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Ascension is seeking a Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer II to support the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program. This position is designed for an early- to mid-career compliance, audit, procurement, or financial operations professional who can independently review Government Purchase Card transactions and supporting documentation, identify exceptions, document findings, and communicate professionally with cardholders, Card Approving Officials, and NIH Institute and Center personnel.

The successful candidate will help NIH protect public funds and reduce the risk of improper, unauthorized, unsupported, or inadequately documented purchase card transactions. NIH administers approximately 950 cardholders and 500 Card Approving Officials across 30 Institutes and Centers and processes approximately 27,000 purchase card transactions each month. The contractor is required to support targeted transaction reviews, comprehensive purchase card file reviews, special reviews, disputed-transaction monitoring, convenience-check analysis, and program reporting.

Ascension is seeking someone who combines analytical discipline with sound professional judgment. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, organized, dependable, comfortable working with financial and procurement records, and able to manage multiple reviews with different deadlines. The candidate must be able to recognize incomplete or inconsistent documentation, ask focused follow-up questions, distinguish procedural errors from potentially higher-risk activity, and maintain an objective and professional posture throughout the review process.

This is not solely a data-entry or administrative position. It requires the ability to evaluate evidence against established criteria, explain findings clearly, maintain defensible working papers, and protect sensitive Government information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Purchase Card Compliance Analyst / Reviewer II supports the production-level execution of NIH Government Purchase Card compliance reviews. The analyst reviews transaction data and purchase files using NIH business rules, the Federal Acquisition Regulation, GSA SmartPay requirements, OMB Circular A-123 Appendix B, HHS purchase card guidance, the NIH Purchase Card Supplement, and other applicable policies.

Working under senior oversight, the analyst assists with reviewing targeted transactions identified through data mining and risk-based selection. The analyst also supports comprehensive virtual reviews of Cardholder and Card Approving Official files, including review scheduling, entrance-conference preparation, documentation requests, evidence evaluation, preliminary findings, exit briefings, standardized review letters, Institute and Center summaries, and follow-up reviews.

The position requires strong documentation and correspondence management. Review findings must be traceable to the applicable requirement, supported by evidence, written objectively, and maintained in Government-authorized repositories. Reports for targeted reviews are generally required within 45 calendar days after receiving all requested supporting documentation. Comprehensive file-review reports are also generally required within 45 calendar days of the review unless another date is approved by the Government.

Position Responsibilities and Anticipated Activities

• Obtain monthly purchase card transaction files from authorized NIH or bank systems and confirm that required data elements are present.
• Reconcile transaction files, identify missing or inconsistent records, and document data-quality issues requiring resolution.
• Apply NIH-approved business rules, risk indicators, and transaction trends to support the identification of purchases requiring additional review.
• Analyze purchase card transactions for indicators such as split purchases, restricted items, inadequate competition or price support, unusual merchants, questionable timing, missing approvals, incomplete receipts, or potential misuse.
• Review supporting documentation to determine whether each transaction demonstrates proper authorization, funding, purchase justification, receipt and acceptance, reconciliation, approval, and records retention.
• Evaluate purchase card files against the NIH Micro-Purchase Threshold File Documentation List, NIH Purchase Card Supplement, HHS guidance, GSA SmartPay requirements, and other applicable policies.
• Document compliant and noncompliant conditions in standardized review worksheets, working papers, findings logs, and review reports.
• Maintain complete, accurate, organized, and audit-ready electronic review files in Government-authorized repositories.
• Request additional documentation or clarification from Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, and Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators when submitted evidence is incomplete or unclear.
• Monitor review correspondence through the NIH Purchase Card Compliance Inbox and track open requests, responses, due dates, and unresolved matters.
• Prepare standardized emails and letters describing recommendations, documentation deficiencies, and instances of noncompliance.
• Support risk-based selection of statistically significant purchase card samples for comprehensive file reviews.
• Assist with preparing proposed review schedules for NIH approval before contacting Cardholders or Card Approving Officials.
• Coordinate entrance-conference materials and participate in discussions with Institute or Center Purchase Card Coordinators regarding upcoming reviews and known concerns.
• Participate in virtual entrance conferences, review meetings, exit briefings, Institute-level debriefings, and internal quality-control discussions.
• Explain preliminary findings objectively and provide the policy or documentation basis supporting each finding.
• Prepare individual Cardholder and Card Approving Official review reports for senior review and Government approval.
• Compile Institute or Center-level summaries that identify recurring findings, trends, potential control weaknesses, and recommended corrective actions.
• Conduct follow-up reviews to determine whether required corrective actions have been completed and adequately documented.
• Support special reviews involving disputed transactions, convenience checks, unusual purchase activity, inquiries, or Government data calls.
• Calculate review statistics and maintain trackers showing review status, response timeliness, findings, corrective actions, and completion dates.
• Contribute accurate content and supporting links for monthly activity reports and the annual NIH-wide purchase card activity report.
• Identify emerging transaction patterns, recurring documentation deficiencies, and opportunities to improve business rules, review procedures, training, or internal controls.
• Escalate suspected fraud, misuse, abuse, sensitive-data exposure, or other significant concerns through approved supervisory and Government reporting channels without independently making unsupported allegations.
• Protect non-public Government information, financial data, personally identifiable information, and procurement-sensitive records in accordance with NIH and HHS security requirements.
• Complete required HHS information security, privacy, records management, and role-based training before accessing Government information and annually thereafter.
• Follow Ascension’s ISO 9001:2015 quality procedures, including use of approved templates, peer review, version control, corrective-action tracking, and deliverable quality checks.