Director of Grants and Contracts - Department of Psychiatry

Mount Sinai Health System•New York, NY

12d

About The Position

The Director of Grants and Contracts provides strategic and operational leadership for research administration across the Department of Psychiatry. Reporting to the Vice Chair for Administration and working closely with the Chair and Vice Chair for Research, the Director oversees the infrastructure, processes, resources, and personnel supporting a broad portfolio of basic, translational, and clinical research. The role partners with departmental and institutional leaders to position the research enterprise for growth while maintaining financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, operational effectiveness, and high-quality faculty service. The Director leads research administration strategy and sponsored-project oversight, including pre- and post-award operations, research financial portfolio management, investigator support, compliance and internal controls, process improvement, and team development. The position is responsible for building scalable systems, strengthening funding competitiveness, monitoring performance and financial health, and fostering effective collaboration across a complex academic medical center.

Requirements

Master’s degree, preferably in healthcare administration or health science, or applicable leadership experience and education.
At least 7 years of experience in health care finance or administration.
Experience in strategic planning and execution.
Experience formulating policy.
Experience building and developing financial plans.
Experience managing resources and leading successful teams.
Strategic leadership and organizational vision.
Research administration expertise.
Financial acumen and business judgment.
Data-driven decision making.
Operational excellence and process improvement.
Regulatory and compliance knowledge.
Faculty partnership and customer service.
Relationship management and collaboration.
Change management.
Team leadership and talent development.
Executive communication.
Ability to operate effectively in a complex, matrixed academic medical center.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a research administration strategy aligned with the Department’s academic, clinical, and research priorities.
Advise departmental leadership on research administration, finance, sponsored programs, compliance, infrastructure, and operations.
Partner with departmental and institutional leaders to identify opportunities and address barriers to research growth.
Develop policies, procedures, and organizational structures that support an efficient, sustainable, faculty-centered research enterprise.
Anticipate emerging needs and develop scalable administrative infrastructure for growth in research volume, complexity, and funding.
Represent the Department on institutional committees and initiatives related to research administration and sponsored research.
Provide strategic oversight of pre- and post-award research administration, including proposal development and submission, award setup, subawards, modifications, and closeout.
Establish grant-administration service standards and monitor performance against them.
Partner with institutional sponsored research offices to support timely and compliant sponsored-project submission and management.
Improve proposal-development capabilities for large, complex, multi-investigator, multi-institutional, and programmatic submissions.
Develop strategies to increase external research funding and strengthen competitiveness for federal, foundation, industry, and other sponsored funding.
Oversee the Department’s sponsored and non-sponsored research financial portfolio.
Monitor research revenue, expenditures, projections, commitments, and financial performance with Finance and departmental leadership.
Establish financial reporting and forecasting mechanisms for faculty and leadership.
Monitor grant balances, effort commitments, salary support, cost sharing, subawards, indirect cost recovery, and other financial indicators.
Identify financial risks and opportunities and develop action plans.
Support faculty and leadership in developing sustainable research programs and understanding the financial implications of research activity.
Create a high-quality research administration model to optimize the submission pipeline and expand the research enterprise.
Promote shared accountability and early, proactive engagement between investigators and research administrators.
Serve as an escalation point for complex research administration issues.
Develop resources, tools, training, and educational programs to improve faculty understanding of research administration requirements and opportunities.
Support investigators in navigating institutional policies, sponsor requirements, and regulatory obligations.
Ensure departmental research administration practices comply with applicable federal, state, institutional, and sponsor requirements.
Partner with compliance, legal, research integrity, IRB, institutional research administration, and other relevant offices on regulatory and operational issues.
Develop and maintain internal controls for sponsored research and research finances.
Monitor emerging regulatory and sponsor requirements and assess their impact on the Department.
Lead or coordinate departmental responses to audits, monitoring activities, and compliance reviews as appropriate.
Evaluate research administration infrastructure and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, quality, and scalability.
Establish key performance indicators and dashboards to monitor research administration performance.
Use data and analytics to identify trends, bottlenecks, resource needs, and improvement opportunities.
Lead process redesign and technology implementation initiatives that enhance research administration.
Promote automation, standardization, and effective use of institutional research systems and technology.
Lead, develop, and oversee departmental research administration staff and, where applicable, matrixed or shared resources.
Assess organizational structure, staffing levels, roles, and capabilities for alignment with the research portfolio and strategic priorities.
Set performance expectations and provide professional development opportunities and career pathways for research administration staff.
Foster accountability, collaboration, customer service, continuous improvement, and innovation.
Develop effective partnerships with departmental and institutional research administration teams.