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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.