Ascension is seeking an accomplished Process Manager / Senior Business Process Management Subject Matter Expert to lead complex business process assessments, workflow documentation, business process reengineering, performance measurement, controls development, and continuous improvement initiatives supporting Montgomery County Public Schools.

The successful candidate will help MCPS evaluate how work is currently performed, identify inefficiencies and control weaknesses, design practical future-state processes, and establish repeatable procedures and performance measures. This role is important to MCPS’s objective of acquiring specialized professional and IT expertise that supports strategic planning, system modernization, enterprise applications, intelligent automation, data-informed decision-making, and the full System Development Life Cycle.

Ascension is looking for a senior professional who can move effectively between strategy and implementation. The ideal candidate will be able to facilitate discussions with executives, business owners, technical teams, and end users; analyze complex and sometimes inconsistent operating practices; translate stakeholder needs into documented requirements and workflows; and guide teams through the adoption of standardized processes.

This position is well suited for someone who is:

• Analytical, organized, and highly attentive to detail.
• Comfortable operating in environments where requirements may initially be incomplete or ambiguous.
• Skilled at anticipating process, control, data, and implementation risks.
• Capable of managing several priorities and stakeholder groups concurrently.
• Confident facilitating discussions and constructively challenging inefficient practices.
• Able to develop practical solutions that can be implemented, measured, and sustained.
• Committed to protecting sensitive student, employee, operational, and organizational information.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Process Manager will lead or support business process management initiatives across MCPS administrative, technology, financial, human capital, student support, and other operational environments. The individual will assess current-state operations, document workflows, identify bottlenecks and control gaps, define business and functional requirements, and develop future-state processes that improve consistency, accountability, service delivery, data quality, and management visibility.

The Process Manager may support enterprise applications and workflows associated with Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, student information systems, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Power Platform, electronic document management platforms, and other MCPS systems. Assignments may include manual process improvement, technology-enabled process redesign, workflow automation planning, policy and procedure development, performance measurement, organizational change support, and implementation monitoring.

The role requires more than producing diagrams. The Process Manager must understand the business purpose behind each process, determine whether the process is properly controlled, evaluate how data moves between participants and systems, and recommend improvements that are realistic within the customer’s operating environment.

The RFP specifically identifies process analysis, workflow redesign, automated workflows, performance reporting, risk management, project management, document management, SOP development, and continuous improvement as relevant areas of support. It also requires services to follow applicable project management, accessibility, security, privacy, and regulatory standards.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead current-state process assessments through stakeholder interviews, workshops, document reviews, system demonstrations, observation, surveys, and data analysis.
• Define the objectives, scope, participants, inputs, outputs, systems, decision points, dependencies, controls, risks, and performance expectations associated with each process.
• Document current-state and future-state workflows using process maps, swimlane diagrams, value-stream maps, decision models, procedures, requirements documents, and supporting narratives.
• Analyze workflows to identify bottlenecks, duplicated activities, excessive handoffs, manual workarounds, unclear ownership, control deficiencies, data-quality problems, and automation opportunities.
• Design future-state processes that simplify workflows, clarify accountability, improve internal controls, reduce unnecessary steps, and support consistent service delivery.
• Facilitate business process improvement and business process reengineering sessions with executives, process owners, subject matter experts, technical teams, and end users.
• Elicit and document business, functional, data, reporting, security, accessibility, and integration requirements.
• Translate operational needs into clear process requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, workflow rules, and implementation recommendations.
• Develop process inventories, responsibility assignment matrices, standard operating procedures, desk guides, job aids, templates, checklists, governance documents, and control narratives.
• Establish process performance measures, key performance indicators, service-level measures, baselines, targets, data definitions, and reporting methods.
• Evaluate process performance using quantitative and qualitative data, root-cause analysis, trend analysis, control assessments, and stakeholder feedback.
• Develop business controls that address authorization, segregation of duties, data validation, approvals, records management, exception handling, and auditability.
• Recommend workflow automation opportunities using tools such as Microsoft Power Automate, Power Apps, SharePoint, electronic forms, document management platforms, and enterprise applications.
• Collaborate with application developers, systems analysts, security specialists, testers, data professionals, and project managers to ensure redesigned processes are accurately implemented.
• Support requirements traceability from business need through process design, configuration, development, testing, deployment, and user acceptance.
• Review proposed system configurations, forms, workflows, reports, and automation solutions for alignment with approved business processes.
• Assist with test scenario development and user acceptance testing to validate that implemented solutions support the approved future-state process.
• Assess organizational and workforce impacts resulting from process, policy, role, system, or technology changes.
• Develop implementation roadmaps, transition plans, process-control plans, training recommendations, communication materials, and adoption measures.
• Monitor implementation progress and process results to determine whether changes are producing the intended outcomes.
• Identify implementation risks, stakeholder concerns, process deviations, and unresolved decisions, and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
• Conduct lessons-learned sessions and post-implementation reviews to identify opportunities for further improvement.
• Prepare concise reports, executive briefings, recommendations, decision papers, and presentations for MCPS leadership.
• Maintain version control, review histories, approvals, and repositories for process documentation and related work products.
• Produce accurate weekly productivity reports summarizing completed activities, deliverables, issues, risks, decisions, and hours expended, as required by the contract.
• Ensure deliverables comply with applicable MCPS privacy, security, records-management, accessibility, and data-handling requirements.
• Protect student, employee, operational, financial, and other sensitive information in accordance with FERPA, COPPA, the Maryland Student Privacy Act, MCPS policy, and applicable task-order requirements.
• Perform other process management, business analysis, workflow improvement, governance, or implementation-support activities assigned under an MCPS Statement of Work.

Anticipated Tools and Methodologies

Candidates should have experience with several of the following:

Process and Analysis Tools

• Microsoft Visio
• Lucidchart
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft Word
• Miro or comparable workshop tools
• Business process modeling tools
• Requirements traceability matrices
• Process inventories and control matrices
• RACI or responsibility assignment matrices

Technology and Collaboration Platforms

• Microsoft 365
• Microsoft Teams
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Microsoft Power Automate
• Microsoft Power Apps
• Microsoft Power BI
• ServiceNow or comparable workflow platforms
• Jira, Azure DevOps, or similar work-management tools
• Electronic document and records-management platforms
• Oracle Fusion Cloud, Infor Lawson, or comparable enterprise systems

Methods and Frameworks

• Business Process Management
• Business Process Improvement
• Business Process Reengineering
• Business Process Model and Notation
• Lean
• Six Sigma
• Root-cause analysis
• Value-stream mapping
• Agile and Scrum
• Systems Development Life Cycle
• PMBOK-aligned project management
• Change management
• Process performance measurement
• Internal-control design
• Continuous improvement
• Capability maturity assessments