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Ascension is seeking an experienced Senior Document Analyst / Technical Editor to support the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s CAFE regulatory program. This position is ideal for an exceptionally detail-oriented document professional who understands that the accuracy, consistency, traceability, and presentation of complex Federal regulatory documents are critical to successful rulemaking.

The successful candidate will serve as a senior-level document production and quality-control professional responsible for transforming large, technically complex, multi-author working documents into controlled, professionally formatted, review-ready, and publication-ready products.

This is substantially more than traditional proofreading.

The Senior Document Analyst / Technical Editor will work within documents that may range from approximately 150 to 1,500 pages, contain extensive tables, figures, cross-references, citations, footnotes, hyperlinks, technical content, and comments from numerous Government stakeholders. NHTSA specifically anticipates coordination involving more than 30 authors during certain rulemaking activities.

The ideal candidate is someone who can enter a complicated document, quickly understand its structure and dependencies, detect inconsistencies before they become production problems, maintain disciplined version control, and confidently coordinate corrections with analysts, authors, technical specialists, and Government leadership.

Candidates should be comfortable working in an environment where priorities and document versions change rapidly and where deadlines occasionally require evening, weekend, or potentially overnight responsiveness during peak rulemaking periods. The RFP specifically states that workload can vary significantly over the rulemaking development cycle and may require this type of surge responsiveness.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Document Analyst / Technical Editor supports the preparation, review, revision, formatting, compilation, quality assurance, and final production of NHTSA rulemaking documents supporting the CAFE Program.

Working primarily within Microsoft Word, Google Docs, SharePoint, and Google Drive, the individual will manage complex document formatting and editing activities; maintain clean and redline document versions; reconcile comments and revisions; maintain document integrity; update tables, figures, footnotes, references, hyperlinks, captions, and cross-references; and help ensure that deliverables conform to NHTSA-approved style requirements.

The role will support regulatory products that may include Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs), Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRMs), Supplemental Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (SNPRMs), Final Rules, Environmental Impact Statements, Supplemental Environmental Impact Statements, and related supporting documentation.

The individual must be highly organized, responsive, self-directed, comfortable navigating ambiguity, and capable of maintaining accuracy while processing extensive revisions under compressed deadlines.

Success in this role means that NHTSA’s authors can focus on regulatory substance while the document-management team protects the structural integrity, formatting consistency, revision history, readability, accessibility, and production readiness of the final product.

Day-to-Day and Anticipated Responsibilities

• FORMAT highly complex Federal regulatory documents using advanced Microsoft Word and Google Docs functionality, including styles, multilevel numbering, section breaks, headers and footers, tables, captions, footnotes, references, hyperlinks, and automated document features.
• REVIEW documents for grammar, spelling, punctuation, readability, formatting consistency, structural consistency, and compliance with applicable NHTSA style requirements.
• EDIT draft materials while preserving the technical intent and substantive meaning established by NHTSA authors and subject-matter experts.
• CREATE and maintain clean, redline, comparison, and working versions of regulatory documents throughout multiple review cycles.
• CONTROL document versions and ensure the correct master version is maintained as comments and changes are received from multiple reviewers.
• TRACK comments, revisions, outstanding issues, author assignments, resolutions, and document status using established document-management procedures.
• COORDINATE with Consultant I staff, senior consultants, Government document leads, COR/ACOR personnel, technical specialists, and document authors to resolve formatting and production issues.
• SUPERVISE and REVIEW work products prepared by Consultant I personnel to ensure document quality, consistency, and timely delivery.
• ESCALATE unresolved questions, contradictory instructions, formatting anomalies, version-control risks, or issues requiring Government direction promptly to the appropriate project leadership.
• UPDATE tables, figures, plot headers, table headers, captions, footnotes, hyperlinks, subsection references, and cross-references when document structures change.
• VERIFY that captions, figures, tables, references, citations, footnotes, and other document elements remain correctly associated following revisions.
• MAINTAIN issue logs and comment-resolution records documenting actions taken and items requiring additional Government input.
• COMPILE material produced by multiple authors into integrated master documents while maintaining consistent structure, formatting, and numbering.
• APPLY approved NHTSA templates, drafting guides, style guides, and document-management procedures.
• ASSIST with development and refinement of templates, document checklists, formatting standards, peer-review checklists, and document-production procedures.
• TROUBLESHOOT compatibility and formatting issues associated with moving documents between Microsoft Word, Google Docs, SharePoint, Google Drive, PDF, and related applications.
• SUPPORT collection and organization of final references and reference materials associated with regulatory documents.
• CONVERT appropriate final reference materials to PDF when required for submission to NHTSA.
• PERFORM final pre-delivery quality checks to identify unresolved comments, broken links, incorrect numbering, missing references, inconsistent formatting, or other publication risks.
• SUPPORT preparation of Section 508-accessible electronic documents in accordance with Government guidance.
• RESPOND promptly to document-production, coordination, formatting, access, and troubleshooting requests.
• MAINTAIN confidentiality and protect sensitive Government information in accordance with DOT and NHTSA requirements.
• SUPPORT surge production activities during intensive regulatory review cycles, including occasional evening, weekend, or overnight work when required to meet critical milestones.