debriefings with cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Purchase Card Coordinators, and Government program personnel.
• Explain preliminary and final findings professionally and provide the regulatory, policy, or documentary basis for each conclusion.
• Monitor corrective-action responses and perform follow-up reviews to determine whether deficiencies have been appropriately resolved.
• Coordinate review schedules, document requests, meetings, status updates, and correspondence through the NIH Purchase Card Compliance Inbox and other approved Government systems.
• Maintain review records, supporting documentation, reports, and analytical files in Government-authorized repositories such as SharePoint, shared drives, and Outlook.
• Revise the NIH Purchase Card Supplement, operating guidance, procedural documents, job aids, templates, and related program materials at least annually or when regulations change.
• Research updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulation, GSA SmartPay requirements, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act, HHS purchase-card guidance, and NIH-specific policies.
• Assess the operational impact of regulatory or policy changes and recommend corresponding updates to procedures, controls, business rules, and training.
• Develop and update annual online refresher training for cardholders and Card Approving Officials.
• Create or revise new-cardholder, approving-official, and Purchase Card Coordinator training materials on a quarterly or as-requested basis.
• Deliver specialized training addressing emerging transaction trends, recurring deficiencies, new regulations, or identified control weaknesses.
• Prepare presentations, briefing materials, talking points, reports, and meeting content for monthly Purchase Card Coordinator meetings and other leadership engagements.
• Support special reviews, disputed-transaction analysis, convenience-check reviews, data calls, and time-sensitive program inquiries.
• Draft responses and supporting documentation for inquiries from OMB, GAO, GSA, HHS, OIG, NIH management organizations, and other internal or external oversight entities.
• Contribute review statistics, trends, accomplishments, open issues, and recommendations to monthly activity reports and annual program reports.
• Identify patterns of recurring noncompliance and recommend practical preventive controls, policy clarification, targeted communications, or additional training.
• Protect non-public Government information and comply with NIH and HHS requirements for encryption, privacy, records management, incident reporting, and acceptable system use.
• Collaborate with the Senior Manager/Director, NIH Purchase Card Program Manager, COR, Agency Program Coordinator, and other contractor personnel to ensure consistent review methodology and quality.
• Support quality-control reviews of working papers, findings, reports, correspondence, and training products before submission to NIH.
• Escalate suspected fraud, misuse, information-security incidents, material policy violations, and unresolved documentation issues through established Government and contractor channels.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior Program Manager / Quality Control Lead to lead contractor performance for the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program Support Services engagement. This individual will serve as Ascension’s senior operational leader and primary management interface with the NIH Purchase Card Program Manager, Contracting Officer’s Representative, and other designated Government stakeholders.

The selected candidate will manage a team responsible for reviewing government purchase card activity, conducting Cardholder and Card Approving Official compliance reviews, analyzing approximately 27,000 monthly transactions, supporting purchase card policy and training activities, and preparing recurring management and compliance reports. The NIH program currently supports approximately 950 cardholders and 500 Card Approving Officials across 30 Institutes and Centers.

This position is suited for a senior professional who combines program management discipline with strong experience in internal controls, financial compliance, audit or transaction review, federal acquisition, and quality assurance. The successful candidate must be comfortable evaluating sensitive financial information, supervising multiple concurrent review activities, applying regulatory requirements, approving working papers and reports, and communicating findings to senior Government stakeholders.

The ideal candidate is highly organized, analytical, composed under pressure, and able to exercise sound professional judgment with limited supervision. The candidate should be skilled at anticipating performance risks, resolving ambiguous compliance questions, managing competing deadlines, and maintaining the independence and objectivity required for audit-like review activities.

Contractor Role Summary

The Senior Program Manager / Quality Control Lead provides overall management, supervision, workload coordination, and quality control for all contractor activities performed under the NIH task order. The role is responsible for ensuring that work is completed accurately, securely, on schedule, and in accordance with the Statement of Work, applicable Government purchase card regulations, NIH business rules, and Ascension’s ISO 9001:2015 quality-management practices.

The Senior Program Manager will also review and approve working papers, findings, recommendations, reports, correspondence, presentations, and training products before submission to NIH. The position is responsible for staff supervision, schedule and workload management, performance measurement, security compliance, transition planning, surge coordination, and timely escalation of risks and issues.

The solicitation identifies the Senior Manager/Director as essential to contract performance and requires responsibility for team management and supervision, quality control, working-paper approval, adherence to applicable standards, and task-order management. Ascension’s Project Manager III labor category similarly requires management of quality, schedule, cost, scope, client meetings, consultant activities, risks, and agency-level workstreams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Direct all contractor activities supporting NIH Government Purchase Card compliance reviews, program administration, policy, training, reporting, and special assignments.
• Serve as Ascension’s principal day-to-day management contact for the NIH Purchase Card Program Manager, COR, Agency Program Coordinator, and other designated officials.
• Develop and maintain the Contractor Project Management Plan, quality-control procedures, integrated work schedule, staffing plan, risk register, issue log, action-item tracker, and deliverable calendar.
• Assign targeted transaction reviews, comprehensive file reviews, data-analysis activities, policy tasks, training assignments, and reporting responsibilities based on workload, complexity, and staff qualifications.
• Monitor the review of approximately 27,000 monthly purchase card transactions using data mining, Government business rules, transaction trends, risk indicators, and contractor-developed analytical rules.
• Oversee the risk-based annual selection and review of approximately 10% of NIH Cardholders and Card Approving Officials.
• Review transaction selections, supporting documentation, working papers, findings, and recommendations to confirm that conclusions are adequately supported and consistently applied.
• Approve compliance-review reports, standardized letters, Institute-level summaries, briefing materials, and corrective-action follow-up documentation before Government submission.
• Ensure targeted and comprehensive review reports are completed within the applicable 45-calendar-day reporting requirements.
• Coordinate entrance conferences, exit briefings, Institute-level debriefings, monthly status meetings, and other stakeholder engagements.
• Facilitate discussions involving preliminary findings, noncompliance determinations, corrective actions, policy interpretations, and program recommendations.
• Maintain independence, objectivity, consistency, and appropriate professional skepticism throughout the compliance-review process.
• Establish review checklists, sampling controls, working-paper standards, naming conventions, version controls, approval gates, and corrective-action procedures.
• Conduct final quality-control reviews to verify factual accuracy, regulatory support, completeness, consistency, and proper handling of sensitive information.
• Evaluate Government purchase card regulations and policies, including applicable FAR requirements, GSA SmartPay guidance, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, HHS directives, NIH supplements, and related acquisition alerts or memoranda.
• Lead quarterly reviews of transaction-monitoring rules and recommend modifications based on purchasing trends, recurring findings, emerging risks, policy changes, and Government feedback.
• Oversee annual revisions to NIH purchase card policies, guidelines, supplements, and related program documentation.
• Supervise the development and quarterly update of new Cardholder, Card Approving Official, Purchase Card Coordinator, and refresher-training materials.
• Prepare or approve presentations for monthly Institute and Center Purchase Card Coordinator meetings and other Government briefings.
• Manage special reviews, convenience-check analyses, disputed-transaction support, data calls, and responses to inquiries from OMB, GAO, GSA, HHS, OIG, NIH OMA, and other oversight organizations.
• Submit accurate monthly activity reports by close of business on the first business day of each month.
• Produce or approve the annual purchase-card activity report covering all 30 NIH Institutes and Centers, including trends, statistics, recurring findings, and recommendations.
• Track workload, productivity, review aging, completion rates, report timeliness, open findings, corrective actions, quality-control results, and staffing utilization.
• Identify performance, schedule, quality, security, staffing, and regulatory risks and implement timely mitigation and escalation actions.
• Coordinate personnel onboarding, suitability processing, training completion, access requests, nondisclosure agreements, separation procedures, and staffing-roster updates.
• Enforce NIH and HHS information-security, privacy, records-management, encryption, incident-reporting, and Rules of Behavior requirements.
• Report suspected information-security or privacy incidents through the required Government channels within the prescribed reporting period.
• Manage personnel performance, coaching, cross-training, leave coverage, succession planning, and surge assignments.
• Review staff time, workload allocation, progress, and deliverable status to maintain performance within the task order’s scope and budget.
• Coordinate preparation and execution of the contract transition plan, including the orderly transfer of data, working papers, reports, training materials, files, databases, and other contract-developed products.
• Maintain complete and audit-ready project records in Government-approved systems, including SharePoint, Government shared drives, Outlook, and other authorized platforms.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Process Improvement / IT Workflow Analyst to support the Navy Military Sealift Command’s Information Technology Governance and Mission Support effort. This role supports workflow modernization, business process improvement, process documentation, automation planning, internal controls, and operational improvement across IT governance, data management, and organizational governance activities.

This position is ideal for a detail-oriented analyst with experience reviewing current-state business processes, identifying inefficiencies, documenting workflows, supporting BPR/BPI initiatives, and helping clients improve how work is planned, tracked, measured, and controlled. The selected candidate will help MSC N6 improve processes that support C4/IT portfolio management, data governance, financial management coordination, and information management functions. The PWS identifies the overall requirement as supporting IT governance and related processes across MSC C4/IT lifecycle planning, production, and sustainment.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Process Improvement / IT Workflow Analyst will support Task Area 3, Data Management and Data Governance, and Task Area 5, Information Management and Organizational Governance, with related support to portfolio and quality management activities. The analyst will review existing workflows, document current-state and future-state processes, identify process gaps, recommend automation opportunities, support SOP development, and help maintain repeatable business processes that strengthen governance, reporting, and decision-making.

The ideal candidate should be organized, analytical, self-driven, and comfortable working in a fast-paced federal environment where priorities may shift based on mission needs. The candidate should be able to collect information from stakeholders, translate operational pain points into process improvement actions, and produce clear documentation that can be used by Government personnel, technical teams, portfolio managers, and leadership.

The PWS specifically requires data repository compliance assessments, recommendations for data management process improvement, workflow automation, data quality improvement, governance controls, and SOP development for new and changed products. The role also aligns with the PWS quality requirement to recommend business process improvements, maintain version control, and support documentation that meets DoD, DON, and MSC standards.

Expected Day-to-Day Activities

• Analyze current business processes, workflows, tools, forms, data inputs, and handoffs to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, control gaps, and opportunities for improvement.
• Document current-state and future-state workflows using process maps, SOPs, job aids, decision logs, workflow narratives, and requirements documentation.
• Support business process reengineering and business process improvement activities that improve consistency, accountability, data quality, reporting accuracy, and user adoption.
• Identify workflow automation opportunities using tools such as SharePoint, Microsoft Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Dataverse, Tableau, Excel, and Government-approved repositories.
• Develop and update SOPs for new products, workflow changes, dashboards, data repositories, and business processes.
• Support internal control, quality management, and management internal control activities by documenting repeatable processes, control points, version histories, and compliance evidence.
• Facilitate working sessions with Government stakeholders, technical SMEs, data owners, and process users to gather requirements and validate process changes.
• Maintain issue logs, action trackers, process improvement registers, and status updates for assigned workflow modernization activities.
• Recommend practical solutions to simplify, standardize, or automate manual tasks while protecting data integrity, access controls, and reporting reliability.
• Prepare briefings, process summaries, meeting notes, training materials, and user guidance for Government review and approval.
• Support data repository compliance assessments and recommend improvements to workflow design, data standards, validation rules, governance controls, and reporting processes.
• Coordinate with the Program Manager and Task Area Leads to ensure process improvement activities align with schedule, quality, performance, and contract deliverable requirements.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an Information Management & Knowledge Management Specialist to support the Navy’s Information Technology Governance and Mission Support effort. This role supports MSC N6 by developing, organizing, maintaining, and improving the documentation, knowledge repositories, communication products, procedures, and governance artifacts needed to support C4/IT portfolio management, data governance, financial management, and organizational governance activities.

The ITGMS requirement supports MSC N6’s responsibility for lifecycle planning, production, and sustainment of C4/IT systems and capabilities across ashore and afloat environments. The PWS identifies Task Area 5 as Information Management and Organizational Governance, and the overall requirement includes contract program management, C4/IT portfolio management, data management and governance, financial management, and information management support.

Who Ascension is Seeking

Ascension is seeking a detail-oriented, organized, and mission-focused professional who can help the client maintain accurate, accessible, and well-controlled information across SharePoint, Teams, document libraries, governance repositories, and official communication channels. The ideal candidate understands that strong information management is not only administrative support; it is a critical control function that helps leadership make decisions, respond to data calls, manage risk, preserve institutional knowledge, and maintain compliance with DoD, DON, MSC, QMS, and internal control expectations.

The successful candidate should be comfortable writing, editing, formatting, organizing, tracking, and maintaining documents in a structured federal environment. This person should bring strong judgment, attention to detail, version control discipline, customer service skills, and the ability to work with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Summary of Contractor Role

The Information Management & Knowledge Management Specialist will support the development and maintenance of SOPs, MOUs/MOAs, policies, procedures, organizational charts, charters, briefings, reports, correspondence, data call response packages, and internal communication products. The role will also support SharePoint/Teams content management, document control, records organization, knowledge management workflows, and QMS/MIC compliance activities.

The PWS specifically requires the contractor to develop guidance for information collection, storage, availability, and communication processes; modernize workflow processes through automated systems; provide analytical and writing support; prepare briefs, reports, and official correspondence; review and draft charters, MOAs, MOUs, organizational charts, policies, and procedures; respond to approximately 200 data calls annually; support Congressional, DoD, and Government agency inquiry response packages; coordinate strategic communications; and improve internal controls through QMS and MIC processes.

Expected Day-to-Day Activities

• Develop, edit, format, and maintain SOPs, job aids, policies, procedures, charters, MOUs, MOAs, reports, and official correspondence.
• Manage SharePoint, Teams, and approved document repositories to support document control, knowledge sharing, version control, and access to current information.
• Organize and maintain communication artifacts, templates, meeting materials, briefing packages, data call files, action trackers, and governance records.
• Support QMS and MIC activities by updating procedures, compiling supporting documentation, tracking corrective actions, and preparing monthly status summaries.
• Coordinate with subject matter experts, program staff, analysts, and leadership to collect information, validate content, and produce accurate response packages.
• Review documents for clarity, consistency, grammar, formatting, structure, version control, and alignment with Government-provided templates or style expectations.
• Support internal and external communication processes by drafting leadership-ready content, talking points, summaries, and briefing materials.
• Track, catalog, and archive document changes, approvals, comments, and action items in Government-approved repositories.
• Assist with workflow modernization by identifying document management bottlenecks and recommending improvements using SharePoint, Teams, Microsoft 365, Power Automate, or similar tools.
• Maintain quality standards so deliverables are accurate, complete, timely, and require minimal rework.