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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.