Grant Specialist

University of Wisconsin Madison•Madison, WI

23h•Remote

About The Position

The Grant Specialist serves as a strategic research development professional responsible for managing existing sponsored funding while identifying, developing, coordinating, and submitting competitive grant proposals that advance the mission of the Wisconsin Health Data Hub (WHDH). WHDH is a federally funded initiative developing a secure, cloud-native data platform that supports biomedical research, real-world data analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven discovery. This position translates WHDH's scientific, technical, and strategic priorities into competitive funding strategies and high-quality grant proposals that align with sponsor priorities and institutional objectives. Working closely with faculty, researchers, institutional leadership, and external partners, the Grant Specialist ensures the effective stewardship of current sponsored funding while securing new funding opportunities that support the continued growth of WHDH's research infrastructure, data platform, and collaborative initiatives. The role emphasizes sponsored project management, strategic funding development, proposal leadership, cross-functional collaboration, sponsor engagement, and continuous process improvement to maximize WHDH's success in obtaining external funding from federal agencies, state agencies, foundations, industry partners, and other sponsors.

Requirements

Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in Grant, research development, proposal management, research administration, or a related field.
Demonstrated experience in managing, coordinating and developing competitive grant proposals for federal, state, foundation, or industry sponsors.
Experience managing multiple complex projects simultaneously while meeting strict deadlines and sponsor requirements.
Strong written, editing, and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex scientific and technical concepts into compelling funding proposals.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams, including faculty, researchers, technical staff, administrators, and external partners.
Strong organizational, project management, and stakeholder engagement skills with exceptional attention to detail.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting large, multidisciplinary grant funded initiatives within an academic medical center, research institution, or healthcare organization.
Demonstrated success developing proposals for federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DoD), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), or other federal sponsors.
Knowledge of biomedical research, health informatics, data science, artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, or precision medicine.
Experience with proposal development tools, electronic research administration systems, and sponsor submission portals (e.g., Grants.gov, eRA Commons, Research.gov).
Familiarity with federal grant regulations, Uniform Guidance (2 CFR Part 200), sponsor policies, and institutional research administration processes.
Experience facilitating strategic research collaborations involving academic, healthcare, government, and industry partners.

Responsibilities

Monitor existing grant funding to ensure adequate financial support for current and projected program activities.
Oversee sponsor reporting requirements and coordinate the timely submission of all required programmatic and administrative reports.
Serve as the primary liaison between WHDH, University research administration offices, and other campus stakeholders on grant administration and sponsored project activities.
Ensure compliance with sponsor regulations and University of Wisconsin–Madison policies governing sponsored awards.
Collaborate with project leadership to monitor grant performance, identify funding risks, and support long-term financial sustainability.
Identify, evaluate, and communicate funding opportunities from federal, state, foundation, industry, and other sponsors that align with WHDH's strategic priorities.
Develop funding strategies that expand WHDH's research portfolio, technical infrastructure, and collaborative initiatives.
Partner with WHDH leadership to prioritize funding opportunities based on organizational priorities, sponsor alignment, competitiveness, and available resources.
Maintain a comprehensive funding pipeline, proposal calendar, and submission schedule.
Develop multi-year funding strategies that support the long-term sustainability and growth of WHDH.
Lead the planning, coordination, writing, editing, and submission of complex, multidisciplinary grant proposals.
Develop compelling proposal narratives and coordinate supporting documentation while ensuring compliance with sponsor and institutional requirements.
Manage proposal timelines, milestones, internal reviews, approvals, and submission activities to ensure timely, high-quality applications.
Coordinate closely with principal investigators, research administrators, finance, compliance, legal, and technical teams throughout the proposal development lifecycle.
Ensure proposals align with sponsor priorities, institutional objectives, and WHDH's strategic vision.
Build and maintain productive relationships with faculty, researchers, institutional leadership, funding agencies, industry partners, philanthropic organizations, and external collaborators.
Coordinate multidisciplinary proposal teams and facilitate communication among internal and external stakeholders.
Represent WHDH during sponsor meetings, strategic planning discussions, and collaborative funding initiatives.
Strengthen partnerships that expand collaborative research opportunities and increase external funding potential.
Monitor funding trends, emerging sponsor priorities, and national research initiatives relevant to biomedical informatics, artificial intelligence, health data science, cloud computing, and precision medicine.
Evaluate proposal outcomes and funding metrics to identify opportunities for improving proposal competitiveness and funding success.
Recommend and implement best practices that improve proposal development processes, operational efficiency, and organizational research development capacity.
Contribute to the continuous growth and long-term sustainability of WHDH through strategic planning, funding diversification, and process improvement initiatives.
Ensures institutional compliance related, but not limited to: audit coordination, conflict of interest, intellectual property, and institutional review boards, export controls, effort, or other policies
Assists principal investigators, researchers, administrative staff, leadership, and others to ensure institutional compliance with applicable regulations
Develops, implements, and evaluates policies and procedures related to compliance with federal, state, local, and/or university regulations
Serves as a key resource to campus regarding research administration compliance areas and may supervise staff