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Ascension is seeking an experienced Regulatory Document Management Lead – Federal Rulemaking to provide senior-level regulatory document governance, quality oversight, and advisory support to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Program.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned Federal regulatory professional who understands that managing a major rulemaking is substantially more complex than proofreading or document formatting. This individual will help establish and enforce the governance framework by which large, highly technical regulatory documents are assembled, reviewed, versioned, reconciled, and prepared for publication.

The successful candidate should bring direct experience supporting the development of Federal rulemaking packages such as Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs), Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRMs), Supplemental Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRMs), Final Rules, Regulatory Impact Analyses (RIAs), Technical Support Documents (TSDs), Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), Federal Register notices, or comparable Federal regulatory products.

This is an ideal position for someone who combines Federal regulatory-process knowledge, exceptional document-management discipline, advanced Microsoft Word expertise, strong stakeholder management skills, and the judgment to identify problems before they jeopardize a publication schedule.

The role is particularly important because NHTSA’s rulemaking documents may range from approximately 150 to 1,500 pages, involve more than 30 authors, and move through numerous clean/redline iterations and interagency review cycles.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Regulatory Document Management Lead will serve as Ascension’s senior advisor for the governance, quality, consistency, and readiness of NHTSA regulatory documents.

Working in coordination with the Project Manager, Principal Consultant I, Consultants I/II, NHTSA COR/ACOR, regulatory document drafters, and other DOT stakeholders, this individual will establish and reinforce document-management standards; oversee complex document reviews; advise the team on Federal rulemaking document conventions; resolve or escalate significant document issues; and ensure that final products conform to NHTSA requirements and applicable Federal Register drafting guidance.

The position provides particular support to the RFP requirements associated with:

C.4.3 – Style Guides, Templates, and Drafting Procedures: Establish and maintain documentation standards, develop or improve templates, recommend style-guide updates, and provide drafting guides and peer-review checklists consistent with NHTSA requirements and the Office of the Federal Register’s Document Drafting Handbook.

C.4.5 – Comment Resolution and Document Governance: Establish structured processes for tracking comments, decisions, issues, authors, document status, and resolution across potentially 30+ contributors.

C.4.8/C.4.9 – Rulemaking Document Support: Provide senior regulatory expertise for NPRMs, ANPRMs, SNPRMs, Final Rules, EIS documents, RFIs and other regulatory notices, including familiarity with Regulations.gov.

The SOW specifically requires the contractor to maintain master documents incorporating changes and resolved comments, create clean and redline versions, manage references and footnotes, and maintain accurate document status throughout the rulemaking cycle.

Because the intensity of rulemaking activity can change significantly during the lifecycle, the successful candidate must also be comfortable with periodic surge requirements, compressed review periods, and occasional evening, weekend, or potentially overnight responsiveness during critical rulemaking periods.

What the Candidate Will Help NHTSA Solve

This individual will help NHTSA reduce the operational and publication risks created when dozens of contributors simultaneously develop and revise highly complex Federal regulatory documents.

The Regulatory Document Management Lead will help ensure that NHTSA has:

• A controlled and repeatable document-development process.
• Clear document ownership and governance.
• Consistent application of drafting and formatting standards.
• Reliable version control.
• Traceable resolution of comments and issues.
• Accurate clean and redline versions.
• Properly managed references, hyperlinks, tables, figures, captions, cross-references, and footnotes.
• Rapid identification and escalation of unresolved issues.
• Regulatory documents that are publication-ready and capable of passing Government quality review.

This is critical because the RFP identifies incorrect spelling, grammar, style formatting, technical inconsistencies, and poorly prepared graphics or displays as potential grounds for rejection of final deliverables.

Anticipated Day-to-Day / Periodic Activities

The successful candidate will:

• LEAD senior-level governance and quality oversight for Federal rulemaking documents throughout drafting, review, clearance, and final-production cycles.
• ESTABLISH document-management standards, procedures, naming conventions, version-control practices, and escalation protocols.
• DEVELOP and refine NHTSA-specific document templates, style guides, drafting guides, checklists, and peer-review procedures.
• INTERPRET NHTSA document standards and applicable Office of the Federal Register drafting requirements for the broader document-management team.
• REVIEW complex regulatory documents for adherence to approved style, organization, formatting, readability, and document-management standards.
• OVERSEE the production and quality validation of master, clean, redline, review, and final versions of rulemaking documents.
• ADVISE Consultants I and II concerning complex formatting, comment-resolution, document-structure, version-control, and regulatory-document issues.
• TRACK significant document issues, dependencies, open comments, required decisions, and resolution status.
• COORDINATE with the COR/ACOR and, as authorized, regulatory authors and reviewers to facilitate timely resolution of document issues.
• FACILITATE resolution of conflicting comments, unclear edits, inconsistent drafting directions, and cross-document dependencies.
• VALIDATE that approved comments and revisions have been incorporated into the authoritative master document.
• VERIFY consistency among narrative text, tables, figures, captions, footnotes, cross-references, hyperlinks, and supporting documents.
• IDENTIFY document-production, compatibility, schedule, governance, and quality risks and recommend corrective actions.
• ESCALATE issues requiring Government interpretation, policy direction, or COR decision.
• SUPPORT development and maintenance of the Technical Plan, including its style-guide, version-control, comment-management, and footnote-management components.
• ADVISE the team regarding Federal rulemaking document conventions applicable to NPRMs, ANPRMs, SNPRMs, Final Rules, EIS documents and related regulatory publications.
• SUPPORT document preparation and administrative interactions associated with Regulations.gov, as authorized by NHTSA.
• ENSURE appropriate handling of sensitive or non-public Government information.
• VERIFY that applicable electronic deliverables meet Section 508 requirements prior to submission.
• CONTRIBUTE to progress reporting, issue reporting, lessons learned, and recommendations for improving document-production efficiency.
• RESPOND to urgent document-management issues during accelerated rulemaking review periods, including occasional evening or weekend support when required.