Position Summary:
The Grants Manager will be a key member of the grant administration team within the College of Connected Computing (CCC). This position will focus on execution of pre- and post-award activities serving a specified faculty portfolio within the College. It requires exercise of independent judgment, initiative, and decision making and will necessitate a high degree of understanding of university life, policies, and procedures along with external sponsor guidelines and requirements.
Key Responsibilities:
Pre-Award Responsibilities:
- Provide policy guidance and assistance with all aspects of proposal development, administrative forms, sponsor-required certifications and representations, and compliance requirements
- Develop an appropriate budget, Principal Investigator checklist, and timeline for each proposal submission
- Work directly with the Principal Investigators & external collaborators, and will interface with central administrative offices to ensure that the applications meet all university, school and sponsor requirements
- Identify and resolve issues during the proposal preparation and submission process
- Ensure school-level approvals are included in proposal attachments
- Facilitate application submission, ensuring deadlines are met
- Respond to sponsor requests and questions
- Perform other duties as assigned
Post-award responsibilities include:
- Analyze and interpret complex grants and contract specifications, guidelines, and regulations
- Act as a liaison with central administrative offices and external entities to facilitate award management
- Monitor, analyze, and manage budgets and expenditures along with all aspects of the award to ensure compliance with sponsor terms and conditions, Uniform Guidelines, and University policies are maintained
- Create budget reconciliation and forecasting reports and meet regularly with faculty to review their financial situations
- Ensure compliance with requirements such as effort reporting, financial & progress reporting
- Assist in the administrative and financial aspects of annual and final progress reports required by sponsors
- Collaborate with sponsors for appropriate prior approval requests, extensions, budget revisions, and general questions
- Facilitate the setup of outgoing subaward agreements and manage invoice approvals
- Work closely with the central administrative office to coordinate reviews of incoming contract agreements
- Provide interim account setups and courtesy extensions as required
- Human Capital Management (HCM) Costing Specialist, managing payroll
- Complete timely journal entries as necessary, grant closeouts, etc.
- Assist with rate setting/implementation for PI/Faculty Service Center(s)
- Perform other duties as assigned
Other responsibilities:
- Participate in institutional and College-wide research administration/financial operations training
- Collaborate with research administration team members to share best practices and develop new tools & resources for implementation
Supervisory Relationships:
This position does not have supervisory responsibility; the position reports to the Senior Grants Manager.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree, preferably in finance, accounting, business, or a related field
- 3+ years of experience in pre- and post-award management (both federal and non-federal), required; a combination of education and experience may be considered
- Strong administrative support skills
- Excellent organizational and time management skills
- Excellent written and verbal skills
- Outstanding attention to detail
- Problem-solving skills with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage competing deadlines
- Intermediate Microsoft Excel skills
- Experience working with faculty on complex awards and familiarity with a variety of sponsors
- Advanced understanding of research compliance and sponsor-specific regulations
- Familiarity with the Vanderbilt University grants management ecosystem