Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension is seeking a highly experienced Financial Systems / Defense Agencies Initiative (DAI) Subject Matter Expert to provide specialized surge support to Headquarters Marine Corps financial-management organizations responsible for the integrity, integration, reconciliation, and sustainment of enterprise financial data and systems.

This position is intended for a seasoned DoD financial systems professional who can rapidly assess complex DAI and feeder-system issues, determine the financial and accounting implications of system or data conditions, and provide defensible recommendations to Marine Corps financial-management leadership.

The ideal candidate brings substantial experience operating at the intersection of federal financial management, DoD accounting, enterprise resource planning systems, financial-data integration, USSGL accounting, feeder-system reconciliation, and fiscal-year execution/closeout.

This is not primarily a transaction-processing or routine accounting position. Ascension is seeking an individual who can operate as a senior technical and functional advisor, investigate ambiguous problems, work across system and organizational boundaries, participate effectively in technical working groups, and translate complex financial-system issues into clear written recommendations for decision-makers.

Because the position provides surge rather than continuous full-time support, the successful candidate must be able to become productive quickly, independently research issues, synthesize information from multiple systems and stakeholders, and produce technically sound work products with limited supervision.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Financial Systems / DAI SME supports the Marine Corps’ RFA and SDI organizations in resolving complex financial-system, data-integration, reconciliation, fiscal-code, and reporting issues.

The PWS requires financial systems support involving analysis of financial and business feeder-system interfaces, proper recording of financial transactions to appropriate USSGL accounts, financial dashboard/reporting support, system reconciliations, and advisory support to data-management initiatives and working groups. SSN_ADCFAS_Enclosure_1_PWS_DRAF…

The SME may also support data-management and enterprise-architecture activities involving fiscal-code crosswalks, code alignments, validation of proposed code changes, and reconciliation of DAI data to complementary or supporting feeder systems. The contractor may advise Marine Corps users as well as external stakeholders on application of financial-management and data-management requirements. SSN_ADCFAS_Enclosure_1_PWS_DRAF…

The individual should therefore be capable of diagnosing issues such as:

• DAI-to-feeder-system interface discrepancies;
• erroneous or inconsistent fiscal-code mappings;
• transactions recorded against incorrect USSGL accounts;
• reconciliation differences between DAI and source/supporting systems;
• abnormal or aged accounting conditions;
• fiscal-year closeout issues;
• beginning balance and general-ledger reconciliation anomalies;
• data architecture and financial-code alignment problems;
• reporting discrepancies across financial or business-intelligence environments; and
• specialized Written Recommendations and Analysis for Specific Issues (WRASI).

The Marine Corps’ broader objective is to maintain reliable financial information, support financial statement reporting and audit readiness, sustain its DAI environment, and preserve its unmodified audit opinion. SSN_ADCFAS_Enclosure_1_PWS_DRAF…

Expected Day-to-Day / Surge Activities

The Financial Systems / DAI SME is expected to:

• ANALYZE complex DAI, accounting, financial-data, and feeder-system issues identified by RFA, SDI, or the COR.
• RECONCILE DAI transactions and balances against complementary or supporting feeder systems to identify interface, mapping, timing, or data-quality discrepancies.
• INVESTIGATE financial transactions to determine whether activity has been recorded against the appropriate USSGL accounts.
• ASSESS system-interface conditions affecting accurate financial data interfacing, accrual, accounting, and reporting.
• RESEARCH abnormal accounting conditions, aged transactions, beginning balances, general-ledger variances, and other financial-system anomalies.
• DEVELOP technically supported written recommendations and analyses addressing assigned financial-system issues.
• ADVISE Marine Corps financial-management leadership and working groups regarding DAI, feeder-system integration, fiscal-code alignment, and data-management considerations.
• SUPPORT fiscal-code working groups by evaluating proposed code changes, preparing crosswalks, and determining potential impacts to related business processes and systems.
• VALIDATE fiscal-code and data-architecture alignments across DAI and related financial-management processes.
• EVALUATE the effects of proposed system, interface, or code changes before implementation.
• SUPPORT fiscal-year closeout and opening activities by identifying reconciliation, interface, or accounting issues requiring remediation.
• REVIEW financial dashboards, reports, and underlying datasets to determine whether reported metrics accurately represent source-system information.
• RECOMMEND methods for improving accuracy, consistency, traceability, and presentation of financial-system reporting and dashboard metrics.
• COORDINATE with Marine Corps financial analysts, system owners, data owners, functional users, and technical personnel to obtain information required to resolve issues.
• PARTICIPATE in working groups with Marine Corps and, when directed, external organizations such as OSD, Department of the Navy, DLA, GSA, GAO, DFAS, and independent public accounting firms.
• INTERPRET financial-system and data-management requirements for both technical and functional audiences.
• DOCUMENT findings, assumptions, root causes, system dependencies, risks, and recommended corrective actions.
• BRIEF findings verbally when requested by the COR or Government leadership.
• MAINTAIN accurate supporting documentation and analytical records sufficient to support auditability and future issue resolution.
• COLLABORATE with other contractor personnel while remaining able to independently execute time-sensitive surge assignments.

For WRASI tasks, the PWS requires recommendations to be supported by detailed analytical findings and, where applicable, industry or military citations. SSN_ADCFAS_Enclosure_1_PWS_DRAF…

Tools, Systems, and Processes Likely to Be Used

Based on the PWS, the position should be comfortable working with or around:

Core Financial / Enterprise Systems

• Defense Agencies Initiative (DAI)
• Marine Corps financial and business feeder systems
• Accounting and financial-management information systems
• Supporting business-intelligence/reporting environments

Data and Reporting Tools

• Microsoft Excel, including advanced reconciliation and analytical capabilities
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Teams
• Financial dashboards and standardized/ad hoc reporting environments
• Databases and automated information systems
• Potential Power BI or comparable visualization tools where used by the Government

Financial / Accounting Frameworks

• U.S. Standard General Ledger (USSGL)
• DoD Financial Management Regulation
• Department of the Navy financial guidance
• Treasury financial requirements
• OMB requirements
• DFAS guidance
• Fiscal-year closeout/open-up processes
• General ledger reconciliation
• System-to-system reconciliation
• Data validation and quality assurance
• Fiscal-code crosswalk and alignment analysis