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Ascension is seeking an experienced Project Manager / Document Management Lead to provide executive-level project oversight for a federal document management engagement supporting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulatory program.

This is not a traditional full-time Project Manager position. The Government has allocated approximately 150 hours annually, meaning Ascension needs a highly experienced professional who can provide focused project leadership, make sound decisions quickly, organize and direct a document-production team, communicate effectively with federal stakeholders, and remain available during critical rulemaking periods.

The successful candidate will serve as Ascension’s primary management interface with the NHTSA Contracting Officer’s Representative and will oversee a team responsible for producing, controlling, reviewing, formatting, and maintaining complex federal rulemaking documents that may range from approximately 150 to 1,500 pages. The program may involve coordination with more than 30 authors and multiple DOT or federal offices.

This role is particularly well suited for someone who combines strong federal project-management experience with document governance, stakeholder coordination, quality management, risk management, and enough technical knowledge of Microsoft Word, SharePoint, Google Workspace, and collaborative document-development environments to effectively direct the underlying document-management team.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Project Manager has overall responsibility for Ascension’s performance under the task order. The RFP specifically identifies the PM as the individual responsible for the conduct of the project, development and monitoring of the work plan, organization and monitoring of contractor personnel, implementation of program-management controls, and communication with the COR. The RFP also anticipates expertise in data analysis, performance measurement, quality management, and training/professional development.

Under Section G.6, the PM is additionally the authorized supervisor for technical and administrative work and the single point of contact between Ascension and the Government. Under Section G.7, the Project Manager is designated Key Personnel, meaning replacement or removal requires prior Government approval.

The PM will therefore concentrate on governance, coordination, quality, schedule, resource allocation, risk management, customer communications, cost/hours monitoring, and issue resolution rather than personally performing the bulk of document formatting work.

The work supports regulatory documents including NPRMs, ANPRMs, SNPRMs, final rules, environmental impact documentation, RFIs, and other regulatory publications. NHTSA expects the contractor to establish rigorous procedures for document creation, storage, sharing, version control, redline/clean-version generation, comment resolution, and final production.

Position’s Expected Activities

• SERVE as Ascension’s single management point of contact with the NHTSA COR, ACOR, Contracting Officer, and other authorized Government representatives.
• RECEIVE, INTERPRET, AND COORDINATE technical assignments and Government direction within the scope and terms of the task order.
• DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN the project work plan, milestone schedule, resource plan, responsibilities, dependencies, deliverable calendar, and project controls.
• LEAD the post-award kickoff process and coordinate development and revision of the required Technical Plan, including document-management procedures, style guidance, version-control processes, comment-management procedures, and related controls.
• ORGANIZE AND DIRECT Consultant I, Consultant II, Principal Consultant, Senior Consultant, and other assigned resources to ensure timely accomplishment of project objectives.
• ALLOCATE AND REALLOCATE personnel based on rulemaking workload, document volume, priorities, schedules, review cycles, and emerging surge requirements.
• MONITOR the development, review, formatting, editing, versioning, and final production of potentially large and complex regulatory documents.
• COORDINATE document issues and comment resolution among NHTSA leadership, COR/ACOR representatives, DOT offices, federal stakeholders, and potentially more than 30 document authors.
• MAINTAIN project risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, milestones, action items, and escalation records.
• IDENTIFY AND ESCALATE schedule delays, resource constraints, quality concerns, document-control problems, conflicting Government direction, and unresolved dependencies before they affect deliverables.
• RECOMMEND corrective actions and practical solutions whenever project problems or delays occur.
• OVERSEE SharePoint, Google Drive, or comparable Government-controlled document repositories and confirm appropriate document-access and governance procedures are followed.
• VERIFY that version-control, file-naming, comment-resolution, redline, clean-version, master-document, and reference-management procedures are consistently implemented.
• ENFORCE document QA/QC procedures covering formatting, tables, figures, captions, hyperlinks, footnotes, cross-references, grammar, spelling, readability, style-guide compliance, and final document integrity.
• MONITOR compliance with NHTSA, DOT, Federal Register, Section 508, records-management, privacy, information-security, and document-handling requirements applicable to deliverables.
• PREPARE OR OVERSEE weekly progress reporting, bi-weekly coordination calls, monthly management meetings, and monthly status reporting.
• TRACK labor utilization, expenditures, remaining hours, estimated cost to complete, deliverable progress, and schedule performance under the T&M task order.
• REPORT accomplishments, upcoming work, risks, problems, required Government actions, remaining deliverables, and financial status to Ascension and NHTSA leadership.
• MANAGE surge and priority periods in which support may require evening, weekend, or potentially overnight responsiveness.
• ENSURE confidentiality and proper handling of Government information, documents, data, and sensitive information.

The RFP specifically warns that document-management requirements can vary substantially over a rulemaking cycle and may occasionally require evening, weekend, or overnight responsiveness during intensive review periods.

Tools, Systems, and Processes

The ideal candidate should be capable of managing teams operating with:

Microsoft 365: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and SharePoint; particularly Word Track Changes, Compare, document styles, sections, tables, references and document-review functions.

Google Workspace: Google Docs, Google Drive and associated collaborative document controls.

Adobe Acrobat/PDF: final-document review, reference-document management and PDF production.

Project Controls: project schedules, milestone trackers, RAID logs, decision logs, action-item trackers, resource plans, cost/hour tracking and status-reporting tools.

Document Management Controls: version-control plans, naming conventions, master-document controls, comment-resolution matrices, document status logs, QA/QC checklists and controlled repositories.

Federal Documentation: Office of the Federal Register Document Drafting Handbook, NHTSA/DOT style guidance and Section 508 accessibility practices.

Regulations.gov: familiarity with the system and federal regulatory-document environment is strongly preferred because the SOW specifically identifies this experience as desirable.