Director of Contracts and Grants

Overview

The Director works closely with the Department Head and on sponsored research transactions and activities; and is responsible for communicating and promoting research administration procedural best practices, as well as performing tasks in several functional areas. The Director is responsible for making decisions within policy guidelines; communicating policies, procedures, and guidelines; and recommending solutions, as well as offering suggestions to other departmental personnel in the following areas: Contracts & Grants Management, Effort Management, Compliance Management TEARS Coordinator Supervision of C&G Staff Oversee File, Record, Report, and Data management.  

 This position is specifically responsible for the management of all sponsored research accounts, which includes providing support to principal investigators in the review and timely submission of complex proposals by providing guidance with the preparation of their budgets and justifications. The Director will ensure the university cost accounting standards (CAS) and Uniform Guidance (UG) – as set forth by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – are applied consistently throughout the life of each award. The Director will lead the grant submission process, including PINS. 

The Director independently manages the New Award Review process – reviews the award for special terms and conditions; advises Principal Investigator (PI) on the need of the cost share setups and alerts PIs on the need and due date of technical reports and back-up documentation requirements for invoicing. Identify effort, release time, cost sharing, subcontracts and any other budget cost requiring special handling. This position is responsible for ensuring compliance, identifying, documenting, and reporting cost sharing to the University’s Contracts and Grants Office and ECE Departmental Personnel (Department Head, Director of Finance, etc.). Setup effort as required by agency, certify cost sharing per Contract and Grant Confirmation memos. Generate account balance reports. Review accounts and requests extensions when needed. Identify over expenditures in major spending categories, such as travel, tuition, equipment, and paying special attention to overhead. 

The Director will advise PIs of balances and notify them, including the Department Head of any issues that would greatly impact the project. They will initiate and obtain agency/university prior approval when required for the following actions: re-budgeting, equipment acquisition, travel, no-cost extensions, pre award account numbers, and pre-award costs. The Director will ensure TEARS reports are approved, signed, and returned to Contracts & Grant’s on time. This position is responsible for the submission and managing of release time and summer salary for PI’s. They are also responsible for managing (initializing, amending, tracking, and closing) subcontracts. The Director will track completion of Conflict of Interest records and track RCRs (Responsible Code of Research)

Education Level:  Bachelor’s degree with 12 credit hours of accounting coursework; or Associate’s degree in Accounting; or Associate’s degree in Business or related discipline with 12 credit hours of accounting coursework; or equivalent combination of training and experience