Associate Director, Engineering Research Administration Services

Interested in leading the grant development process while supporting innovative research in the College of Engineering? This role offers the opportunity to provide comprehensive pre-award administrative services, guide faculty through complex proposal requirements, and help secure funding for research initiatives while providing leadership and operational direction to a talented team.

The primary purpose of Associate Director, Engineering Research Administration Services is to provide comprehensive pre-award administrative services for research proposals and extramural support agreements in the College of Engineering. The role is responsible for overseeing the entire grant application process including reading complex requests for proposal, advising faculty on university and sponsor submission requirements, developing proposal documents including budgets, ensuring strict compliance with governmental regulations, and coordinating with internal stakeholders to secure funding commitments. Additionally, the manager provides leadership and operational direction to a dedicated team while collaborating with principal investigators and institutional stakeholders. This position will supervise a minimum of 2 full-time employees.

Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

Outstanding U of A benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; U of A/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; retirement plans; access to U of A recreation and cultural activities; and more!

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• Develops and implements operational plans and policies, provides leadership and oversight for pre-award proposal development by collaborating directly with principal investigators and federal, state, or private sponsors to facilitate competitive funding requests.
• Responsible for reading and interpreting RFPs and manages the development and review of applications to ensure strict alignment with institutional policies and agency solicitation guidelines prior to submission.
• Oversees faculty requests for proposal support and actively manages the pre-award pipeline to adjust, reassign, and distribute incoming proposal loads across the team during peak sponsor deadlines.
• Provides guidance and support to team members to secure sub-award budgets, multi-disciplinary consortia, and subrecipient commitment paperwork from collaborating entities.
• Conducts critical precursory reviews of incoming award documents, analyzing terms, conditions, and compliance frameworks to streamline subsequent negotiations and expedite award acceptance by the university.
• Supervises and provides leadership, coaching, and ongoing training to a minimum of two (2) full-time employees, establishing priorities and supporting consistent, high-quality service delivery across the team.
• Provides oversight for the optimization and day-to-day administration of the college's preaward electronic research administration (eRA) system to streamline the sponsored projects lifecycle.
• Manage an internal Google smartsheet proposal tracking form ensuring accurate and timely tracking of pre-award activity. Oversee system-wide data integrity, managing internal routing workflows, institutional electronic approvals, and proposal validation protocols within smartsheet to better track preaward activity. Support electronic routing activity in Kuali Research.
• Acts as a primary technical liaison between academic departments, database specialists, and IT teams to troubleshoot system vulnerabilities, configure data compliance fields, and generate reports for senior leadership to review in both smartsheets and via the institutional data warehouse.
• Designs, builds, tests, and deploys tools for budget development, fringe/F&A calculation sheets, and multi-year financial forecasting templates to eliminate mathematical discrepancies across the pre-award unit. Troubleshoot technical difficulties in proposal development forms and provide guidance and support to team members on sponsor submission platforms. Assists in the development of submission compliance checklists based on sponsor solicitation parameters to standardize quality control, streamline internal peer-review processes, and accelerate the routing of proposal documents through institutional review.
• Serves as a high-level advisor to faculty and institutional stakeholders, translating internal business processes regarding Conflict of Interest (COI) and research security into actionable proposal workflows.
• Proactively manage the identification and documentation of COI and research security compliance issues ensuring that faculty understand proposal requirements before internal routing and proposal submission.
• Provides rigorous oversight in the area of compliance, serves as the primary liaison between College of Engineering academic departments, other university stakeholders, and central compliance offices, safeguarding the institution against potential risk and liability.
• Monitors and integrates evolving federal regulations and research security mandates into the proposal development workflows to mitigate compliance risks.
• Design and execute internal training initiatives to ensure the administrative team maintains an awareness and understanding with shifting sponsor requirements and submission platform updates. Additionally, cultivates targeted professional development opportunities to sustain departmental operational excellence and alignment with federal oversight standards.
• Supports post award management of extramural awards issued to the College of Engineering by working with both the Engineering Business Center South (EBCS) and EBC-North (EBCN).
• Reviews and interprets award notices to verify sources of funds, funding levels, and performance periods and aligns awards to submitted proposals.
• Provides guidance and consultation to the business centers related to monitoring spending against sponsored accounts, effort commitments, and allowability of proposed versus actual expenditures.
• Coordinates with staff who is responsible for initiating subrecipient agreements and supports with internal routing processes related to changes to awarded grants and contracts including key personnel changes and no-cost extensions or other actions that require sponsor prior approval.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs):

• Knowledge of Federal Regulatory Frameworks: Advanced knowledge of OMB Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200), federal solicitation mechanisms, and major agency guidelines (e.g., NIH Grants Policy Statement, NSF PAPPG).
• Comprehensive knowledge of institutional compliance requirements regarding Conflict of Interest (COI), foreign influence, and research security certifications. Highly proficient in navigating and configuring routing workflows and troubleshooting institutional and federal Electronic Research Administration platforms (e.g., Kuali
  Research, Grants.gov, Research.gov, eRA Commons).
• Advanced skill in designing, building, and testing dynamic Excel-based budget estimators, complex fringe/F&A calculation sheets, and internal compliance checklists.
• Ability to effectively direct, train, and balance workloads for a team of research administration staff under strict deadlines.

This job posting reflects the general nature and level of work expected of the selected candidate(s). It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties and responsibilities. The institution reserves the right to amend or update this description as organizational priorities and institutional needs evolve.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent advanced learning attained through professional level experience required.
• Minimum of 5 years of related work experience, including 2 years of managerial experience, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.