Position Overview:
The Federal Grants Management and Internal Controls Specialist supports grants management, compliance, monitoring, and internal control activities across the Office of Air and Radiation's (OAR) grant programs. This role is focused on helping EPA understand how grant oversight and compliance processes operate in practice, including recipient monitoring, documentation review, and grant lifecycle oversight, how operational and compliance risks are identified and managed, and how internal control responsibilities are executed and documented in alignment with OMB Circular A-123 and the GAO Green Book.
The Specialist contributes to planning, assessment, and operational support activities that strengthen risk management, internal controls, and program oversight across OAR grant programs. While fraud risk management is an important component of the work, this role is not investigative in nature and does not perform enforcement or law-enforcement functions.
Responsibilities
- Support grants management, compliance, and internal control assessment activities across OAR grant programs, including documenting control design, roles and responsibilities, and how controls are implemented in practice.
- Support reviews of grant files, recipient documentation, and monitoring activities to assess compliance with federal requirements and program expectations.
- Participate in walkthroughs of grant disbursement, monitoring, and oversight processes to understand workflow, judgment points, and documentation practices.
- Assist with identification of operational, compliance, and internal control risks across the grant lifecycle, including understanding where risks may arise within the grant lifecycle and how controls are intended to mitigate those risks.
- Contribute to synthesis of observations across programs to support leadership planning, sequencing of future work, and audit readiness discussions.
- Help document assumptions, dependencies, and limitations related to internal control understanding where access, engagement, or documentation varies by program.
Risk Management and Control Support
- Support fraud risk management as one element of the broader internal control framework, consistent with OMB Circular A-123, the GAO Green Book, and the GAO Fraud Risk Framework.
- Assist in identifying areas where fraud risk considerations intersect with control design, documentation practices, or monitoring activities.
- Help operationalize preventive measures by supporting updates to grant guidance, control documentation, or internal procedures related to fraud awareness and reporting.
- Coordinate, as appropriate, with program staff and oversight functions to ensure fraud risk considerations are reflected in internal control planning and documentation.
Monitoring, Documentation, and Audit Readiness
- Support reviews of grant transactions and supporting documentation to assess compliance with program requirements, funding conditions, and applicable regulations.
- Apply knowledge of 2 CFR Part 200 to help assess how regulatory requirements are reflected in program processes, documentation, and controls.
- Assist with organizing and maintaining internal control documentation, including control descriptions, risk summaries, and supporting materials used for A-123 assurance or audit support.
- Where applicable, support targeted transaction testing activities under the direction of senior staff, including review of supporting documentation and synthesis of results for planning and assurance purposes.
- Contribute to preparation of materials that support management assurance, internal reviews, or audit inquiries, without assuming responsibility for audit outcomes.
Program Improvement and Knowledge Transfer
- Identify opportunities to strengthen clarity, consistency, or documentation of internal controls based on assessment and testing support activities.
- Support development of training materials, job aids, or guidance that reinforce internal control responsibilities, documentation expectations, and regulatory requirements.
- Work collaboratively with program staff, subject matter experts, and training specialists to help institutionalize improvements over time.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in public administration, business administration, finance, accounting, public policy, nonprofit management, or a related field.
- Five to eight years of experience supporting federal grants management, grant lifecycle oversight, grants compliance, monitoring, internal controls, audit support, risk assessment, or related activities.
- Strong working knowledge of 2 CFR Part 200 and its application to federal grants management, monitoring, oversight, and financial management.
- Familiarity with OMB Circular A-123 and the GAO Green Book is preferred. Experience applying these frameworks in practice is a plus.
- Experience supporting federal grants management, monitoring, or compliance activities within a federal agency environment is a plus.
- Experience supporting audit readiness, internal reviews, or management assurance activities; experience with transaction testing is a plus but not required.
- Strong analytical, documentation, and communication skills; ability to synthesize complex process information into clear summaries.
- Experience working collaboratively with program teams and stakeholders across different organizational levels.
Benefits & Perks
This position is expected to support a range of EPA grant management, compliance, and process improvement efforts and is anticipated to be full-time based on client priorities and project needs. We offer a competitive hourly rate in line with the position requirements.
This position requires candidates to be available to attend meetings at the EnDyna office, as needed. Candidates may also be required to attend meetings at EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC.
