Protect our Land, Ascend with Us!

ASCENSION is seeking an experienced Senior Grants Training Specialist to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Grant Programs Directorate under the Grant Programmatic, Administration, and Technical Services Blanket Purchase Agreement.

This role is designed for an accomplished trainer, facilitator, and learning professional who can translate federal grant-management requirements, policies, procedures, and operational practices into practical learning experiences for FEMA personnel and grant stakeholders. The selected professional supports workforce readiness by developing clear training materials, delivering instructor-led and virtual sessions, facilitating town halls and awareness briefings, and preparing staff to apply changing grant policies and reporting requirements consistently.

The solicitation requires the Trainer at the senior level to possess at least a bachelor’s degree and five years of experience. It is not identified as a key-personnel position. FEMA estimates 3,840 labor hours annually for this labor category, equivalent to approximately two full-time professionals across the BPA rather than 3,840 hours for one employee.

Who ASCENSION Is Seeking

The ideal candidate is a senior training professional who combines strong facilitation skills with practical knowledge of grants management, federal programs, policy implementation, or public-sector operations.

Successful candidates can:

• Explain complex grant policies and procedures in clear, practical language.
• Engage audiences ranging from operational staff to program leadership.
• Develop training courses, briefing materials, job aids, presentations, and communication toolkits.
• Facilitate virtual and in-person events, workshops, town halls, and awareness sessions.
• Work with grant-management specialists, policy personnel, communications staff, and program leadership to validate technical content.
• Adapt training quickly when legislation, policy, program guidance, systems, or reporting requirements change.
• Manage multiple training assignments with limited supervision while maintaining accuracy, consistency, and professional presentation.

The role is particularly well suited for a detail-oriented, organized, and self-directed professional who anticipates participant needs, resolves content and delivery challenges, and remains effective in a changing federal program environment.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The Senior Grants Training Specialist supports the design, development, coordination, delivery, and evaluation of FEMA grant-management training and stakeholder-engagement activities.

The trainer collaborates with subject-matter experts to convert technical information into learner-centered materials, prepares facilitators and participants for scheduled events, conducts training, captures questions and feedback, and recommends improvements based on participant performance and evaluation results.

This position is more than a classroom-instructor role. It combines training delivery, instructional design, technical writing, stakeholder facilitation, change communications, and performance support.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Analyze FEMA grant-management processes, policies, legislation, reporting requirements, and audience needs to identify learning objectives and performance gaps.
• Develop instructor-led, virtual, blended, and self-directed training materials for FEMA personnel and grant stakeholders.
• Translate complex policies and procedures into practical examples, exercises, scenarios, checklists, reference guides, and job aids.
• Design course outlines, lesson plans, facilitator guides, participant materials, presentations, assessments, surveys, and post-training resources.
• Deliver engaging virtual and in-person training sessions for adult learners with varying levels of grants-management experience.
• Facilitate program rollouts, awareness briefings, workshops, town halls, stakeholder meetings, focus groups, and knowledge-transfer sessions.
• Brief personnel on changes to grant practices, program policies, legislation, systems, procedures, and reporting expectations.
• Prepare presentation materials, talking points, frequently asked questions, communication toolkits, one-page guides, and other rollout resources.
• Develop and update SOPs, process guides, desk references, and job aids that reinforce training and support consistent task performance.
• Collaborate with grants-management SMEs, program analysts, communications personnel, data specialists, and leadership to validate content.
• Coordinate schedules, invitations, participant materials, facilitator preparation, technology checks, attendance, and follow-up activities.
• Apply adult-learning principles and instructional-design methods to improve knowledge retention and practical application.
• Incorporate realistic grant-management cases and scenarios into courses and facilitated sessions.
• Monitor changes in FEMA guidance, federal grant requirements, and program operations that may affect existing training materials.
• Evaluate training effectiveness through participant feedback, assessments, observation, attendance data, and stakeholder input.
• Recommend course updates, delivery improvements, or additional performance-support tools based on evaluation findings.
• Maintain version control, approval records, source references, and organized repositories for training products.
• Review materials for technical accuracy, readability, consistency, accessibility, and compliance with approved templates.
• Support Section 508 accessibility requirements for electronic training and presentation materials.
• Document meeting decisions, participant questions, action items, lessons learned, and required follow-up.
• Protect sensitive program information and comply with FEMA, DHS, contract, records-management, and information-handling requirements.
• Perform work within the scope, schedule, quality standards, and direction established for each BPA order.