Grant Specialist IV

TX-HHSC-DSHS-DFPS•Austin, TX

About The Position

The cradle to grave management of the federal grant portfolio of the Department of State Health Services (DSHS). The Grant Specialist IV, manages grants across their lifecycle, focusing and ensuring proper stewardship of federal funds. The Grant Specialist IV, will perform highly advanced (senior-level) work by: providing consultation and technical assistance requiring specialized knowledge of federal and state finance and grant administration; analyzing dense, technical and instructional text and make recommendation and guidance to colleagues so grants are developed and submitted successfully; managing multiple grants, simultaneously, that workflow, deliverables, timelines, and due dates are met; vetting forms and documents for federal, state, and notice of funding opportunity compliance; assembling and confirming all grant documents and approvals have been secured, prior to verifying to agency leadership that a proposal is complete and can be submitted to the federal partner; submitting the proposal, prior to the deadline; negotiating, analyzing, recording, and distributing notices of grant award which functions as the authority for the agency to establish the project and budget; initiating prior approval or monitoring actions to administer and manage the daily operations of the grant in compliance with the terms and conditions of award; serving as a liaison between DSHS and the funding source for concerns or issues related to grant administration, management, and reporting. The role of Grant Specialist IV will support the program lead in the FCMB, by: administering the statewide, legislatively mandated Tobacco Settlement Permanent Trust Account Pro-Rata Share Distribution Program, created by the Seventy-sixth Legislature, House Bill 1161 and the Texas Administrative Code, Title 25, Chapter 102, which established an annual distribution formula of tobacco settlement money to compensate 301 eligible cities, counties and hospital districts in the State of Texas. Eligible entities (political subdivisions) submit to DSHS a statement to certify their unreimbursed indigent healthcare expenditures incurred during the preceding calendar year. As the program lead, this position, will perform highly advanced (senior-level) coordination, consultation, and technical assistance by: administering the pro-rata share distribution program statewide; managing the rotating terms and requirements to serve as advisory committee members and convene the annual meeting of the advisory committee; author or edit the governing Texas Administrative Code as requested by the Advisory Committee; ensuring eligible entities are knowledgeable about how to successfully submit their request for the pro-rata share which results in the full reimbursement allowable; and maintaining programmatic and financial integrity of the Pro-Rata Share Distribution Program per rule and regulation. The position works under minimal supervision with extensive latitude for the use of initiative and independent judgment. Attends work on a regular and predictable schedule in accordance with agency leave policy and performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Knowledge of local, state, and federal laws relating to tobacco settlement and grant administration.
Knowledge of grants and contract management practices.
Knowledge of grant writing, preparation, processing, and management.
Knowledge of public administration and management techniques.
Knowledge of program planning and implementation.
Knowledge of training techniques.
Skilled in the use of various software applications such as SharePoint, MSWord, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Adobe Acrobat Professional, Grants Tracker Database.
Skilled in dealing tactfully with other people.
Skilled in managing high stress situations and multiple competing deadlines.
Skilled in designing, creating, and publishing forms, tables, graphs, documents, spreadsheets.
Skilled in effective decision making.
Ability to follow verbal and written instructions.
Ability to gather, assemble, correlate, and analyze facts.
Ability to devise solutions to problems.
Ability to develop and evaluate policies and procedures.
Ability to prioritize assignments and meet work deadlines.
Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with supervisor, staff, management, other state agencies, key stakeholders, and the public.
Ability to work independently on difficult or complex business tasks with minimal supervision.
Ability to evaluate situations and make judgment decisions in a timely manner.
Bachelor's degree required

Nice To Haves

Experience with federal grants or contracts preferred
Three to five years of relevant job experience preferred
Experience with federal budgeting preferred

Responsibilities

Research, review and analyze federal grant funding opportunities and compile: the notice of funding opportunity document containing key decision-making information, the instruction and business decision tools, and distribute to Executive Leadership and appropriate staff for documentation of the decision to apply or not to apply for the grant opportunity and initiate the application process; identify stakeholders of the cross-division team that will have primary responsibility for development of the grant, convene and chair a meeting to establish the grant development timeline, program narrative development, approach to be used for documentation preparation; coordinate the grant deliverables and their due dates, identify unique requirements of the funding opportunity and provide the procedures to be followed to successfully address them. Consult regularly with the cross-division team to: monitor progress toward deliverables, provide technical assistance and proactively apply their knowledge of federal and state law, rule and regulation, policies and procedures as the grant proposal is in development, identify if a proposal will benefit from the input of an additional subject matter expert and recommend workable solutions or remedies when potential barriers to successful submission are identified, communicate appropriate solutions to overcome barriers to the development team; review final draft documents and draw upon their own expertise to ensure the proposal is responsive to the opportunity, clear in its intent, and compiled accurately and per the notice of funding opportunity; provide constructive feedback to strengthen a proposal, after careful review and analysis of the compiled final proposal; ensure all documents comply with the notice of funding opportunity, federal and state law, rule and regulation, and DSHS and HHSC policy and endorse the finished proposal for executive leadership review and approval prior to submission to the federal agency. Actively monitor current grants within the portfolio for upcoming grant actions, such as, non-competing continuations, competing continuations, prior approval and closeout actions and advise program staff by providing technical assistance and consultation regarding specific procedures, approvals, documents, stakeholders to include and activities to be completed for successful submission of grant actions.
Organize and maintain, by year, information collected from or provided to eligible political subdivisions, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Advisory Committee and other stakeholders in support of the annual distribution of tobacco settlement proceeds by: authoring, compiling and publishing the materials for the annual solicitation of unreimbursed healthcare expenditures from eligible political subdivisions and calculating each subdivision’s distribution of the pro-rata share; ensuring all political subdivision expenditure data is accounted for and data-entered accurately and completely; creating and publishing accurate reports related to the expenditure data for internal and external stakeholders; coordinating and maintaining program files; reviewing and analyzing political subdivisions documents for compliance with the Rule governing the Tobacco Settlement Permanent Trust Account; soliciting and preparing for audit, randomly selected eligible entity expenditure statements and supporting documentation; authoring post audit notifications to political subdivisions and providing technical assistance to eligible political subdivisions.
Compile and analyze reports to illustrate individual project grant revenue, expenditures, state match and maintenance of effort requirements to facilitate decision making and fiscal oversight for internal and external stakeholders. Compile data for detailed, comprehensive, routine and specialized analysis, reports and projects to provide executive leadership a thorough understanding of grant or pro-rata share programs for decision making purposes; organize and maintain the agency records and files electronically by expertly using hardware and software applications to include, MSWord, Outlook, SharePoint, MS Excel, MS Access, and Adobe Acrobat Professional, the Grants Tracker relational database, MS SharePoint, and in hard copy; publish electronically and in hard copy an accurate pro-rata share statement, accurately data enter expenditures reported by the political subdivisions using complex spreadsheets; review and analyze the data generated for the pro-rata share distribution to ensure accuracy and completeness of the calculated pro-rata share; and maintain grant files and tobacco settlement pro-rata share statements/distributions/audits electronically using logical and consistent organization depending upon the software used. Perform as the branch subject matter expert to the Managers and Director, Team Lead and internal and external stakeholders on the functionality and capabilities of the customized FCMB Courtesy SharePoint site, to include utilizing SharePoint Designer to customize workflows, assisting IT Application Development in the design and implementation of functionality such as document check in/out, alerts, permission levels, routing documents using workflow, and methods to be used in the collection, analysis, and presentation of critical grant information, compile and analyze financial and qualitative data for oversight and reporting purposes.
Assist the Managers and Team Lead by contributing to the design, development, coordination and presentation of training regarding law, rule, regulation, policy, procedures, cradle to grave management of grants, administration of the tobacco settlement proceeds to achieve FCMB goals with a trained and knowledgeable work force and tobacco pro-rata share eligible entities.
Integrate into their own workload, other duties as assigned or another team member's work when needed; serve on work groups or service improvement teams, as required; identify and assemble documentation to support federal and state auditors as requested by the Managers, Director, or Team Leads; collaborate with colleagues to continually review, improve, and/or ensure the integrity of grant application information. Monitor customer satisfaction with the grants process.

Benefits

DSHS offers insurance coverage and other benefits available through the State of Texas Group Benefits Plan administered by the Employee Retirement System of Texas (ERS).

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