Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

Ascension LLC is seeking a detail-oriented, mission-driven Program Manager to lead coordination and day-to-day management of a national Tribal Victim Services Program Management Support Center supporting the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime. This role is central to helping OVC strengthen compliance assistance, capacity building, training, resource development, outreach, reporting, and technical assistance for Tribal and Tribe-serving victim service programs.

The ideal candidate will bring strong federal program management discipline, excellent communication skills, experience coordinating multidisciplinary subject matter experts, and the ability to manage sensitive, high-visibility work in a culturally responsive and trauma-informed environment. The SOW requires the contractor to develop and manage a Support Center that enhances the organizational, administrative, financial, and programmatic capacity of Tribes and Tribe-serving entities providing sustainable assistance to crime victims.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Program Manager will serve as the operational lead for planning, staffing, coordinating, tracking, and reporting across all Support Center activities. This includes managing the annual work plan, overseeing the intake and tracking of compliance assistance requests, coordinating qualified SMEs and subcontractor resources, supporting OVC communications, ensuring deliverables are completed on time, and maintaining consistent processes for monitoring the full lifecycle of compliance assistance. The position requires a self-directed professional who can manage multiple priorities, anticipate delivery risks, coordinate across internal and external stakeholders, and support high-quality assistance to AI/AN grant recipients.

This role is especially important because the SOW calls for assistance that includes customized compliance assistance plans, targeted trainings, peer-to-peer learning, adult-learning-informed content, policy and procedure support, tools and resources, a secure central repository, outreach, special projects, event logistics, and annual reporting.

Position’s Day-to-Day Activities

The Program Manager will be expected to:

• Lead the overall project management approach, work plan, staffing plan, schedule, deliverable tracker, risk register, and communications rhythm for Tasks 1 through 9.
• Coordinate directly with OVC grant managers, Contracting Officer representatives, Tribal-serving partners, SMEs, consultants, and subcontractors to ensure timely and responsive delivery.
• Manage the intake, review, prioritization, assignment, tracking, and closeout of compliance assistance requests from grant recipients or OVC grant managers.
• Ensure initial contact with referral sources or requestors occurs within required timelines and that requests are grouped into cohorts or peer learning groups when appropriate.
• Develop and maintain an annual work plan identifying grant recipient award compliance and capacity-building support needs, proposed products, timelines, responsible staff, and expected outcomes.
• Oversee the development, maintenance, onboarding, and quality management of a qualified SME pool with experience supporting Tribal communities, victim services, grant compliance, training, and culturally responsive technical assistance.
• Assign SMEs and subcontractor resources to compliance assistance plans, trainings, special projects, site visits, listening sessions, webinars, and other events.
• Monitor quality, schedule, cost, scope, and performance across all task areas to ensure work remains aligned with contract requirements and OVC priorities.
• Facilitate regular internal team meetings, OVC coordination meetings, project status reviews, risk discussions, and action item follow-up.
• Review draft compliance assistance plans to ensure they include the grant recipient description, challenge statement, intended outcomes, resources, cost estimate, and measurable follow-up actions.
• Coordinate training, webinar, peer exchange, community of practice, and technical assistance activities that support organizational and capacity-building needs of victim service providers.
• Support development and review of tools, fact sheets, instructional toolkits, curricula, forms, strategic planning resources, needs assessment tools, outreach products, and annual report content.
• Oversee the central repository process, including resource intake, review, organization, version control, accessibility, and coordination with OJP if resources are hosted within OJP’s domain.
• Guide outreach planning for webinars, trainings, tools, and compliance assistance products using clear, timely, plain-language communications.
• Support innovation planning by identifying creative staffing, technology, and delivery strategies to improve support for Tribal grant recipients, including rural and Alaska Native communities.
• Coordinate special projects assigned by DOJ, which may include videos, infographics, success stories, awareness materials, and other products that support Tribal victim service programs.
• Manage logistics and coordination for virtual and in-person site visits, consultations, listening sessions, webinars, roundtables, trainings, and cross-site meetings.
• Produce or oversee monthly, quarterly, ad hoc, and annual reporting products that summarize activities, outcomes, risks, challenges, promising practices, lessons learned, participant feedback, and recommended next steps.
• Track quantitative and qualitative evaluation data, customer satisfaction feedback, SME performance, service delivery outcomes, and follow-up actions.
• Maintain documentation, meeting notes, decision logs, action item trackers, deliverable files, version-controlled products, and project records.
• Apply trauma-informed, culturally respectful, and confidentiality-conscious practices when coordinating work involving victim services, Tribal communities, minors, human trafficking, child abuse, MMIP, domestic violence, elder abuse, and sexual assault-related topics.
• Escalate risks, barriers, resource constraints, and client concerns quickly with practical recommendations for resolution.