Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

ASCENSION is seeking an experienced Senior Communications Specialist to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Grant Programs Directorate, or GPD, under the Grant Programmatic, Administration, and Technical Services program.

This role is designed for a senior communications professional who can translate complex federal grant policies, program requirements, operational data, and leadership priorities into clear, accurate, audience-appropriate communications. The selected candidate supports communications with FEMA leadership, program staff, grant recipients, state, local, tribal, and territorial partners, and other internal and external stakeholders.

The position requires more than strong writing. The successful candidate understands how communications support program implementation, stakeholder confidence, policy adoption, organizational change, grant recipient awareness, and executive decision-making. This individual serves as a senior reviewer and communications advisor, helping FEMA ensure that correspondence, outreach materials, executive briefings, program announcements, meeting products, and public-facing information are accurate, consistent, timely, and aligned with approved Government messaging.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Communications Specialist supports planning, development, review, coordination, and execution of internal and external communications across FEMA’s grants portfolio.

The role develops briefing materials for new or updated grant programs, prepares and reviews responses to program and data inquiries, documents new grant-related policies and reporting requirements, supports strategic communications and outreach initiatives, and develops products such as newsletters, town halls, fact sheets, and communication toolkits.

The position also creates and quality-checks correspondence, expedites executive briefings, prepares presentation materials, supports meeting and conference communications, and facilitates high-level discussions with internal and external stakeholders. These responsibilities directly support the Government’s need for accurate, complete, timely, and high-quality deliverables.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop briefing materials supporting the stand-up, rollout, implementation, or modification of FEMA grant programs for internal and external audiences.
• Plan strategic communications and stakeholder-outreach activities that improve program awareness, understanding, participation, and transparency.
• Draft clear, concise, and accurate responses to inquiries for Government review and approval.
• Review program-office responses to leadership, stakeholder, congressional, oversight, or data inquiries for accuracy, grammar, structure, tone, formatting, and message consistency.
• Translate complex grant policies, legislation, directives, program data, and reporting requirements into understandable communications for targeted audiences.
• Document new grant-related practices, policies, legislation, directives, and reporting requirements.
• Brief program personnel on communication changes, stakeholder implications, messaging requirements, and newly established procedures.
• Develop newsletters, fact sheets, talking points, frequently asked questions, town-hall materials, communication toolkits, presentations, announcements, and other outreach products.
• Prepare executive briefings, decision-support materials, read-aheads, agendas, summaries, and presentation decks.
• Expedite the compilation, review, clearance, and delivery of time-sensitive briefing packages and correspondence.
• Create high-quality written correspondence using Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with exceptional proficiency in grammar, spelling, punctuation, structure, and formatting.
• Conduct quality reviews of written and visual products to verify factual accuracy, consistency, readability, audience alignment, accessibility, and adherence to approved templates.
• Maintain communication resources, stakeholder information, SharePoint content, GPD web pages, collaboration sites, and approved message repositories.
• Coordinate content development with grant program personnel, analysts, subject-matter experts, leadership, and other communications professionals.
• Facilitate high-level meetings involving FEMA personnel and internal or external stakeholders.
• Support town halls, webinars, conferences, working sessions, stakeholder calls, and other in-person or virtual engagements.
• Develop meeting and presentation materials, including slides, handouts, speaker notes, participant materials, attendance tools, and post-event communications.
• Capture meeting conclusions, decisions, commitments, risks, action items, and follow-up requirements.
• Prepare concise meeting summaries and executive-level records of decisions.
• Track communication deliverables, review comments, approvals, action items, dependencies, deadlines, and outstanding decisions.
• Advise project and program leaders on audience needs, message sequencing, communication risks, stakeholder sensitivities, and appropriate communication channels.
• Ensure communications do not imply that contractor personnel are Government officials and comply with applicable Government review and approval processes.
• Protect sensitive, pre-decisional, personally identifiable, and other controlled information in accordance with FEMA and DHS requirements.
• Perform work independently while keeping the project manager and Government stakeholders informed of risks, delays, conflicting guidance, or required decisions.