Ascension is seeking an experienced Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead to support strategic communications, audience research, community engagement, and data-driven decision-making for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's Montgomery Planning Department.

The ideal candidate combines the skills of a communications researcher, audience insights professional, community engagement practitioner, and quantitative/qualitative analyst. This individual will help Montgomery Planning understand who it needs to reach, how different audiences prefer to engage, what barriers may limit participation, and how research findings can be translated into practical communications and engagement strategies.

This position is particularly important because Montgomery Planning communicates complex planning, development, and land-use matters to diverse communities. The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead will help ensure those communications are informed by reliable evidence, representative audience insights, accessibility considerations, and equitable engagement practices.

The successful candidate will be analytical but also highly people-oriented. The role requires someone who can move comfortably between survey methodology, data analysis, focus-group facilitation, stakeholder engagement, executive presentations, and strategic communications recommendations.

The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented and highly organized professional who is self-driven, intellectually curious, responsive, and comfortable working in an environment where individual task orders may have different audiences, schedules, research questions, and deliverable requirements.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead will provide senior-level research and audience-insights support across Montgomery Planning communications initiatives.

The position primarily supports Section V.C.1 – Communications Strategy & Support and Section V.C.6 – Data Gathering & Research for Communications Support of the Montgomery Planning On-Call Strategic Communications requirement.

The Lead will design and execute research that helps Montgomery Planning better understand residents, stakeholders, community needs, communications preferences, barriers to participation, and opportunities to broaden engagement in the planning process.

The contractor may be responsible for developing research plans; establishing research objectives and methodologies; determining appropriate sampling approaches; developing surveys; coordinating accessible and multilingual research; conducting quantitative and qualitative analyses; facilitating focus groups and listening sessions; synthesizing findings; and translating evidence into clear, actionable communications recommendations.

This individual must be capable of translating complex datasets and qualitative findings into practical insights that communications professionals, planners, executives, elected officials, and other stakeholders can understand and use.

The position will also support Montgomery Planning's commitment to equitable engagement, accessibility, plain-language communication, and broader public participation, ensuring that research activities consider traditionally underserved and harder-to-reach audiences.

Because this is an on-call environment, the individual must be comfortable quickly assessing new task-order requirements, developing an appropriate research methodology, establishing timelines, coordinating stakeholders, and producing high-quality deliverables with limited supervision.

Day-to-Day / Task-Order Activities

The Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead is expected to:

• DESIGN comprehensive research plans defining objectives, research questions, methodologies, sampling strategies, timelines, stakeholder requirements, and expected deliverables.
• CONDUCT audience research to identify demographics, behaviors, communications preferences, barriers to participation, information needs, and engagement opportunities.
• DEVELOP statistically defensible surveys using appropriate sampling methodologies and question-design practices.
• COORDINATE survey administration across digital, telephone, in-person, or other appropriate channels based on the target population and task-order requirements.
• INCORPORATE accessible and multilingual research approaches to improve participation among diverse communities.
• PLAN focus groups, listening sessions, stakeholder interviews, workshops, and other qualitative research activities.
• DEVELOP recruitment strategies, moderator guides, discussion guides, questionnaires, participant materials, and facilitation protocols.
• FACILITATE focus groups, listening sessions, interviews, and stakeholder research sessions in an objective, professional, and inclusive manner.
• ANALYZE quantitative survey results using appropriate statistical techniques to identify patterns, differences, correlations, trends, and meaningful audience segments.
• PERFORM qualitative and thematic analysis of interview, focus-group, open-ended survey, and stakeholder-feedback data.
• VALIDATE research findings and identify potential limitations, biases, sampling issues, or data-quality concerns before recommendations are developed.
• SEGMENT audiences based on relevant demographic, geographic, behavioral, attitudinal, communications, accessibility, or engagement characteristics.
• SYNTHESIZE quantitative and qualitative findings into concise audience insights, communications implications, and recommended actions.
• TRANSLATE research findings into practical recommendations for messaging, communications strategies, outreach approaches, engagement tactics, campaigns, and content development.
• DEVELOP audience profiles, research reports, executive summaries, findings presentations, dashboards, charts, tables, and decision-support materials.
• PRESENT research findings and recommendations to Montgomery Planning staff, leadership, project teams, community stakeholders, and other audiences.
• COLLABORATE with strategic communications, public relations, planning, digital, creative, outreach, and project-management professionals to incorporate research findings into communications initiatives.
• ADVISE project teams on appropriate research methods, sample design, participant recruitment, survey design, audience segmentation, and interpretation of research findings.
• MONITOR research activities against established schedules, milestones, budgets, quality expectations, and task-order requirements.
• DOCUMENT methodologies, assumptions, research limitations, datasets, findings, and recommendations sufficiently to support transparency and reproducibility.
• PROTECT confidential, restricted, personally identifiable, or sensitive information obtained through research activities.
• CREATE accessible reports and presentations consistent with applicable ADA, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and Revised Section 508 requirements.
• RESPOND quickly to changing research questions, new stakeholder requirements, emerging communications needs, and short-turn task-order assignments.

Core Competencies and Personal Characteristics

The successful candidate should demonstrate:

• Analytical curiosity and disciplined critical thinking
• Strong attention to detail and data quality
• Excellent organizational and planning skills
• Independent judgment and initiative
• Strong facilitation and active-listening abilities
• Cultural awareness and sensitivity when engaging diverse communities
• Ability to remain objective when collecting and interpreting stakeholder feedback
• Ability to work effectively in ambiguous or rapidly evolving environments
• Ability to anticipate research risks and develop practical solutions
• Ability to manage competing priorities and short-turn deliverables
• Strong professional judgment when handling confidential or sensitive information
• Ability to communicate complex research findings simply and persuasively
• Collaborative working style across multidisciplinary teams
• Commitment to accuracy, accessibility, equity, and high-quality client service

Tools and Processes

Depending upon the task order, the Research, Audience Engagement & Insights Lead may use:

Research & Survey Tools

• Qualtrics
• SurveyMonkey
• Alchemer
• QuestionPro or comparable survey platforms

Quantitative Analysis

• Microsoft Excel
• SPSS
• R
• Stata
• Power BI
• Tableau

Qualitative Research

• Microsoft Teams
• Zoom
• NVivo
• Dedoose
• MAXQDA or comparable qualitative-analysis platforms

Communications & Collaboration

• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• Microsoft 365

Accessibility

• Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker
• Adobe Acrobat accessibility tools
• Accessible document-development practices
• WCAG 2.1 Level AA / Revised Section 508 principles

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Strategic Communications & Public Relations Lead to serve as proposed key personnel supporting Montgomery Planning's on-call strategic communications program.

The ideal candidate is a senior communications professional who can move comfortably between strategic planning and hands-on public relations execution. This individual will help Montgomery Planning communicate complex planning, land-use, development, engagement, and public-policy information in a manner that is clear, accurate, accessible, timely, and meaningful to residents, community stakeholders, partner agencies, elected officials, and the media.

This role is particularly important because Montgomery Planning's communications mission is centered on transparency, equitable engagement, accessibility, plain-language communications, proactive outreach, and expanding meaningful participation in the planning process.

Ascension is seeking someone who brings not only excellent writing and communications-planning skills, but also demonstrated experience working directly with journalists, executive leaders, public officials, spokespersons, and other high-visibility stakeholders.

The successful candidate should be calm under pressure, highly responsive, politically and organizationally aware, discreet when handling sensitive information, and capable of rapidly moving from identifying a communications issue to developing a recommended message, response strategy, supporting materials, and execution plan.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Strategic Communications & Public Relations Lead will provide senior-level strategic communications and media-relations support across Montgomery Planning initiatives and individual task orders.

The contractor will support the development and execution of communications and engagement strategies that define objectives, audiences, key messages, tactical approaches, schedules, and performance indicators. The Lead will help translate complex technical and planning information into understandable narratives and actionable communications products.

The position will also lead or provide subject matter expertise for public relations activities, including press releases, media advisories, story pitches, talking points, spokesperson preparation, question-and-answer materials, media inquiry response, media monitoring, earned-media analysis, and rapid-response communications.

The contractor must be comfortable operating in an environment in which priorities can change quickly and communications may involve confidential, sensitive, controversial, or highly visible public issues.

This individual will work closely with Montgomery Planning communications staff, Planning Board personnel, Ascension's Project Coordinator/Program Manager, researchers, designers, web specialists, engagement personnel, and other communications professionals.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is:

• A strategic thinker who can translate organizational objectives into practical communications strategies.
• An exceptional writer and editor capable of communicating complex subjects in clear, concise, plain language.
• A seasoned public-relations professional with demonstrated experience working with journalists and responding to media inquiries.
• Comfortable advising senior executives, public officials, board members, technical professionals, and subject matter experts.
• Detail-oriented and organized while remaining capable of operating effectively in fast-moving environments.
• Self-driven and capable of working independently with limited supervision.
• Skilled at anticipating communications risks before they escalate.
• Able to develop solutions quickly rather than simply identify communications problems.
• Comfortable managing competing deadlines and multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Highly responsive during emerging or sensitive issues.
• Collaborative and capable of coordinating messages across multiple stakeholders and disciplines.
• Sensitive to the communications needs of diverse communities and committed to equitable and accessible public engagement.
• Trusted to exercise sound judgment and maintain confidentiality.

Day-to-Day / Task Order Activities

The Strategic Communications & Public Relations Lead will be expected to:

• ADVISE Montgomery Planning staff and leadership on strategic communications, public relations, positioning, messaging, and emerging communications issues.
• DEVELOP department-level and project-specific communications and engagement strategies incorporating objectives, audience insights, key messages, tactics, schedules, responsibilities, and measurable performance indicators.
• TRANSLATE complex planning, land-use, policy, technical, research, and development information into clear and accessible public-facing communications.
• CREATE messaging frameworks, editorial calendars, communications briefs, campaign briefs, talking points, key-message documents, executive briefing materials, FAQs, and related communications products.
• RESEARCH audiences and stakeholder information to better understand communications needs, information gaps, participation barriers, preferred channels, and engagement opportunities.
• ALIGN communications approaches with Montgomery Planning's Strategic Plan, Equitable Engagement principles, established branding, positioning, and departmental messaging.
• WRITE and edit press releases, media advisories, statements, talking points, story pitches, background materials, media responses, fact sheets, and related public-relations materials.
• PITCH appropriate stories, initiatives, planning activities, and organizational information to relevant media outlets when authorized.
• PREPARE spokespersons, executives, technical experts, Planning staff, and Planning Board personnel for interviews, presentations, difficult questions, and public-facing communications.
• DEVELOP anticipated questions and answers, message maps, briefing books, interview preparation materials, and rapid-response communications packages.
• RESPOND rapidly to emerging communications needs while maintaining message consistency, factual accuracy, confidentiality, and appropriate approval processes.
• ADVISE Montgomery Planning and Planning Board personnel regarding media inquiries, media interest, reputational considerations, and recommended response approaches.
• MONITOR relevant news coverage, public narratives, emerging issues, stakeholder conversations, and media activity.
• ANALYZE earned-media results using quantitative and qualitative measures including reach, volume, sentiment, message penetration, trends, and other applicable indicators.
• PREPARE earned-media reports, executive summaries, trend analyses, and recommendations based on communications performance.
• COORDINATE timely and consistent messaging during sensitive, controversial, confidential, or rapidly developing situations.
• COLLABORATE with research, engagement, digital, web, design, video, advertising, and analytics personnel to maintain consistency across communications channels.
• SUPPORT campaign strategy, audience segmentation, messaging, content development, and communications performance measurement for promotional initiatives.
• REVIEW communications products for message consistency, factual accuracy, tone, readability, brand alignment, accessibility, and audience appropriateness.
• MAINTAIN message libraries, media lists, communications calendars, approval workflows, issue trackers, media-response documentation, and other communications management resources.
• PARTICIPATE in project meetings, planning sessions, public-facing meetings, stakeholder discussions, presentations, and other client activities as required by individual task orders.
• PROTECT confidential, sensitive, restricted, and pre-decisional information in accordance with M-NCPPC requirements.
• ENSURE applicable communications products meet accessibility requirements, including ADA, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and Revised Section 508 standards when required.
• DELIVER assigned communications products within established schedules and respond effectively during accelerated or surge periods.

Tools and Processes

The successful contractor should be comfortable working with or quickly learning tools and processes supporting:

• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint accessibility tools
• Adobe Acrobat accessibility review
• Media monitoring and earned-media measurement platforms
• Media/contact databases
• Editorial and communications calendars
• Communications approval workflows
• Message maps and messaging frameworks
• Issues and risk trackers
• Audience and stakeholder analysis
• KPI and communications-performance reporting
• Social and digital analytics
• Version control and document-management practices
• Plain-language review
• ADA/WCAG 2.1 AA/Revised Section 508 compliance processes

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager to serve as a proposed Key Personnel member supporting the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), Montgomery Planning Department.

This individual will serve as the central management and coordination lead for strategic communications assignments, helping translate Montgomery Planning's communications priorities into organized, executable task-order plans. The Program Manager will coordinate multidisciplinary communications professionals, manage schedules and deliverables, maintain quality and accessibility standards, communicate with client stakeholders, and ensure Ascension and its teaming partners respond efficiently to Montgomery Planning's evolving needs.

The ideal candidate combines senior-level strategic communications expertise with disciplined project and program management capabilities. This is not solely an administrative project coordinator position. Ascension is seeking someone who understands how communications strategies, public engagement, media relations, digital communications, research, advertising campaigns, creative production, and educational outreach fit together—and who can effectively manage specialists performing that work.

The successful candidate should be a highly organized, responsive, detail-oriented professional who can operate with limited supervision, anticipate risks before they affect delivery, manage competing deadlines, communicate effectively with senior stakeholders, and bring structure to ambiguous or rapidly evolving communications requirements.

Summary of the Contractor Role

Montgomery Planning maintains an internal communications team supporting content, web and graphic design, video, marketing, promotions, community engagement, and public information. The Department is establishing an on-call bench of consulting firms to supplement that internal capacity and help communicate complex planning and land-use matters to diverse audiences through clear, accessible, equitable, and data-driven communications.

The Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager will provide overall coordination and management of Ascension's support and serve as a principal connection among Montgomery Planning, Ascension leadership, communications professionals, and subcontractors.

The position supports an engagement encompassing eight service categories:

1. Communications Strategy & Support
2. Public Relations Support
3. Website Maintenance & Technical Support
4. Media & Communications Training
5. Video & Design Support
6. Data Gathering & Research for Communications Support
7. Promotional Campaign Support
8. Development and Maintenance of Educational Engagement Programs

The Program Manager will not necessarily personally perform every specialized technical activity. Instead, the individual must understand these disciplines sufficiently to assign appropriate resources, coordinate their work, manage dependencies, identify risks, review progress, maintain quality, and ensure deliverables satisfy client requirements.

The role is particularly important because Montgomery Planning may issue multiple task orders of different sizes and scopes, requiring the consulting team to rapidly assemble appropriately qualified personnel, establish schedules, manage deliverables, respond to changing priorities, and maintain consistent quality across simultaneous assignments.

Key Responsibilities and Day-to-Day Activities

The Project Coordinator / Strategic Communications Program Manager will:

• SERVE as Ascension's primary task-order coordination and management point for assigned Montgomery Planning communications initiatives.
• LEAD project startup activities by reviewing task-order requirements, clarifying objectives, identifying deliverables, establishing milestones, and determining required staffing.
• DEVELOP task-order work plans, schedules, resource assignments, communications protocols, quality-control checkpoints, and deliverable calendars.
• COORDINATE strategic communications professionals, public relations specialists, researchers, web specialists, trainers, graphic designers, video professionals, advertising specialists, and subcontractors supporting individual assignments.
• TRANSLATE client objectives into clear assignments, schedules, responsibilities, and measurable outcomes for the project team.
• MANAGE communications strategy activities involving audience insights, goals, messages, tactics, timelines, editorial planning, engagement strategies, and key performance indicators.
• COORDINATE development and review of communications products such as campaign briefs, talking points, executive presentations, press materials, reports, editorial calendars, public-information materials, educational content, and stakeholder communications.
• MONITOR task-order schedules, milestones, dependencies, risks, issues, action items, staffing requirements, budgets, and deliverable status.
• ANTICIPATE schedule, staffing, quality, stakeholder, accessibility, and communications risks and implement corrective actions before they affect performance.
• FACILITATE internal project meetings, client status meetings, stakeholder discussions, planning sessions, and project reviews.
• COORDINATE public-facing activities and ensure appropriate subject-matter experts are prepared for presentations, engagement activities, media-related assignments, workshops, and other interactions.
• OVERSEE subcontractor and specialist activities to ensure assignments are properly integrated into the overall project schedule and quality process.
• MANAGE surge requirements by identifying additional qualified resources when multiple or compressed task orders occur simultaneously.
• TRACK project performance against established goals, schedules, deliverables, budgets, and KPIs.
• REVIEW work products for completeness, consistency, professionalism, brand alignment, contractual compliance, and readiness for client submission.
• ENSURE reports, presentations, communications materials, and other deliverables incorporate accessibility requirements applicable to the assignment.
• COORDINATE remediation and verification of deliverables that must comply with ADA requirements, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and Revised Section 508 Standards.
• ENSURE appropriate handling of confidential, sensitive, restricted, and client-owned information.
• SUPPORT rapid-response communications assignments involving emerging, sensitive, or fast-moving issues.
• MAINTAIN project documentation, meeting records, decisions, action-item logs, schedules, deliverable repositories, version controls, and lessons learned.
• PREPARE concise status reports and management briefings identifying accomplishments, upcoming milestones, risks, decisions required, and corrective actions.
• COORDINATE quality-control reviews and ensure client comments are resolved accurately and promptly.
• SUPPORT development of task-order staffing and cost estimates using approved contractual labor categories and rates.
• VERIFY that the appropriate mix of senior, junior, technical, creative, research, and administrative personnel is assigned based upon the complexity and requirements of individual task orders.
• MAINTAIN sufficient availability to respond to new assignments and compressed deadlines during periods of increased Montgomery Planning workload.

Tools and Processes

The successful candidate should be comfortable working with or managing teams using tools such as:

• Microsoft 365, including Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• SharePoint or comparable document and knowledge-management platforms.
• Microsoft Planner, Project, Smartsheet, Asana, Monday.com, or comparable project/work-management applications.
• Project schedules, milestone trackers, risk and issue registers, action-item logs, staffing plans, and quality-control checklists.
• KPI and campaign-performance dashboards.
• Adobe Acrobat Pro and accessibility-checking functionality.
• PAC 2021 or equivalent accessibility-validation tools where applicable.
• Web, media-monitoring, survey, advertising, analytics, and campaign-management platforms appropriate to individual assignments.
• Version control and structured document-review processes.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Project Coordinator / Project Controls Analyst to provide hands-on project coordination, project controls, financial tracking, documentation, and management support for multidisciplinary U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Project Delivery Teams.

This position is designed for a project support professional who does more than perform administrative coordination. The successful candidate will help maintain the information, schedules, milestones, documentation, financial data, and management controls that allow Project Managers and Project Delivery Teams to successfully move complex projects from planning and design through acquisition and construction.

The ideal candidate is a highly organized, detail-oriented, analytical professional who enjoys bringing structure to complex projects. The individual should be comfortable maintaining multiple project trackers, identifying approaching deadlines, validating information, resolving discrepancies, coordinating with multiple stakeholders, and ensuring that Project Managers have accurate and current information upon which to make decisions.

We are particularly interested in candidates with experience supporting Federal, Department of Defense, USACE, architecture/engineering, construction, environmental, facilities, or other infrastructure programs and individuals familiar with Government project management and financial systems.

This is a strong opportunity for someone who wants to build or continue a career in project management, project controls, program analysis, or Federal infrastructure program delivery rather than traditional administrative support.

Contractor Role Summary

The Project Coordinator / Project Controls Analyst supports the Contractor Project Manager and multidisciplinary Project Delivery Teams responsible for military construction and sustainment, environmental, and Interagency and International Services projects.

The position serves as part of the project's operational control structure by maintaining accurate project records, monitoring schedules and milestones, tracking financial and execution information, updating Government enterprise systems, supporting document control, and identifying actions requiring Project Manager attention.

The individual will assist Project Managers in maintaining visibility into the health and status of assigned projects, including design milestones, acquisition activities, regulatory approvals, financial status, schedule dependencies, pending actions, and construction-related project information.

The successful candidate should be:

• Detail-oriented and highly organized.
• Analytical and comfortable working with project and financial data.
• Proactive rather than dependent upon continuous direction.
• Able to recognize missing, inconsistent, or outdated information.
• Skilled at anticipating approaching deadlines and required actions.
• Comfortable managing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Capable of working in an environment where priorities may change quickly.
• Professional when coordinating with Project Managers, engineers, acquisition personnel, financial personnel, technical specialists, and Government stakeholders.
• Able to translate project information into clear trackers, reports, briefings, and management information.

The individual should understand that accurate project controls are critical to successful project delivery. Inaccurate schedules, outdated financial information, missed milestones, incomplete documentation, or unrecorded project decisions can directly affect design, acquisition, construction, funding, and overall mission execution.

Position Responsibilities and Day-to-Day Activities

The Project Coordinator / Project Controls Analyst is expected to:

• COORDINATE project activities, information, milestones, and administrative requirements supporting assigned Project Managers and Project Delivery Teams.
• TRACK project schedules, milestones, action items, deadlines, deliverables, reviews, design activities, acquisition activities, regulatory approvals, and other project dependencies.
• MAINTAIN project control logs, milestone trackers, action registers, project files, correspondence, and supporting documentation.
• UPDATE Government enterprise project and financial management systems, including P2 and CEFMS, as assigned.
• MONITOR project information for approaching milestones, schedule conflicts, incomplete actions, funding concerns, documentation gaps, and other conditions requiring Project Manager attention.
• TRACK project financial information and assist Project Managers in maintaining visibility into budgets, commitments, obligations, expenditures, and other project funding information available through Government systems.
• RECONCILE information contained in project trackers, financial systems, schedules, reports, and supporting documentation to help maintain accurate project records.
• CONTROL project documentation by organizing, maintaining, routing, tracking, and retrieving current project records and supporting materials.
• VERIFY that required project information and supporting documentation are current, complete, properly recorded, and available to the appropriate team members.
• PREPARE project status information, reports, spreadsheets, briefing materials, meeting materials, summaries, and other management products.
• SUPPORT planning and coordination for project reviews, design charrettes, technical reviews, acquisition milestones, regulatory approvals, and other project events.
• FACILITATE routine project coordination meetings by preparing agendas and materials, documenting decisions, capturing action items, and monitoring follow-up actions.
• FOLLOW UP with responsible team members regarding outstanding actions, required documentation, upcoming milestones, or information needed by the Project Manager.
• IDENTIFY potential schedule, documentation, financial, coordination, or execution issues and promptly elevate them to the Project Manager.
• ORGANIZE project information so Project Managers and Project Delivery Team members can rapidly understand project status, upcoming requirements, open actions, and areas requiring management attention.
• SUPPORT Project Managers throughout the planning, design, acquisition, and construction lifecycle of assigned projects.
• COORDINATE across multidisciplinary stakeholders, including engineering, construction, acquisition, financial management, environmental, technical, and program personnel.
• MAINTAIN professional, accurate, auditable, and traceable project records in accordance with applicable Government processes and procedures.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Project Manager to provide hands-on project delivery leadership in support of anticipated professional support services for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Savannah District.

The Project Manager will lead and coordinate multidisciplinary Project Delivery Teams (PDTs) responsible for moving assigned projects through planning, design, acquisition, and construction. This is an execution-focused role for a professional who understands how to control scope, schedule, budget, risk, technical coordination, stakeholder actions, reviews, approvals, and acquisition activities throughout the project lifecycle.

The ideal candidate brings strong project management fundamentals together with experience supporting federal facilities, engineering, construction, military infrastructure, environmental, or other complex capital projects. Candidates with direct USACE, Department of Defense, MILCON/SRM, environmental remediation, or other federal A/E and construction experience are particularly well aligned.

This position is suited for a detail-oriented and highly organized project leader who can operate independently, anticipate problems before they affect project execution, establish clear paths to resolution, and keep multidisciplinary teams focused on milestones and mission outcomes.

Contractor Role Summary

The Project Manager serves as the primary day-to-day integrator for assigned projects and Project Delivery Teams. The individual will manage assigned project scope, schedules, budgets, risks, dependencies, reviews, approvals, acquisition activities, and technical documentation while coordinating among Government stakeholders, engineers, architects, acquisition professionals, construction personnel, technical specialists, customers, and other project participants.

Depending on assigned projects, the Project Manager may support one or more USACE mission areas, including:

• Military Construction/Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization (MILCON/SRM): Manage project delivery through design and construction execution.
• Environmental: Coordinate projects involving environmental investigation, remediation, regulatory requirements, and project closeout.
• Interagency and International Services (IIS): Manage project delivery for other federal customers from planning through final turnover.

Success in this role requires the ability to translate project requirements into executable plans, maintain visibility over multiple moving parts, obtain timely decisions from stakeholders, address schedule and budget risks, and provide Government leadership with accurate information regarding project status and required actions.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

• LEAD multidisciplinary Project Delivery Teams through assigned planning, design, acquisition, construction, and project closeout activities.
• MANAGE project scope, schedules, budgets, milestones, risks, issues, dependencies, and required actions.
• DEVELOP and maintain integrated project schedules and execution plans that clearly identify activities, responsible parties, decision points, and critical milestones.
• COORDINATE engineers, architects, construction personnel, acquisition professionals, customers, technical specialists, regulatory stakeholders, and other PDT members.
• FACILITATE project meetings, design reviews, technical reviews, planning sessions, decision meetings, and stakeholder coordination activities.
• TRACK project actions, deliverables, approvals, funding considerations, schedule impacts, and unresolved issues through completion.
• IDENTIFY emerging cost, schedule, technical, acquisition, regulatory, and execution risks and recommend appropriate mitigation actions.
• COORDINATE required design reviews, technical reviews, Government approvals, and other project decision points.
• SUPPORT development and implementation of acquisition and contracting strategies necessary to advance assigned projects.
• PREPARE and coordinate technical, project management, acquisition, briefing, decision, and supporting documentation.
• REVIEW project information and documentation for completeness, accuracy, consistency, and readiness for Government review or approval.
• MONITOR design and construction progress against established requirements, schedules, milestones, and project objectives.
• COMMUNICATE project status, risks, decisions, resource requirements, and recommended corrective actions to Government leadership and stakeholders.
• MAINTAIN organized project records, meeting documentation, action-item trackers, schedules, decision logs, and supporting files.
• COORDINATE with the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), Contracting Officer (KO), Government Project Managers, technical personnel, and other stakeholders as required.
• SUPPORT Government quality assurance and performance reviews by maintaining accurate and timely project information.
• DRIVE assigned projects toward successful completion while balancing technical requirements, customer priorities, available resources, schedule, budget, and acquisition constraints.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Communication Specialist – Communications, Outreach & Section 508 Lead to help HHS/ACF's Office of Community Services communicate the impact, requirements, opportunities, and results of its discretionary and demonstration grant programs to grant recipients, prospective applicants, Federal leadership, stakeholders, Congress, and the public.

This position is important because DCDDP operates a diverse portfolio of Federal discretionary and demonstration programs serving communities across the United States. The effectiveness of these programs depends not only on sound grant administration, but also on the Government's ability to communicate complex program information clearly, consistently, accurately, accessibly, and in formats that diverse audiences can understand and use.

The successful candidate will combine exceptional writing and editing, public-sector communications, digital content development, stakeholder outreach, visual communications, and Section 508 accessibility expertise. The individual should be able to transform complex grants, program, policy, performance, and technical information into compelling and understandable communications while maintaining Federal editorial, accessibility, quality, and approval standards.

We are particularly interested in candidates who understand that Federal communications require more than creative writing. The successful candidate must be comfortable operating within structured review and clearance processes, coordinating with program managers and subject matter experts, maintaining version control, addressing accessibility requirements before publication, and managing multiple communications products with overlapping deadlines.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Communication Specialist will serve as the primary communications and accessibility resource supporting DCDDP's communications, grant competition outreach, capacity-building activities, and related program-support initiatives.

The specialist will develop, coordinate, edit, format, and quality-check a broad portfolio of internal and external communications, including awardee profiles, one-pagers, press releases, social media content, stakeholder outreach packets, website content, marketing materials, blogs, reports, case studies, white papers, briefing materials, webinars, graphics, presentations, and other multimedia products.

The position will also support communications associated with annual Federal grant competitions. This may include developing reviewer recruitment communications, competition announcements, educational webinars, applicant-support materials, public-facing guidance, and outreach resources designed to improve awareness of DCDDP funding opportunities among prospective applicants, including underserved, rural, Indigenous, and economically disadvantaged communities.

A critical responsibility of this role is ensuring that communications and applicable information and communications technology products meet Section 508 accessibility requirements. The specialist will work with content owners and technical resources to identify accessibility issues early, remediate documents and digital products, maintain accessibility documentation, and support the development or validation of applicable VPAT/Accessibility Conformance Report documentation.

The successful candidate should be a highly organized, detail-oriented communications professional who can work independently while collaborating closely with program specialists, technical advisors, analysts, data professionals, leadership, and other stakeholders. The candidate should demonstrate sound editorial judgment, strong customer-service instincts, and the ability to anticipate communications or accessibility problems rather than waiting for them to become publication or compliance issues.

The individual should be comfortable working in an environment where priorities may shift in response to grant competitions, new awards, leadership requests, emerging program requirements, congressional reporting, national observances, or stakeholder needs.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

• DEVELOP clear, concise, audience-appropriate communications describing DCDDP programs, grant opportunities, recipient accomplishments, program outcomes, and emerging initiatives.
• CREATE one-pagers, press releases, social media content, outreach packets, fact sheets, newsletters, graphics, presentations, blogs, case studies, briefing materials, and related communications products.
• DRAFT and EDIT website content for Government review and publication on ACF and OCS websites.
• PREPARE polished written materials such as congressional reports, white papers, brief reports, program summaries, success stories, and executive briefing documents.
• TRANSLATE complex grant, program, policy, analytical, and technical information into plain-language communications appropriate for recipients, prospective applicants, stakeholders, leadership, and the public.
• DEVELOP communications supporting annual grant competitions, including competition announcements, reviewer recruitment materials, applicant outreach communications, educational resources, and public-facing guidance.
• SUPPORT outreach efforts intended to improve access to DCDDP grant opportunities among rural, Indigenous, historically underserved, and economically disadvantaged communities.
• DEVELOP applicant-support resources such as webinars, presentation decks, videos, frequently asked questions, guides, job aids, and other educational communications.
• PLAN and COORDINATE communications supporting webinars, workshops, roundtables, peer-learning sessions, capacity-building events, and stakeholder engagements.
• CREATE or COORDINATE visual storytelling products, including infographics, program graphics, data visualizations, public-facing dashboards, story maps, and other interactive or multimedia products.
• COLLABORATE with analysts and program staff to convert performance data, program accomplishments, and evaluation findings into accurate and understandable narratives and visual communications.
• MAINTAIN current grant-recipient, stakeholder, outreach, and other communications contact lists as directed.
• APPLY the ACF Editorial Style Guide and appropriate Federal plain-language, editorial, branding, and publication standards.
• REVIEW communications for grammar, clarity, consistency, factual accuracy, readability, visual quality, and alignment with approved messaging.
• PERFORM Section 508 accessibility reviews of Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs, graphics, web content, and other applicable electronic communications.
• REMEDIATE accessibility deficiencies involving document structure, headings, reading order, alternative text, tables, hyperlinks, color contrast, document properties, and other applicable accessibility requirements.
• COORDINATE with content owners, designers, technical staff, and project leadership to resolve accessibility issues before Government submission or publication.
• SUPPORT development, review, documentation, or validation of VPAT/Accessibility Conformance Report requirements when applicable.
• MAINTAIN version control, review comments, approval status, source files, and final communications products within approved collaboration and records-management environments.
• MANAGE multiple concurrent communications assignments while meeting Government review, approval, accessibility, and publication deadlines.
• ANTICIPATE communications, stakeholder, accessibility, or schedule risks and recommend practical solutions before those risks affect deliverables.
• PARTICIPATE in project, communications, outreach, and program meetings and provide communications recommendations, status information, and follow-up actions.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, grant-recipient, program, and personally identifiable information encountered while performing contract responsibilities.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a highly organized, detail-oriented Administrative Associate – Federal Grants & Program Coordination to support the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Community Services and its Division of Community Discretionary and Demonstration Programs.

This position serves as an operational coordination resource supporting the Project Management Office, annual Federal grant competitions, meetings and events, document control, personnel administration, reviewer and panel logistics, action-item tracking, records management, and other administrative activities necessary to keep a complex Federal grants-support program organized and moving on schedule.

The ideal candidate understands that effective program administration is more than scheduling meetings or maintaining files. The person selected for this position will help establish the operational discipline behind DCDDP's capacity-building, grant competition, program-support, and project-management activities.

Ascension is particularly interested in candidates who have supported Federal agencies, Federal grant programs, government program offices, PMOs, acquisition or grants teams, or similarly structured regulated environments.

Successful candidates will be dependable, responsive, highly organized, and comfortable managing multiple activities with competing deadlines. They should be able to anticipate what information, documentation, coordination, or follow-up will be needed before it becomes an issue.

Position Summary

The Administrative Associate provides administrative, logistical, document-management, meeting, and program-coordination support across multiple DCDDP workstreams.

The role supports recurring project-management meetings, grant competition activities, panel and reviewer coordination, internal program operations, event logistics, travel coordination, action-item tracking, staffing records, training records, correspondence, document repositories, and other administrative controls.

During annual grant competition periods, the Administrative Associate may support coordination of reviewer and panel-manager activities, training sessions, schedules, rosters, application-review logistics, communications, documentation, and status tracking.

The position will work closely with Ascension's Project Manager, grant competition specialists, program specialists, technical advisors, analysts, panel managers, and other project personnel.

This is an execution-focused role. The Administrative Associate must be capable of receiving an objective, organizing the activities required to accomplish it, tracking dependencies and deadlines, following up with responsible parties, maintaining accurate records, and escalating issues before they affect schedule or performance.

The successful candidate should be comfortable working in an environment where priorities may change rapidly, particularly during active Federal grant competitions.

What Success Looks Like in This Position

Success means that meetings are organized before participants need to ask, schedules and rosters remain accurate, action items do not disappear after meetings, required documentation can be located quickly, project and competition activities are tracked against deadlines, personnel and training records remain current, and project leadership has reliable administrative information for decision-making.

The Administrative Associate helps prevent administrative breakdowns that could otherwise cause missed deadlines, incomplete records, scheduling conflicts, delayed panel activities, incorrect personnel information, lost action items, or avoidable compliance problems.

Primary Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

• COORDINATE recurring PMO, bi-weekly, ad hoc, grant competition, reviewer, panel, training, and stakeholder meetings.
• SCHEDULE meetings, training sessions, panel activities, interviews, briefings, workshops, and other program events while resolving participant and resource conflicts.
• PREPARE draft agendas, attendee lists, meeting packets, presentations, reference materials, sign-in materials, and administrative documentation.
• DOCUMENT meeting discussions, decisions, risks, issues, assignments, due dates, and action items accurately and professionally.
• MAINTAIN action-item logs and follow up with responsible team members to ensure commitments and deadlines are addressed.
• TRACK project activities, milestones, deliverables, meetings, competition activities, correspondence, and administrative deadlines using approved trackers and collaboration tools.
• COORDINATE administrative logistics associated with annual Federal grant competitions, including reviewer and panel-manager schedules, rosters, training logistics, communications, document distribution, and status tracking.
• SUPPORT the preparation and maintenance of grant competition databases, trackers, reviewer information, applicant-support records, and related administrative documentation.
• ASSIST with reviewer recruitment logistics, reviewer communications, panel assignments, training coordination, and panel-session preparation under the direction of grant competition leadership.
• ORGANIZE application-review, eligibility-review, panel-review, and competition-support documentation to ensure authorized project personnel have timely access to the information needed to perform their responsibilities.
• MAINTAIN controlled contact lists, distribution lists, staff rosters, reviewer lists, panel rosters, calendars, schedules, document repositories, and related project information.
• UPDATE personnel rosters when individuals join, leave, or change responsibilities and promptly communicate staffing changes through established project procedures.
• SUPPORT preparation of position descriptions and onboarding documentation when personnel are added or replaced.
• MAINTAIN required contractor training records and assist personnel with completion and documentation of required HHS/ACF cybersecurity, privacy, Rules of Behavior, and other mandatory training.
• COORDINATE onboarding and offboarding administrative activities including required forms, background-investigation documentation, PIV-related activities, access requests, Government equipment coordination, and records updates.
• TRACK Government-furnished equipment assigned to project personnel and support proper receipt, accountability, reassignment, and return of equipment.
• SUPPORT project document-control processes including file organization, naming conventions, version control, approval status, distribution, archiving, and records retention.
• FORMAT correspondence, meeting materials, reports, presentations, spreadsheets, tables, trackers, and other program documentation using Government-approved templates and standards.
• REVIEW administrative documentation for completeness, consistency, formatting, grammar, dates, names, attachments, and other quality-control considerations before distribution.
• COORDINATE approved travel arrangements and supporting administrative documentation when project personnel are required to attend Government meetings, program events, training, recipient visits, or other approved activities.
• MAINTAIN organized electronic project repositories using Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365, or other Government-authorized collaboration environments.
• MONITOR calendars, schedules, deadlines, deliverable dates, competition milestones, and administrative dependencies and alert project leadership when schedule risks emerge.
• RESPOND professionally and promptly to administrative inquiries from Ascension project leadership, Government stakeholders, project personnel, reviewers, panel managers, and other authorized participants.
• ESCALATE scheduling conflicts, missing information, delayed responses, compliance concerns, resource constraints, and other issues that may affect program execution.
• PROTECT Government, applicant, reviewer, recipient, personnel, proprietary, and other sensitive information in accordance with applicable Federal security, privacy, and records-management requirements.
• SUPPORT transition and knowledge-transfer activities by maintaining accurate files, trackers, contact information, administrative procedures, inventories, and historical records.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a Junior Grants Program & Eligibility Analyst to provide analytical, programmatic, data, and administrative support to Federal discretionary and demonstration grant programs administered by HHS/ACF's Office of Community Services.

This position is well suited for an early-career analyst who understands how disciplined research, accurate data, eligibility reviews, timely reporting, and organized program records contribute to effective Federal grants management. The successful candidate will help DCDDP staff manage information associated with grant recipients and applicants, analyze program and application data, support monitoring and reporting activities, assist with grant competition and eligibility reviews, and help maintain reliable information for program decision-making.

DCDDP administers multiple discretionary and demonstration programs, including Community Economic Development, Rural Community Development, Affordable Housing and Supportive Services Demonstration, the Diaper Distribution Demonstration and Research Pilot, Medical-Legal Partnerships Plus, and other programs authorized through appropriations. Its broader objective is to strengthen the capacity, performance, accountability, and measurable impact of these programs.

The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented, highly organized, analytical professional who enjoys working with data and documents, can follow structured Federal processes, and is comfortable handling multiple assignments with competing deadlines. The individual should be self-driven, dependable, responsive, and capable of working in an environment where priorities may shift during grant competitions, reporting cycles, monitoring activities, and other time-sensitive program events.

The candidate should be comfortable identifying incomplete or inconsistent information, researching issues, documenting findings, escalating questions appropriately, and helping senior team members convert raw program information into accurate, usable decision-support products.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Junior Grants Program & Eligibility Analyst provides foundational analytical and operational support across several DCDDP workstreams, particularly Monitoring, Evaluation and Data Analytics; Annual Grant Competition Support; Policy and Program Support; and Systems Coordination and User Support.

Under PWS §2.3, DCDDP requires analysis, validation, cleaning, and synthesis of performance and compliance data; preparation of performance summaries; monitoring of reporting; and support for reporting systems. Under §2.4, the Government requires applicant eligibility review, database maintenance, application analysis, correspondence, and grant competition support. Under §2.6, contractor personnel support grants administration and program operations. Under §2.7, the contractor prepares, organizes, and validates program data and assists users of Government-approved grants and reporting systems.

The Junior Analyst will work under the direction of Ascension's Project Manager and senior grants/program personnel rather than independently exercising Government decision-making authority. The RFQ specifically prohibits personal services and inherently governmental functions. Contractor personnel therefore provide research, analysis, recommendations, coordination, documentation, and administrative support while Government personnel retain responsibility for official eligibility, funding, policy, and award decisions.

The individual will help ensure that program data is complete, organized, traceable, and useful to Federal decision-makers. The role requires particular attention to accuracy because the information supported by the analyst may contribute to applicant eligibility reviews, grant portfolio monitoring, performance reporting, risk identification, recipient communications, and Congressional or agency reporting.

Expected Day-to-Day and Recurring Activities

• REVIEW grant applications, program records, recipient submissions, and supporting documentation for completeness and consistency against established criteria.
• SUPPORT applicant eligibility reviews by organizing eligibility elements, documenting findings, maintaining review records, and preparing information for Government determination.
• MAINTAIN applicant, recipient, competition, monitoring, and program-support databases, trackers, spreadsheets, and related records.
• COLLECT program, performance, compliance, application, and recipient information from approved data sources and Government-provided systems.
• VALIDATE data for completeness, accuracy, consistency, duplication, formatting issues, and other data-quality concerns before analysis or reporting.
• CLEAN and organize datasets using Microsoft Excel and other Government-approved tools while maintaining traceability to source information.
• ANALYZE grant and program data to identify trends, exceptions, missing information, reporting issues, or matters requiring follow-up.
• PREPARE data tables, summaries, charts, status reports, eligibility summaries, performance highlights, and other analytical products for review by senior team members and Government stakeholders.
• TRACK recipient reporting requirements, submission status, deadlines, outstanding information, and follow-up actions.
• SUPPORT Performance Progress Report and related reporting activities by reviewing submissions and helping prepare performance summaries and follow-up inquiries.
• ASSIST with annual grant portfolio reviews by compiling performance and compliance information used by senior personnel to identify potential risks or monitoring priorities.
• SUPPORT annual grant competitions by maintaining applicant information, tracking submissions, organizing review materials, preparing correspondence, and supporting reviewer or panel-related administrative activities.
• RESEARCH program, grants administration, policy, or procedural questions and summarize findings for senior analysts, Program Specialists, and the Project Manager.
• PREPARE draft correspondence, memoranda, briefing information, worksheets, tracking reports, and other supporting documentation.
• COORDINATE with Program Specialists, analysts, DCDDP personnel, and other authorized stakeholders to resolve missing or inconsistent program information.
• ASSIST users with established grants-management and reporting processes, job aids, guidance, and basic questions involving Government-approved systems.
• DOCUMENT system-related questions, user issues, requested changes, and status information for escalation to appropriate Government system providers.
• SUPPORT development and maintenance of SOPs, process guides, job aids, templates, checklists, and administrative procedures.
• MONITOR assigned deadlines and proactively notify senior team members of approaching due dates, unresolved issues, or potential schedule risks.
• ORGANIZE electronic records and working files in accordance with established privacy, records-management, and information-security procedures.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, applicant, recipient, and personally identifiable information in accordance with HHS/ACF requirements.
• PARTICIPATE in project, program, grants competition, monitoring, and analytical meetings as required and document assigned decisions, actions, and follow-up items.
• PERFORM quality-control reviews of spreadsheets, databases, summaries, and supporting documentation before products are submitted for senior review.

Tools and Processes Used

The position is expected to work extensively with Microsoft Excel, including sorting/filtering, formulas, conditional logic, data validation, lookup functions, PivotTables, charts, reconciliation, data cleaning, and structured tracking workbooks.

The analyst should also be comfortable working with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, SharePoint or comparable collaboration platforms, PDF documents, structured databases, and Government-approved reporting environments.

DCDDP's PWS specifically identifies Performance Progress Reports (PPR), Online Data Collection (OLDC), GrantSolutions, and other data-collection/reporting tools as systems requiring recipient support. Experience with these platforms is strongly preferred but is not identified in the supplied labor-category requirements as a mandatory qualification.

The role will use repeatable processes for data validation, eligibility review, document control, issue tracking, quality assurance/quality control, records management, version control, and escalation of unresolved questions.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Federal Grants Reporting & Systems Analyst to support the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Community Services and its Division of Community Discretionary and Demonstration Programs.

This individual will serve as an analytical and operational bridge between Federal grants program management, performance reporting, data analysis, and Government grants-management systems. The Analyst will help DCDDP transform grant-recipient reporting and program data into accurate, timely, and actionable information that Federal program officials can use to monitor performance, identify emerging risks, support portfolio decisions, and improve program outcomes.

The ideal candidate combines strong analytical skills with practical knowledge of Federal grants programs. The individual should be comfortable working with performance reports, large and sometimes inconsistent datasets, multiple stakeholders, reporting deadlines, Government systems, and business processes that may change as programs and Federal requirements evolve.

Candidates who have directly supported Performance Progress Reports (PPRs), OLDC, GrantSolutions, Federal discretionary grants, or HHS/ACF grants programs will be particularly well positioned for this opportunity.

This is not primarily a software-development position. Ascension is seeking someone who understands how to use data, reporting processes, analytical tools, and existing Government systems to improve the way a Federal grants program operates.

Position Summary

The Federal Grants Reporting & Systems Analyst will support DCDDP's monitoring, evaluation, data analytics, reporting-system coordination, and recipient-support activities across a portfolio of discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

The Analyst will collect, organize, validate, analyze, and synthesize grant-performance and compliance information; develop reporting products and visualizations; support annual portfolio and risk reviews; assist with Performance Progress Report analysis; and help Federal staff identify trends, anomalies, reporting deficiencies, risks, and opportunities for program improvement.

The Analyst will also support OCS staff and grant recipients in effectively using Government-approved reporting and grants-management tools. This includes developing guidance and job aids, supporting training, tracking reporting submissions, assisting with reporting issues, coordinating with Government system providers, documenting user needs, and helping implement business-process or system-related changes.

Successful candidates will be analytical, detail-oriented, organized, responsive, and intellectually curious. They must be capable of working independently in an environment in which priorities can shift, information may initially be incomplete, and multiple deadlines may compete for attention.

The individual should be able to recognize inconsistencies before they become problems, investigate the underlying cause, organize complex information into an understandable format, recommend practical solutions, and communicate findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Primary Responsibilities and Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

• Analyze grant-recipient performance, compliance, program, and reporting data to identify trends, anomalies, emerging risks, and areas requiring follow-up.
• Validate data submitted through Performance Progress Reports and other program-reporting mechanisms for completeness, accuracy, consistency, and reasonableness.
• Cleanse and organize structured and semi-structured datasets to improve data quality and support reliable program analysis.
• Compile performance and compliance information to support annual grant-portfolio reviews and risk-prioritization activities.
• Prepare project-performance summaries, highlights, analytical findings, and recommended follow-up questions based on PPRs and other recipient submissions.
• Develop data summaries, tables, dashboards, scorecards, visualizations, and narrative analyses for program leadership and other stakeholders.
• Produce semiannual and annual trend analyses that convert program data into actionable findings for Federal decision-makers.
• Support development and maintenance of monitoring tools, performance measures, dashboards, and risk-assessment frameworks.
• Prepare accurate data and analytical products supporting Reports to Congress, the OCS Annual Report, leadership briefings, and other internal and external reporting.
• Track recipient report submissions, deadlines, outstanding information, corrections, and follow-up actions.
• Identify late, incomplete, inconsistent, or potentially inaccurate recipient submissions and support timely reminders, delinquency notices, and follow-up activities.
• Assist OCS staff and grant recipients with the effective use of PPR, OLDC, GrantSolutions, and other Government-approved reporting and data-collection tools.
• Coordinate with OCS personnel, ACF offices, Government system providers, and other stakeholders to investigate and resolve reporting-system and user-support issues.
• Document system-related issues, user requirements, recurring problems, resolutions, and opportunities for process improvement.
• Recommend business-process improvements that make Federal grants reporting, data collection, validation, and oversight more efficient and reliable.
• Prepare program data for Government-directed reporting activities, system updates, form modifications, and authorized data transitions.
• Develop reporting guidance, standard operating procedures, job aids, frequently asked questions, presentations, and other user-support materials.
• Deliver or support webinars, demonstrations, and training sessions for OCS staff and grant recipients regarding reporting requirements, processes, and tools.
• Support change-management activities associated with reporting-process or Government-system updates, including stakeholder communication, feedback collection, issue tracking, and implementation support.
• Collaborate with monitoring, evaluation, grants-management, technical-assistance, policy, communications, and program-support personnel to ensure that analytical findings inform broader program activities.
• Maintain organized, auditable documentation supporting data sources, analytical assumptions, corrections, decisions, reporting actions, and quality-control activities.
• Protect Government, recipient, personally identifiable, sensitive, and controlled information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF security, privacy, and records-management requirements.
• Participate in project meetings, status meetings, working sessions, data reviews, and other stakeholder engagements as requested.
• Travel domestically on an occasional basis when required for Government-directed monitoring, recipient support, or related program activities.

Tools, Systems, and Processes

The successful candidate should be comfortable working with a combination of Federal grants-management systems, analytical tools, collaboration technologies, and structured quality-control processes.

Expected or anticipated tools and environments include:

• Performance Progress Reports (PPRs)
• OLDC
• GrantSolutions
• Microsoft Excel, including advanced formulas, pivot tables, data validation, reconciliation, and analytical functions
• Microsoft Power BI and/or comparable dashboard and visualization tools
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams and SharePoint
• Government-approved document repositories and collaboration platforms
• Reporting trackers, issue logs, risk registers, data dictionaries, validation checklists, and quality-control tools

Core processes include data collection, data cleansing, reconciliation, quality assurance/quality control, trend analysis, performance measurement, risk analysis, submission tracking, issue management, business-process improvement, change management, user support, and records management.

The position does not require the individual to independently develop, operate, maintain, procure, or administer ACF/HHS information systems.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an accomplished Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Data Analytics Lead to support the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Community Services in strengthening the performance, accountability, and effectiveness of its discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

This is not simply a dashboard-development or reporting position. Ascension is looking for a senior analytical professional who can transform complex program, performance, compliance, and grant-portfolio data into information that federal program leaders can use to identify risk, understand performance, allocate attention and resources, improve program delivery, and communicate results to executive leadership, stakeholders, and Congress.

The successful candidate should bring a combination of advanced data analytics, monitoring and evaluation, program evaluation, performance measurement, portfolio analysis, risk modeling, business intelligence, and executive-level data storytelling capabilities.

The ideal candidate understands that federal program analytics must answer more than "what happened." The person must be able to determine why it happened, where risks or performance gaps are emerging, what the data indicate about program effectiveness, and what decision or corrective action should follow.

Ascension is particularly interested in candidates who have worked with federal grant programs, human services programs, economic or community development initiatives, program evaluation offices, Inspector General or oversight organizations, or other complex government portfolios requiring defensible performance measurement and executive reporting.

Position Summary

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Data Analytics Lead will provide analytical leadership across DCDDP's portfolio of discretionary and demonstration programs.

The position will design and maintain monitoring tools, dashboards, performance measures, data-quality processes, portfolio risk frameworks, analytical models, and decision-support products that allow OCS leadership to evaluate grant performance and identify recipients requiring increased monitoring, technical assistance, or other programmatic intervention.

The Lead will compile, validate, clean, integrate, and analyze performance and compliance information from multiple program sources and use those data to support annual grant portfolio reviews, risk prioritization, recipient monitoring, program evaluation, trend analysis, and continuous improvement.

This individual will also translate complex findings into concise, decision-oriented reports, visualizations, executive briefings, program summaries, congressional reporting materials, and other internal and external communications.

The ideal candidate is an analytical problem solver who is highly organized, intellectually curious, comfortable working with imperfect or incomplete data, and capable of operating independently in an environment where requirements, program priorities, and analytical questions may evolve rapidly.

The person must be able to anticipate analytical needs rather than simply respond to data requests. They should be comfortable questioning data quality, identifying inconsistencies, developing defensible analytical methodologies, documenting assumptions, and explaining complex quantitative findings to non-technical audiences.

Success in the role requires strong judgment, attention to detail, discretion in handling sensitive information, and the ability to simultaneously manage recurring reporting requirements, emerging leadership requests, portfolio analyses, and time-sensitive grant-program activities.

What This Position Will Help the Customer Accomplish

The Senior Monitoring, Evaluation & Data Analytics Lead will help OCS and DCDDP establish a more proactive, data-informed approach to managing discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

The position will help the Government:

• Identify emerging performance and compliance risks earlier.
• Prioritize monitoring and technical-assistance resources based on evidence.
• Understand trends across individual grants, programs, and the broader DCDDP portfolio.
• Improve the reliability, consistency, and usefulness of grant-performance data.
• Develop repeatable monitoring and risk-assessment methodologies.
• Translate large amounts of program information into actionable management intelligence.
• Assess whether programs and interventions are achieving expected outcomes.
• Strengthen semi-annual, annual, executive, and congressional reporting.
• Improve the quality of data used for leadership and policy decisions.
• Demonstrate program results through compelling data visualizations and narratives.
• Support continuous improvement across DCDDP programs.

Expected Tools and Analytical Processes

The successful candidate should be highly proficient with analytical and business-intelligence tools used to transform program data into decision-ready information.

Core tools and processes are expected to include:

• Microsoft Power BI
• Tableau
• Advanced Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Power Query
• Microsoft 365
• SharePoint or comparable collaborative data repositories
• Dashboard and scorecard development
• Data cleansing and validation
• Data reconciliation
• Data transformation and integration
• KPI and performance-measure development
• Risk scoring and risk-model development
• Portfolio analysis
• Trend and longitudinal analysis
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis
• Data visualization and storytelling
• Program evaluation methodologies
• Data-quality assurance and quality control
• Data dictionaries and metric-definition documentation
• Executive and congressional reporting

Experience with SQL, Python, R, statistical packages, GIS/story-mapping tools, or comparable advanced analytical technologies is desirable where appropriate and permitted within the Government environment.

Experience working with Performance Progress Reports (PPRs), GrantSolutions, OLDC, or comparable federal grants-management and reporting systems is highly desirable.

Position Day-to-Day Activities

• DEVELOP and maintain monitoring dashboards, scorecards, analytical tools, and performance-management products supporting DCDDP grant programs.
• DESIGN quantitative and qualitative risk-assessment methodologies to identify grant recipients exhibiting potential performance, compliance, implementation, or reporting risks.
• COMPILE performance, compliance, financial, operational, and programmatic data from multiple sources to support portfolio-level analysis.
• CLEANSE and validate datasets by identifying incomplete, inconsistent, duplicate, anomalous, or potentially inaccurate information before analysis.
• RECONCILE conflicting information across program reports, data systems, spreadsheets, and other Government-approved sources.
• ANALYZE grant-recipient and program performance to identify trends, patterns, outliers, emerging risks, root causes, and opportunities for improvement.
• SUPPORT annual grant portfolio reviews by synthesizing recipient performance and compliance information and developing data-driven risk prioritization recommendations.
• REVIEW Performance Progress Reports and other recipient submissions to identify significant accomplishments, performance concerns, data gaps, inconsistencies, and matters requiring follow-up.
• PREPARE performance summaries, analytical highlights, follow-up questions, and decision-support information for OCS program personnel.
• PRODUCE semi-annual and annual performance analyses identifying portfolio trends, emerging issues, and actionable management insights.
• ESTABLISH meaningful KPIs, measures, thresholds, and analytical definitions that allow OCS leadership to consistently evaluate program performance.
• BUILD executive-level dashboards and visualizations that allow users to move efficiently from portfolio-level performance to individual program or recipient-level information.
• TRANSFORM complex analytical findings into clear tables, charts, graphics, scorecards, briefing materials, and narrative explanations suitable for non-technical audiences.
• PREPARE data summaries, tables, visualizations, and analytical narratives supporting Reports to Congress, the OCS Annual Report, leadership briefings, white papers, and other internal and external communications.
• SUPPORT data and analytical requirements associated with annual grant competitions, including application, portfolio, risk, technical-assistance, or other Government-directed analyses.
• CONTRIBUTE analytical content to public-facing dashboards, story maps, program highlights, awardee profiles, and other communications designed to demonstrate DCDDP program outcomes.
• ASSESS data availability and quality before beginning analytical work and communicate limitations, assumptions, and risks that could affect interpretation of findings.
• DOCUMENT analytical methodologies, data sources, calculations, metric definitions, assumptions, business rules, and quality-control procedures to support transparency and repeatability.
• ESTABLISH repeatable data-validation and QA/QC procedures for recurring performance reports and analytical deliverables.
• COLLABORATE with Federal program managers, grants-management specialists, program specialists, technical-assistance professionals, communications personnel, and other contractor staff to connect analytical findings with program operations.
• IDENTIFY recipients, programs, indicators, or performance areas requiring deeper analysis, monitoring, or technical assistance.
• TRANSLATE leadership questions into structured analytical questions, data requirements, methodologies, and decision-support products.
• PRESENT analytical findings and recommendations to program managers, senior leadership, and other stakeholders through concise executive briefings.
• RESPOND to emerging and time-sensitive analytical requests while maintaining accuracy, traceability, and appropriate quality-control standards.
• PROTECT personally identifiable, sensitive, confidential, and Government information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF security, privacy, records-management, and information-handling requirements.
• ENSURE dashboards, reports, visualizations, and electronic analytical products comply with applicable Section 508 accessibility requirements.
• PARTICIPATE in project, portfolio-review, monitoring, evaluation, grant-competition, and other meetings as required.
• TRAVEL to grant-recipient locations when required to support Government-directed monitoring, evaluation, technical-assistance, or program-review activities.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced, highly organized, and mission-focused Executive Assistant – OCS Executive & Federal Grants Program Support to provide executive-level administrative and program coordination support to senior leadership within the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Community Services.

This is not a traditional administrative assistant position focused solely on calendar management or clerical support. The successful candidate will operate within a complex Federal discretionary and demonstration grants environment where executive priorities, grant program activities, stakeholder engagements, leadership correspondence, meetings, events, records, and cross-functional initiatives must be coordinated accurately and efficiently.

The ideal candidate understands how to operate in a Federal program office and can anticipate what senior leaders need before an issue becomes urgent. This person will be comfortable coordinating across executives, Federal program staff, grant specialists, contractors, technical advisors, grant recipients, and external stakeholders while handling sensitive or time-critical information with discretion.

Ascension is particularly interested in candidates who have supported Federal executives or senior program officials within a grants, community development, human services, economic development, public health, or comparable mission-support environment.

Success in this role requires exceptional attention to detail, professional judgment, responsiveness, organization, writing ability, and the ability to manage multiple competing priorities with minimal day-to-day supervision.

Role Summary

The Executive Assistant provides administrative and programmatic support to OCS leadership in support of DCDDP's portfolio of discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

The position supports leadership activities, meeting and event coordination, preparation and review of executive-level documents, correspondence, briefings, records, action items, and cross-team initiatives. The Executive Assistant will help create the organizational structure and administrative discipline necessary for OCS leadership to manage a diverse portfolio of Federal programs efficiently.

The individual will work closely with Ascension's Program Manager and other contractor personnel while collaborating daily with Government leadership and program staff. The Executive Assistant must be capable of working in a dynamic environment where schedules, program priorities, leadership requests, funding activities, grant competitions, and stakeholder needs may change rapidly.

The successful candidate will be a detail-oriented and organized planner who is able to anticipate requirements, identify potential scheduling or coordination conflicts, establish workable solutions, and maintain visibility into multiple activities simultaneously.

The Executive Assistant will also help ensure that leadership meetings, decisions, correspondence, and program records are documented accurately and routed appropriately, allowing senior officials to focus their attention on mission, policy, grants administration, recipient performance, and program outcomes.

Position Responsibilities and Day-to-Day Activities

The Executive Assistant is expected to:

• MANAGE complex calendars, appointments, leadership meetings, deadlines, engagements, and competing priorities for designated OCS executives and senior program officials.
• COORDINATE internal and external meetings involving OCS leadership, DCDDP program personnel, Federal partners, contractors, grant recipients, community organizations, and other stakeholders.
• PREPARE agendas, briefing packages, presentations, background materials, talking points, correspondence, participant lists, and related materials in advance of executive meetings and events.
• ORGANIZE executive briefing materials so leadership has accurate, current, and appropriately formatted information before meetings, decisions, presentations, and stakeholder engagements.
• REVIEW high-level documents, correspondence, reports, presentations, memoranda, and other materials for completeness, consistency, grammar, formatting, and readiness for leadership review.
• DRAFT routine executive correspondence, meeting summaries, memoranda, emails, administrative communications, and other documents as assigned.
• PLAN meeting, conference, webinar, workshop, roundtable, and special-event logistics, including scheduling, invitations, participant coordination, facilities or virtual meeting support, materials, and follow-up activities.
• CAPTURE accurate meeting notes, decisions, action items, owners, due dates, issues, and follow-up requirements.
• TRACK executive commitments, suspense items, action items, assignments, correspondence, deadlines, and other leadership requirements through completion.
• FOLLOW UP with responsible staff and stakeholders to obtain information, resolve outstanding administrative actions, and maintain visibility into commitments and deadlines.
• COORDINATE cross-team initiatives requiring participation from multiple DCDDP programs, OCS leadership, Federal offices, contractor personnel, and external partners.
• SUPPORT administrative activities associated with Federal discretionary and demonstration grant programs, including coordination of leadership reviews, grant-related meetings, stakeholder communications, and program documentation.
• MAINTAIN organized electronic records, correspondence files, contact lists, meeting documentation, briefing materials, and other official program information in accordance with established records-management procedures.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, program, recipient, personally identifiable, and other controlled information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF information-security and privacy requirements.
• COORDINATE document routing, review, approval, and clearance processes to help ensure leadership products move through required workflows efficiently.
• ASSIST with development and maintenance of standard operating procedures, administrative guides, templates, trackers, and internal process documentation supporting program-office operations.
• MONITOR upcoming deadlines, leadership engagements, program milestones, and high-priority actions and proactively alert the appropriate personnel when intervention or follow-up is required.
• LIAISE professionally with Federal staff, contractor personnel, grant recipients, external stakeholders, and partner organizations on administrative and coordination matters.
• SUPPORT leadership and program staff during periods of increased workload, including annual grant competitions, award announcements, program events, leadership briefings, and other time-sensitive initiatives.
• USE Government-approved collaboration, communications, records-management, and productivity tools to organize information, coordinate activities, and support efficient program operations.
• ENSURE assigned documents and electronic products follow applicable accessibility, records-management, privacy, information-security, and organizational formatting requirements.
• IDENTIFY administrative bottlenecks, recurring coordination issues, scheduling conflicts, and inefficient workflows and recommend practical improvements to Ascension management.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Federal Grants Competition, Policy & Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) Specialist to support HHS/ACF's Office of Community Services in administering a diverse portfolio of discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

This individual serves as one of Ascension's Program Specialists and brings specialized expertise at the intersection of Federal grant competitions, Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs), grants policy, applicant eligibility, merit-review/panel processes, Federal Register activities, and PRA/OMB clearance requirements.

This position is particularly important because DCDDP administers programs that serve low-income and historically underserved communities and must conduct grant competitions that are legally compliant, transparent, well-documented, timely, and accessible to prospective applicants. The specialist helps DCDDP translate statutory, policy, program, and administrative requirements into executable funding opportunities and defensible grant-administration processes.

The ideal candidate understands that developing a Federal funding opportunity involves much more than editing a NOFO. The candidate should understand how program legislation and appropriations, program policy, eligibility criteria, merit-review requirements, risk considerations, Federal grants regulations, OMB requirements, applicant communications, reviewer processes, documentation, and internal clearance requirements intersect.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who has previously supported an HHS operating or staff division, another Federal grant-making agency, or a comparable Federal discretionary-grant program and wants to apply that experience to programs designed to strengthen economic mobility, community development, supportive services, and organizational capacity.

The RFQ places particular value on Program Specialists with experience supporting DCDDP or comparable Federal discretionary and demonstration programs and recipients in low-income, rural, Tribal, and historically underserved communities.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Federal Grants Competition, Policy & PRA Specialist supports three closely connected areas of DCDDP's mission: annual grant competitions, program and grants policy, and PRA/OMB clearance activities.

Under PWS Section 2.4, DCDDP requires support for the development, revision, launch, execution, and closeout of annual NOFO competitions. The Government anticipates development of up to approximately three NOFOs annually and requires assistance with background and briefing materials, forecasts, synopses, NOFO drafting, applicant resources, reviewer recruitment, panel support, eligibility reviews, applicant communications, and documentation supporting funding recommendations.

Under PWS Section 2.6, the specialist supports policy and grants administration by developing or reviewing policy guidance, Dear Colleague Letters, Information Memoranda, Action Transmittals, Federal Register notices, OMB clearance documentation, grant-administration correspondence, standard operating procedures, and related implementation materials. The PWS anticipates support for at least three OMB clearance documentation efforts annually, subject to change.

Under PWS Section 2.3, the position also assists DCDDP with PRA-related data collection by supporting questionnaires and other data-collection instruments and helping obtain Paperwork Reduction Act clearances and OMB approval.

The successful candidate should therefore be a highly organized Federal grants professional who can manage several parallel actions with different deadlines and stakeholders while maintaining precision, documentation quality, and regulatory compliance.

The individual should be comfortable working in an environment in which program priorities, appropriations, competition schedules, applicant volumes, and leadership requirements may change. The specialist should be self-directed, analytical, detail-oriented, collaborative, and able to anticipate downstream consequences before documentation moves into formal Government review.

The person should be capable of identifying inconsistencies or compliance risks in NOFOs, eligibility criteria, application instructions, policy documents, PRA packages, reviewer materials, and funding-recommendation documentation and then recommending practical corrections before those issues affect the competition.

Because the Government explicitly evaluates the proposed Program Specialist's Federal grants experience, this position should be filled by a candidate with direct Federal discretionary-grants experience, rather than solely general project-management or commercial grants experience.

Position Purpose

The purpose of this position is to help DCDDP execute Federal discretionary and demonstration grant competitions and associated policy and information-collection processes in a manner that is:

Compliant: Actions and documentation conform with Federal grants requirements, PRA/OMB requirements, applicable program authorities, policies, and Government procedures.

Defensible: Eligibility determinations, merit-review processes, panel documentation, recommendations, and policy decisions are supported by complete and traceable documentation.

Consistent: Applicants, reviewers, recipients, Federal staff, and stakeholders receive clear and consistent instructions.

Timely: NOFO, clearance, review, eligibility, panel, and award-support activities progress according to established milestones.

Accessible: Applicant resources and communications help reduce barriers to participation, particularly for rural, Tribal, low-income, Indigenous, and other historically underserved communities.

Operationally sustainable: Repeatable processes, templates, SOPs, trackers, guidance, and lessons learned are established to improve future grant competitions.

Expected Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

• SUPPORT the planning, development, revision, internal review, publication, execution, and closeout of Federal Notices of Funding Opportunity.
• DRAFT forecasts, synopses, NOFO sections, memoranda, briefing materials, policy documents, applicant instructions, leadership decision materials, and related competition documentation.
• ANALYZE proposed funding opportunities for consistency among statutory/program authorities, eligibility requirements, application requirements, evaluation criteria, merit-review processes, program objectives, and award conditions.
• COORDINATE NOFO development activities with DCDDP program staff, grants management personnel, leadership, legal/policy stakeholders, contractors, and other Federal participants.
• DEVELOP reviewer recruitment materials, panel manager resources, reviewer guidance, orientation materials, training presentations, evaluation aids, and competition announcements.
• FACILITATE or support reviewer and panel-manager training and ensure reviewers understand evaluation criteria, documentation expectations, conflicts-of-interest requirements, and competition procedures.
• SUPPORT applicant eligibility reviews by developing review criteria, examining application information, documenting eligibility elements, maintaining review databases or trackers, and preparing applicant correspondence.
• REVIEW panel documentation and summary reports for consistency with program requirements, evaluation criteria, applicable rules, grammar, completeness, and context.
• ANALYZE applications for technical-assistance needs, implementation risks, or other considerations requested by DCDDP while avoiding inherently governmental decision-making.
• PREPARE supporting documentation summarizing grant competition results and DCDDP funding recommendations for Government review and decision-making.
• DEVELOP applicant-support resources, including written guidance, webinars, presentations, frequently asked questions, job aids, videos, or other educational materials.
• RESPOND to or help develop responses to public inquiries following NOFO publication while ensuring consistent interpretation of published requirements.
• SUPPORT outreach efforts designed to improve awareness of DCDDP funding opportunities among rural, Tribal, Indigenous, low-income, high-poverty, high-unemployment, and historically underserved communities.
• ASSESS potential barriers that may prevent eligible organizations from effectively accessing or competing for DCDDP funding opportunities.
• DRAFT Dear Colleague Letters, Information Memoranda, Action Transmittals, formal recipient notifications, leadership memoranda, implementation guidance, amendments, supplemental-award communications, and non-competing continuation materials.
• PREPARE or support Federal Register notices and associated program documentation.
• DEVELOP PRA and OMB clearance documentation for proposed Federal information collections, including supporting documentation and coordination materials.
• REVIEW questionnaires, surveys, forms, reporting requirements, and other proposed information-collection instruments for clarity, necessity, burden considerations, and consistency with approved program requirements.
• COORDINATE PRA/OMB clearance activities, comments, revisions, approval milestones, and supporting documentation with appropriate Federal stakeholders.
• MAINTAIN detailed trackers for NOFO development, clearance milestones, applicant eligibility, panel activities, public inquiries, PRA packages, policy actions, risks, issues, decisions, and outstanding actions.
• IDENTIFY regulatory, procedural, schedule, data-quality, documentation, or stakeholder risks that could delay a grant competition or affect defensibility of the Government's process.
• RECOMMEND mitigation strategies, standardized templates, checklists, SOPs, quality-control steps, and workflow improvements.
• COLLABORATE with other Program Specialists managing recipient portfolios to ensure policy and competition requirements translate appropriately into post-award grants administration.
• SUPPORT DCDDP staff and recipients using Government-approved grants and reporting systems when activities intersect with NOFO, reporting, eligibility, policy, or competition requirements.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, applicant, recipient, procurement-sensitive, and personally identifiable information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF security, privacy, records-management, and confidentiality requirements.
• ENSURE assigned written products are accurate, professionally written, appropriately documented, and suitable for Government review and clearance.

Tools, Systems, and Processes the Candidate Should Be Prepared to Use

The candidate should be highly proficient with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint/Microsoft 365 for drafting, analysis, collaboration, document control, status tracking, and executive briefing development.

Direct experience with GrantSolutions, OLDC, Grants.gov, Performance Progress Reports (PPRs), Federal Register processes, OMB/PRA clearance workflows, and Federal grants-management systems is strongly preferred. DCDDP specifically requires recipient support involving PPR, OLDC, GrantSolutions, and other Government-approved reporting tools.

The successful candidate should also be comfortable working with structured review databases, Excel trackers, decision logs, document repositories, standard operating procedures, checklists, templates, quality-control reviews, version control, and formal Government clearance processes.

Candidates should understand the distinction between providing contractor analytical/advisory support and performing inherently governmental functions. Final eligibility determinations, funding decisions, policy approvals, and other inherently governmental decisions remain with authorized Government officials.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Federal Grants Technical Assistance & Capacity Building Specialist to serve as a Program Specialist supporting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Community Services, Division of Community Discretionary and Demonstration Programs.

This position is intended for a professional who understands that effective Federal grants management extends beyond reviewing reports and tracking deadlines. The successful candidate will help Federal grant recipients strengthen their organizational and programmatic capacity, overcome implementation challenges, improve compliance and performance, and successfully deliver programs serving low-income, rural, Tribal, historically underserved, and historically disinvested communities.

Ascension is particularly interested in candidates who combine Federal grants management knowledge with practical training and technical assistance experience. The ideal candidate knows how to assess a recipient's needs, determine the root cause of a performance or implementation issue, develop a practical intervention, coordinate the appropriate subject-matter expertise, deliver technical assistance, and determine whether the intervention produced the desired result.

This is a key role supporting DCDDP's goal of moving from reactive recipient support toward a coordinated, data-informed, scalable capacity-building model that strengthens accountability, program performance, and sustainability.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Federal Grants Technical Assistance & Capacity Building Specialist will support the planning, coordination, delivery, monitoring, and continuous improvement of training and technical assistance provided to Federal discretionary and demonstration grant recipients.

The Specialist will work with Federal program staff, grant recipients, subject-matter experts, other contractor personnel, and stakeholders to identify recipient needs and implementation risks; develop and deliver responsive capacity-building activities; support recipient compliance and performance; and translate program requirements into usable guidance, training, tools, and technical assistance.

The successful candidate should be a highly organized and detail-oriented professional who can independently manage multiple priorities while remaining responsive to emerging recipient and Government needs. This individual should be comfortable operating in an environment where priorities, recipient risks, program requirements, and workloads may evolve during the contract.

The ideal candidate is self-driven, analytical, collaborative, and capable of working with limited day-to-day supervision. The individual must be able to anticipate potential problems, distinguish symptoms from root causes, develop practical solutions, communicate complex requirements clearly, and build productive relationships with recipients having widely varying levels of organizational capacity.

The role requires both strong interpersonal skills and disciplined program-management habits. The Specialist must be equally comfortable facilitating a webinar for a broad recipient audience, conducting a one-on-one technical assistance engagement with a high-risk recipient, reviewing performance information, drafting a job aid, documenting technical assistance results, or briefing Federal program staff on emerging risks and recommended actions.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Day-to-Day Activities

The Federal Grants Technical Assistance & Capacity Building Specialist will:

• ASSESS recipient organizational, operational, programmatic, reporting, and implementation needs using structured needs-assessment techniques, performance information, recipient feedback, interviews, and other available data.
• DEVELOP technical assistance and capacity-building strategies that respond to Federal program priorities and identified recipient needs.
• PLAN webinars, workshops, roundtables, peer-learning sessions, communities of practice, targeted technical assistance engagements, and other recipient-support activities.
• FACILITATE virtual and in-person training, technical assistance, peer-learning, and stakeholder-engagement sessions for Federal grant recipients.
• DELIVER clear, practical, recipient-centered technical assistance addressing implementation challenges, performance issues, reporting requirements, organizational capacity, program operations, and other grant-related needs.
• DESIGN training materials, toolkits, templates, job aids, guidance documents, checklists, presentations, frequently asked questions, and other capacity-building resources.
• TAILOR technical assistance approaches and materials to the varying levels of experience, organizational maturity, geographic context, and technical needs of individual recipients.
• SUPPORT approximately 24 capacity-building engagements annually across the broader program effort, as assigned.
• CONTRIBUTE to the development and quality review of capacity-building products supporting the program's annual production requirements.
• IDENTIFY recipients requiring additional or targeted assistance based on performance data, risk indicators, reporting issues, implementation challenges, Federal staff observations, and other relevant information.
• COORDINATE recipient-specific technical assistance with Federal program staff, Senior Technical Advisors, subject-matter experts, and other members of the contractor team.
• SUPPORT development and implementation of standardized processes for identifying recipients requiring assistance, matching expertise to recipient needs, documenting technical assistance, tracking actions, and measuring results.
• CONDUCT one-on-one technical assistance engagements with recipients requiring focused or higher-intensity support.
• MONITOR recipient progress following technical assistance and identify additional interventions, escalation needs, or follow-up actions.
• SUPPORT annual grant-portfolio reviews and risk-based processes used to identify recipients requiring additional monitoring, technical assistance, or site visits.
• REVIEW recipient Performance Progress Reports and other program submissions to identify accomplishments, emerging issues, implementation risks, reporting deficiencies, and potential technical assistance needs.
• ANALYZE quantitative and qualitative recipient performance information to identify patterns, trends, recurring challenges, and opportunities for program-wide capacity building.
• PREPARE recipient performance summaries, technical assistance summaries, follow-up questions, recommendations, trend analyses, and program-management documentation.
• ASSIST recipients with understanding and effectively using Federal reporting processes and approved grants-management tools, including Performance Progress Reports, OLDC, GrantSolutions, and other Government-approved reporting or data-collection tools, as applicable.
• DEVELOP webinars, guidance, job aids, and related resources that improve recipient reporting compliance and data quality.
• TRACK recipient reporting requirements, milestones, technical assistance requests, action items, issues, risks, and follow-up activities.
• COORDINATE with Federal program offices and Government system providers regarding recipient reporting questions, data issues, system-related challenges, and programmatic requirements.
• ENGAGE effectively with recipients serving low-income, rural, Tribal, Indigenous, historically underserved, and historically disinvested populations.
• ADAPT technical assistance delivery methods to accommodate differences in recipient resources, staffing, organizational maturity, geographic location, technology access, and community context.
• DOCUMENT technical assistance activities, recipient needs, recommendations, decisions, outcomes, lessons learned, and follow-up actions in a timely and audit-ready manner.
• PREPARE concise briefings, presentations, meeting materials, correspondence, reports, and recommendations for Federal program staff and contractor leadership.
• COLLABORATE with monitoring and evaluation, data analytics, communications, policy, grants administration, and subject-matter-expert personnel to provide integrated support to recipients.
• PARTICIPATE in project meetings, recipient meetings, working sessions, portfolio reviews, site visits, and other activities as assigned.
• TRAVEL domestically, when authorized and required, to support recipient monitoring visits, technical assistance, outreach, or other program activities.
• PROTECT Government, recipient, personally identifiable, controlled, and other sensitive information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF information-security, privacy, records-management, and safeguarding requirements.
• ENSURE that training materials, electronic documents, presentations, and other applicable deliverables meet Section 508 accessibility requirements.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking an experienced Federal Grants Management Specialist to serve as a Program Specialist supporting a diverse portfolio of discretionary and demonstration grant programs administered by the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Community Services.

This position is intended for an experienced Federal grants professional who understands that effective grant administration extends beyond processing documents. The successful candidate will help Federal program officials maintain visibility into grant recipient performance, identify emerging compliance or implementation risks, resolve reporting and program-administration issues, improve the quality of recipient data, and help ensure Federal resources are being administered consistently with program requirements and intended outcomes.

The ideal candidate brings substantial experience supporting the Federal grants lifecycle, particularly post-award administration, grant recipient monitoring, portfolio management, performance reporting, compliance review, risk identification, and recipient technical assistance.

This individual should be comfortable simultaneously managing a large portfolio of grant projects, working with Federal program staff and grant recipients, interpreting complex program requirements, reviewing performance information, tracking deadlines and corrective actions, and communicating clearly with stakeholders who may have varying levels of grants-management expertise.

Because this role may be proposed as Key Personnel, Ascension is particularly interested in candidates whose resumes demonstrate substantive and recent Federal grant experience rather than general project-management experience alone.

Position Summary

The Federal Grants Management Specialist will provide day-to-day program administration, oversight, monitoring, analytical, and technical assistance support for a portfolio of potentially up to 40 grant projects.

The Specialist will support DCDDP in maintaining an accurate and timely understanding of recipient performance, compliance, reporting status, emerging risks, technical assistance needs, and programmatic issues. The individual will review grant and performance information; assist with annual portfolio reviews; support risk-based monitoring; track recipient reporting; prepare follow-up inquiries; support grant-related correspondence; and help recipients effectively use Government-approved grants management and reporting processes and systems.

This position requires someone who is exceptionally organized and comfortable working in a deadline-driven Federal environment. The ideal candidate is self-directed, analytical, detail-oriented, service-minded, and capable of managing competing priorities with limited supervision.

The Specialist should be able to recognize potential issues before they become significant problems, determine what information is needed to understand an issue, organize relevant facts, recommend an appropriate path forward, document actions taken, and follow the matter through resolution.

The role will work closely with other Program Specialists, technical advisors, monitoring and evaluation personnel, data analysts, the Project Manager, Federal program staff, grant recipients, and Government system providers.

Primary Areas of Responsibility

The position primarily supports:

• Federal discretionary and demonstration grant administration
• Grant portfolio and caseload management
• Post-award grants administration
• Grant recipient performance monitoring
• Compliance monitoring
• Performance Progress Report review
• Portfolio risk assessment and prioritization
• High-risk recipient identification and follow-up
• Recipient technical assistance
• Reporting compliance and data quality
• GrantSolutions and OLDC coordination
• Grants administration correspondence
• Standard operating procedures and administrative guides
• Program data validation and reporting
• Process improvement
• Government grants-system user support
• Change-management and stakeholder coordination

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

The Federal Grants Management Specialist will:

• MANAGE an assigned portfolio of potentially up to 40 Federal grant projects and maintain current knowledge of each recipient's program status, performance, reporting obligations, risks, and outstanding actions.
• MONITOR grant recipient performance, compliance, milestones, deliverables, reporting requirements, and other programmatic obligations throughout the award lifecycle.
• REVIEW Performance Progress Reports, recipient submissions, supporting documentation, performance information, and other program data for completeness, consistency, accuracy, and potential compliance or performance concerns.
• IDENTIFY grant projects demonstrating potential performance, compliance, reporting, financial, implementation, or operational risks and elevate significant concerns through established project-management channels.
• SUPPORT annual grant portfolio reviews by compiling, organizing, analyzing, and synthesizing recipient performance and compliance information.
• ASSIST with risk-based prioritization of recipients for additional monitoring, technical assistance, or site visits.
• PREPARE concise grant-project summaries, recipient performance highlights, issue summaries, recommendations, follow-up questions, and supporting documentation for Federal program officials.
• TRACK required recipient reports and submissions, upcoming deadlines, outstanding actions, corrective activities, technical assistance requests, and unresolved programmatic issues.
• ISSUE or support the development of reminders, delinquency notifications, recipient correspondence, and other communications necessary to maintain timely reporting and program compliance.
• PROVIDE recipient-facing technical assistance regarding Federal reporting requirements, performance documentation, grants-management processes, and Government-approved reporting tools.
• SUPPORT recipients in effectively using reporting and grants-management tools including Performance Progress Reports, GrantSolutions, OLDC, and other Government-authorized systems.
• COORDINATE with ACF/HHS staff and Government system providers when recipients or program personnel encounter reporting-system, form, workflow, data, or functionality issues.
• VALIDATE grant and program data before it is used for portfolio reviews, Government reporting, system updates, performance analyses, or management decision-making.
• ANALYZE grant performance and compliance information to identify recurring problems, trends, anomalies, emerging risks, and opportunities for technical assistance.
• SUPPORT development and implementation of standardized processes for identifying grant recipients requiring additional assistance, documenting technical assistance needs, tracking interventions, and monitoring results.
• CONDUCT or support one-on-one capacity-building and technical assistance engagements with grant recipients when requested.
• DOCUMENT recipient interactions, decisions, issues, recommendations, follow-up activities, and other actions necessary to maintain an accurate administrative record.
• DRAFT grant-administration communications supporting pre- and post-award activities, including recipient notifications, amendments, supplemental actions, non-competing continuation activities, leadership memoranda, instructions, and supporting documentation.
• CONTRIBUTE to policy, procedural, and administrative materials including standard operating procedures, internal guides, templates, job aids, process documentation, and program-management resources.
• DEVELOP or contribute to training materials, job aids, webinars, guidance documents, and other resources that improve recipient understanding of grants-management and reporting requirements.
• RECOMMEND practical improvements to grants-administration, monitoring, reporting, and Government-system workflows.
• COORDINATE with technical advisors, analysts, communications staff, program leadership, and other contractor personnel to ensure grant recipients receive consistent and coordinated support.
• PARTICIPATE in project, portfolio, recipient, monitoring, technical-assistance, and Government meetings and provide substantive grants-management input when required.
• PREPARE meeting notes, action items, issue summaries, program updates, portfolio status information, and other documentation associated with assigned grant projects.
• SUPPORT preparation of semiannual, annual, Congressional, leadership, and other program reporting by providing accurate grant portfolio information and analyses.
• ASSIST with recipient monitoring or technical-assistance site visits when directed, including pre-visit preparation, documentation review, meeting participation, issue identification, and post-visit follow-up.
• MAINTAIN Government information, recipient records, and program documentation in accordance with applicable Federal information-security, privacy, records-management, and confidentiality requirements.
• PROTECT personally identifiable, sensitive, controlled, and other Government information and comply with HHS/ACF security requirements and Rules of Behavior.
• ESCALATE significant risks, unresolved recipient issues, reporting deficiencies, or emerging concerns to the Project Manager and appropriate Government stakeholders.

Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking experienced Senior Federal Grants & Capacity Building Advisors to serve as subject matter experts supporting a Federal portfolio of discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

This is not a traditional grants-writing position. We are seeking senior professionals who understand how Federal discretionary grants are designed, competed, awarded, monitored, supported, evaluated, and improved and who can translate that experience into practical technical assistance for Federal program officials, grant recipients, and prospective applicants.

Ideal candidates will have significant experience supporting Federal grant-making organizations, grant recipients, or technical-assistance programs and will possess deep expertise in one or more areas such as:

• Federal discretionary and demonstration grants;
• Notice of Funding Opportunity development and grant competition support;
• Pre-award and post-award grants management;
• Recipient monitoring, compliance, risk assessment, and corrective action;
• Training and technical assistance;
• Organizational and community capacity building;
• Performance monitoring and program evaluation;
• Paperwork Reduction Act and OMB clearance activities;
• Federal Register and Federal grants-policy documentation;
• Grant application, eligibility, and panel-review processes; or
• Outreach and technical assistance involving rural, Tribal, Indigenous, economically distressed, or other underserved communities.

Because this position is structured as a Senior Technical Advisor pool, Ascension does not expect every consultant to be an expert in every area. We are seeking complementary advisors whose collective experience provides comprehensive coverage of the Federal grants and capacity-building requirements of the engagement.

The successful advisor will combine deep subject-matter knowledge with sound judgment, exceptional written and oral communication skills, and the ability to engage effectively with Federal executives, program staff, grant recipients, community organizations, and other stakeholders.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Federal Grants & Capacity Building Advisor will provide specialized expertise to help DCDDP strengthen the performance, compliance, accountability, and long-term sustainability of discretionary and demonstration grant programs.

The advisor will support targeted technical assistance for grant recipients experiencing implementation challenges, compliance concerns, performance risks, or specialized capacity-building needs. Depending on the advisor's area of expertise, assignments may also include support for grant portfolio reviews, recipient risk assessments, monitoring approaches, NOFO development, grant competitions, applicant assistance, policy and program guidance, PRA/OMB activities, or outreach to underserved communities.

The ideal candidate is a self-directed senior practitioner who can quickly assess an unfamiliar situation, identify the underlying problem or risk, develop practical recommendations, and communicate those recommendations in a manner appropriate for both Federal program officials and grant recipients.

The advisor must be comfortable operating in an environment in which requirements may evolve as new discretionary or demonstration programs are authorized or emerging recipient needs are identified. The individual should be skilled at managing competing priorities, working independently with limited direction, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, anticipating potential implementation or compliance problems, and developing solutions before those problems affect program performance.

This position is particularly important because the Senior Technical Advisor pool provides the specialized grants-management and community-capacity expertise needed to complement the broader program management, analytics, communications, and training capabilities of the project team.

Primary Areas of Support

Assignments may support one or more of the following areas:

Targeted Technical Assistance and Capacity Building

Provide specialized assistance to grant recipients experiencing programmatic, operational, implementation, compliance, or performance challenges.

Assist in determining appropriate interventions for recipients identified as high-risk or requiring focused support.

Recommend practical capacity-building strategies that strengthen recipient organizations and improve program sustainability.

Federal Grants Monitoring and Risk Management

Support grant portfolio reviews and risk-based monitoring activities.

Analyze programmatic, performance, financial, and compliance information to identify emerging risks.

Recommend monitoring priorities, technical-assistance interventions, corrective actions, and follow-up activities.

Annual Grant Competition Support

Provide subject-matter expertise during the planning, development, revision, launch, and closeout of Federal grant competitions.

Support NOFO development, application-assistance activities, eligibility reviews, reviewer or panel-manager activities, and technical analysis of applications.

Policy and Federal Grants Administration

Provide expert analysis and recommendations regarding Federal grants policies, program guidance, and administrative requirements.

Support development or review of grant-related guidance, memoranda, Federal Register materials, OMB clearance documentation, and other program documents.

Outreach and Capacity Building for Underserved Communities

Advise on strategies for improving access to Federal funding opportunities among rural, Tribal, Indigenous, economically distressed, and historically underserved communities.

Identify barriers to participation and recommend practical approaches for improving outreach, applicant readiness, and organizational capacity.

Anticipated Day-to-Day / Assignment Activities

The Senior Federal Grants & Capacity Building Advisor will:

• ADVISE Federal program leadership and project staff on discretionary and demonstration grant policies, practices, risks, and program-management issues.
• ASSESS recipient organizational capacity, program performance, implementation challenges, compliance concerns, and technical-assistance needs.
• ANALYZE program, recipient, application, monitoring, and performance information to identify trends, risks, root causes, and opportunities for improvement.
• DEVELOP tailored technical-assistance strategies and recommendations responsive to individual recipient needs.
• DELIVER one-on-one technical assistance, coaching, consultation, workshops, webinars, roundtables, peer-learning sessions, or other capacity-building engagements.
• DESIGN tools, templates, guidance documents, checklists, technical-assistance materials, job aids, and other resources that help recipients successfully administer Federal awards.
• SUPPORT standardized approaches for identifying recipients requiring assistance, matching specialized advisors to recipient needs, documenting interventions, and tracking results.
• REVIEW grant portfolios and contribute subject-matter expertise to risk-based monitoring and oversight decisions.
• EVALUATE recipient progress and recommend follow-up activities, corrective actions, additional technical assistance, or monitoring.
• SUPPORT development and review of Notices of Funding Opportunity, forecasts, synopses, briefing materials, memoranda, and related grant-competition documentation.
• REVIEW grant applications, eligibility information, technical-assistance needs, reviewer materials, or panel documentation when assigned.
• ADVISE on Federal grant competition processes, panel-review practices, applicant assistance, and grant-recipient communications.
• SUPPORT development or review of PRA packages, OMB clearance documentation, Federal Register notices, questionnaires, and other data-collection instruments when within the advisor's specialty.
• CONTRIBUTE to policy documents, Dear Colleague Letters, Information Memoranda, Action Transmittals, program guidance, recipient notifications, and related grants-administration materials.
• DEVELOP strategies for expanding participation in Federal grant programs among rural, Tribal, Indigenous, low-income, economically distressed, and other underserved communities.
• IDENTIFY systemic barriers affecting prospective applicants or grant recipients and recommend practical program or process improvements.
• FACILITATE meetings, interviews, focus groups, workshops, technical discussions, and stakeholder-engagement sessions.
• SYNTHESIZE complex Federal grants requirements, program information, performance findings, and stakeholder input into actionable recommendations.
• PREPARE concise written assessments, briefing materials, recommendations, technical memoranda, meeting products, and other assigned deliverables.
• COLLABORATE with Program Specialists, analysts, communications personnel, project management staff, and other Senior Technical Advisors.
• COORDINATE with Federal program officials and, when applicable, Government-approved grants-management system providers to address recipient or programmatic issues.
• MAINTAIN accurate documentation of technical-assistance activities, recommendations, follow-up actions, and outcomes.
• PROTECT sensitive Government, recipient, applicant, program, and personally identifiable information in accordance with applicable HHS/ACF requirements.
• TRAVEL to grant-recipient locations within the United States or U.S. territories when approved and required for monitoring, technical assistance, outreach, or program support.