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Ascension is seeking a Senior Data Analytics, Systems, and Risk Consultant to support the National Institutes of Health Government Purchase Card Program. This role is designed for an experienced analyst who can transform high-volume financial transaction data into defensible risk findings, identify potentially improper or noncompliant purchase-card activity, and help NIH strengthen oversight of a program that processes approximately 27,000 transactions per month.

The ideal candidate combines advanced data analytics with sound business judgment, knowledge of financial controls, and the ability to work within a regulated federal environment. This person must be capable of examining an entire transaction population, applying Government-provided and independently developed business rules, identifying anomalies, and translating analytical results into clearly documented review decisions.

This is not solely a reporting or dashboard position. The consultant must understand how data, business rules, supporting documentation, system access, internal controls, and regulatory requirements interact. The position is central to NIH’s ability to monitor purchase-card activity, target high-risk transactions, conduct risk-based reviews, protect Government information, and provide reliable program-level reporting.

The successful candidate will be detail-oriented, intellectually curious, methodical, and comfortable questioning incomplete or inconsistent data. The individual must be self-directed while also knowing when to elevate ambiguous transactions, potential control failures, information-security concerns, or significant compliance risks to the Senior Manager, Program Manager, or COR.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Data Analytics, Systems, and Risk Consultant will lead the analytical and technical components of NIH purchase-card transaction screening and compliance-review support. The consultant will acquire monthly purchase-card data from authorized Government or bank systems, validate file completeness, reconcile control totals, standardize data elements, and prepare the transaction population for analysis.

Using NIH-provided business rules, applicable purchase-card policies, transaction trends, and professional judgment, the consultant will screen 100% of the NIH purchase-card transaction population. The role will identify suspicious, unusual, or high-risk transactions requiring further review and will support the selection of statistically significant samples for targeted transaction reviews and broader Cardholder and Card Approving Official file reviews.

The consultant will document business rules, analytical assumptions, data sources, selection criteria, exceptions, and review results sufficiently to support management review and potential audit scrutiny. The individual will also help assess supporting purchase documentation, record instances of noncompliance, track corrective actions, and prepare analytical content for monthly reports, annual summaries, briefings, and Institute- or Center-level debriefings.

The role requires coordination with NIH Purchase Card Program personnel, Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institute and Center Purchase Card Coordinators, the Senior Manager, and other contractor personnel. All data must be stored and handled through authorized systems and in accordance with NIH and HHS security requirements.

Ascension’s Business Data Analyst III labor category requires a bachelor’s degree and at least six years of experience. Its responsibilities include data aggregation, analysis and reporting; business-rule development; workflow improvement; dashboard creation; and the use of low-code or no-code tools to improve operational processes.

Position Objectives

The consultant will help NIH:

• Screen the complete monthly transaction population consistently and efficiently.
• Identify transactions presenting elevated risk of misuse, noncompliance, fraud, waste, or abuse.
• Improve the accuracy, transparency, and repeatability of purchase-card compliance reviews.
• Maintain traceable business rules and defensible transaction-selection methodologies.
• Protect sensitive financial, procurement, personnel, and program information.
• Provide actionable reporting on review findings, recurring trends, and systemic control weaknesses.
• Support timely completion of targeted reviews, file reviews, follow-up reviews, and annual reporting.
• Transition analytical methods, data structures, documentation, and institutional knowledge to NIH or a successor contractor when required.

Day-to-Day and Recurring Responsibilities

• Acquire monthly purchase-card transaction data from authorized NIH, banking, financial-management, or reporting systems.
• Validate incoming data files for completeness, expected record counts, required fields, date ranges, duplicates, missing values, formatting anomalies, and control-total discrepancies.
• Reconcile transaction data against available source-system totals and document unresolved variances before analysis begins.
• Cleanse and standardize merchant names, merchant category codes, cardholder identifiers, transaction dates, dollar amounts, Institute or Center information, and other relevant attributes.
• Maintain secure analytical datasets, working files, review evidence, and reports in Government-approved systems such as SharePoint, secure shared drives, and authorized NIH mailboxes.
• Apply NIH-provided business rules to 100% of the approximately 27,000 monthly purchase-card transactions.
• Develop additional risk indicators based on Government purchase-card requirements, GSA SmartPay practices, transaction patterns, recurring findings, and emerging risks.
• Detect anomalies such as split purchases, duplicate charges, prohibited or questionable merchant activity, unusual purchase timing, transactions near applicable thresholds, missing credits, excessive frequency, and other high-risk patterns.
• Evaluate false positives, rule effectiveness, data limitations, and materiality before recommending transactions for further review.
• Recommend targeted transactions and statistically appropriate samples for compliance review using documented, repeatable, and risk-based selection methods.
• Present the proposed analytical tool, business rules, transaction-selection methodology, and material changes to the NIH Purchase Card Program Manager and COR.
• Review business rules with NIH quarterly and revise logic, thresholds, reference tables, and documentation based on Government direction and observed transaction trends.
• Generate suspicious-transaction, high-risk transaction, exception, and review-selection reports for management consideration.
• Coordinate analytical handoffs to compliance reviewers, including transaction-level rationale, relevant risk indicators, supporting data, and recommended documentation requests.
• Examine supporting transaction documentation to determine whether purchases are adequately supported and consistent with applicable policy and business rules.
• Document confirmed noncompliance, analytical observations, data-quality issues, unresolved questions, and recommendations in standardized working papers.
• Track targeted reviews, file reviews, document requests, responses, outstanding items, follow-up actions, and report status.
• Support follow-up reviews to determine whether corrective actions were completed and whether identified risks remain.
• Analyze review findings across Cardholders, Card Approving Officials, Institutes and Centers, merchant categories, transaction types, and time periods.
• Identify recurring trends, systemic control weaknesses, training needs, and opportunities to improve business rules or oversight procedures.
• Prepare analytical tables, charts, dashboards, briefing slides, and written summaries for monthly status reports, annual reports, entrance conferences, exit briefings, and Institute-level debriefings.
• Contribute data-mining results, review statistics, outstanding issues, report links, and trend analyses to the monthly activity report due on the first business day of each month.
• Develop analytical content for the annual year-end purchase-card activity report covering NIH’s 30 Institutes and Centers.
• Support special reviews, disputed-transaction analysis, convenience-check analysis, data calls, and responses to internal or external oversight inquiries.
• Coordinate with technical and security personnel regarding data access, system configuration, analytical-tool approval, access controls, and NIH certification and accreditation requirements.
• Protect Government data through authorized access controls, approved storage locations, encryption, and secure transfer practices.
• Report suspected information-security or privacy incidents immediately in accordance with applicable NIH and HHS requirements.
• Maintain version-controlled data dictionaries, rule catalogs, query logic, field mappings, analytical procedures, user instructions, and change histories.
• Develop transition documentation covering analytical models, data structures, business rules, file locations, reports, system dependencies, and operating procedures.
• Brief the Senior Manager, NIH Program Manager, COR, and other stakeholders on significant findings, analytical limitations, emerging risks, and recommended actions.