Pre-Award Specialist

Overview

Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE) is the leading nonprofit research institute in the United States devoted to advancing Veterans' health research. NCIRE is part of one of the world’s most dedicated and successful Veterans care communities, pioneering new treatments and understandings of military medicine and care.

Along with our partners at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco, we are working to discover and develop effective, safe, and practical treatments for military injuries and diseases affecting Veterans. Through new technologies, novel scientific insights, and international clinical collaborations, we strive to set a new standard of health care research for Veterans and military personnel.

The successful candidate will manage research compliance matters, including financial conflict of interest, export controls, responsible conduct of research.  The position reports directly to the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer; works with staff members in Grants and Contracts, Accounting, Purchasing and other related positions.  The position requires autonomy, confidentiality, diplomacy and discretion to manage a range of research compliance functions.

Ability to stay abreast of new technical and regulatory information highly organized and detail oriented; ability to address multiple, competing priorities effectively, maintain detailed records, strong communication skills with a diplomatic and professional approach, and a discerning disposition regarding privileged, sensitive and confidential information.  Knowledge of and deep experience with Uniform Guidance.  

This position is responsible for collaborating with NCIRE staff to ensure the organization conforms to all applicable external regulatory requirements and guidelines. The successful candidate will be analytical, proactive, solution-oriented, and possess exceptional communication skills. This individual will be self-motivated and have the ability to exercise sound judgement in prioritizing tasks and escalating issues to management.

This position contributes to building organizational capacity and technical knowledge of grant and contracts regulations and is responsible for retrieving, analyzing, and verifying data. This position is responsible for testing steps for compliance procedures and assessing operational efficiency and quality of the award management processes. The job executes a range of activities to support the functional areas of NCIRE.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a lead in relation to compliance and quality management initiatives.
• Reviews existing compliance policies for conformity with Uniform Guidance and/or Sponsor guidelines/requirements.
• Monitors sponsored award regulatory policies and best practices. Assists in ensuring applicable regulations are encapsulated in research administration policies and procedures.
• Create, update, and disseminate institutional policies for compliance with federal and nonfederal grant regulations.
• Modifies policies, procedures, and related documents to ensure efficiency in business processes and reduce the incidence of errors and University risk. Implements actions to proactively avoid problems with sponsored award management.
• Develops and/or updates written policies, procedures, forms, and guidance documents that foster and enhance compliance involving financial and sponsored award management.
• Creation of delegation of authority matrix and policy
• Maintain up- to-date written documentation and policies related to the organization's business activities and file reports on a timely basis about the status of institutional compliance
• Conducts investigations in areas to ensures compliance and work with the institution to ensure all appropriate policies and practices.
  • As needed create systems to fill any gaps.
• Performs compliance audits to determine whether established protocols are being followed and where they can be improved.
• May assist leadership in Single Audit completion and reporting.
• Develop training and materials to educate research community about compliance policies and protocols
• Determine compliance metrics and establish and maintain systems for tracking compliance practices
• Tracks sponsor and audit requests as well as maintain request documentation and digital records.
• Assists with Subrecipient Monitoring Process to ensure that the organization remains up to date and compliant.
• Examines subrecipient single audit reports, financial statements, and other financial documentation. Evaluates subrecipient findings and corrective action plan, assigns subrecipient financial risk assessment level, maintains subrecipient risk assessment database and completes and sends management decision letters.
• Assists with process simplification and improvement to better research administration practices
• Performs other related work as needed.
• Create compliance resource library for staff members to reference when they have questions

Goals

Ensure pre award compliance systems are appropriate

• Pre-award Subaward compliance requirements
• Financial Conflict of Interest
• Create purchasing pre award guidelines

Ensure post award compliance

• Ensure PIs are aware of annual and/or close out report timelines
• Ensure closeout process is initiated internally
• Timely submission of annual reports
• Timely submission of final close out reporting (invention statements)
• Timely submission of Financial reports
• Subaward monitoring annually
• FFATA
• Time and Effort Reporting
• Create purchasing guidelines in conjunction with the Uniform Guidance.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in related area and/or equivalent experience/training
• 8-10 years or more of risk and or compliance experience in contracts and grants, accounting, auditing, or other related field
• Experience in developing and implementing compliance controls and processes
• Strong ability to interpret laws and regulations and succinctly communicate that information to management and staff
• Demonstrated ability to analyze problems and issues of diverse scope and determine solutions in relation to the organization as a whole
• Demonstrated knowledge of effective management techniques and ability to prioritize assignments
• Excellent written and verbal communications and strong ability to work well with internal and external stakeholders across multiple functions
• Must have expertise in understanding the prescriptive nature of compliance vs. the predictive nature of risk management 
• Ability to research and analyze compliance issues and changes as they relate to NCIRE’s business
• In-depth knowledge and understanding of how our organization's operational and financial practices and systems relate to the administration of contracts and grants, accounting and purchasing and other related areas
• High level critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills are a must
• Proven ability to project manage groups successfully engaging and coordinating others to significantly impact and influence organizational policy and program development
• Extensive experience with sponsor and financial compliance
• Expertise in Post Award Processes and Post Award Systems
• Demonstrated ability to analyze problems and issues of diverse scope and determine solutions in relation to the organization as a whole
• CPA, CFRA, or CRCM certifications strongly preferred

Please directly apply by cutting and pasting the below link into your browser. Any applications submitted through this job website will not be considered. All interested candidates must only apply using the link below to be considered.

https://recruiting.ultipro.com/NOR1032NCIRE/JobBoard/82cac330-9aa5-417d-9b64-568d383f4ea0/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=5ee68526-29ba-4ced-9938-4277d885fae2

Or apply by visiting us at www.ncire.org and apply for RISKC001179 Risk & Compliance Officer.

Northern California Institute for Research and Education (NCIRE) is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.