Grants Compliance Specialist

Crash Champions•Westmont, IL

6d•$55,000 - $75,000

About The Position

The Grants Compliance Specialist is responsible for compliance, reporting, and administration for Crash Champions’ and Champion It Forward’s portfolio of state and federal grants and the registered apprenticeship programs supported by those grants. This position ensures grant awards are administered, documented, and reported accurately and on schedule while maintaining compliance and good standing with applicable funding agencies. The Grants Compliance Specialist also supports registered apprenticeship registration and ongoing compliance across the states in which the organization operates. As workforce development grant opportunities continue to expand, this position helps protect the organization’s ability to secure and retain public funding by partnering closely with Operations, Payroll, Human Resources, Finance, Legal, and external partners to maintain accurate, complete, and audit-ready records.

Requirements

3+ years of experience in grant administration, compliance administration, workforce program administration or a comparable regulated recordkeeping role.
Demonstrated experience operating against a defined regulatory framework and an external audit or review cycle.
Proven ability to manage a reporting calendar and meet external deadlines without supervision.
Advanced Excel or Google Sheets skills, with the ability to build and maintain trackers, reconciliations and recurring reporting that others can use.
Experience owning a document or records management system end to end, including structure, retention and retrieval under deadline.
Exceptional attention to detail and consistent documentation discipline.
Clear, professional written communication, including funder-facing reports and correspondence.
Ability to work cross-functionally with operations, human resources, payroll, legal and finance, and to obtain accurate and timely data from field locations.
Bachelor's degree, or an equivalent combination of education and directly related experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience administering federal or state grant awards, including reporting, budget monitoring and close-out.
Experience with federal or state workforce funding streams, such as Department of Labor programs, WIOA or Perkins, or with state apprenticeship grants and tax credits.
Direct experience administering a registered apprenticeship program under 29 CFR Parts 29 and 30.
Hands-on experience with RAPIDS or a State Apprenticeship Agency registration system.
Familiarity with equal employment opportunity recordkeeping and workforce reporting requirements.
Experience administering programs across multiple states with differing regulatory requirements.
Nonprofit, corporate foundation or corporate social responsibility reporting experience.
Grant Professional Certification (GPC), Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS) or comparable credential.

Responsibilities

Own the reporting calendar for all active grants and partnerships, delivering every funder report complete and on or before its deadline.
Prepare and submit interim and final reports to funding agencies, including narrative, financial and performance components.
Maintain complete award files, including agreements, budgets, correspondence, reports, amendments and close-out documentation.
Monitor spend against approved grant budgets, track restricted versus unrestricted funds, and flag variances early enough to correct course or request a modification.
Prepare budget modification and no-cost extension requests, and manage funder approvals for any change in scope, timeline or use of funds.
Track non-financial award conditions, including match and cost-share obligations, acknowledgment and publicity requirements, and site visit commitments.
Ensure compliance with federal and state award requirements, including allowable costs, cost allocation, documentation standards and records retention.
Maintain time and effort documentation supporting any personnel costs charged to grant funds.
Serve as the day-to-day compliance contact for funding agencies and partner organizations on reporting questions.
Support scholarship administration and reporting with partner colleges, including disbursement tracking and student-level documentation.
Serve as the designated individual responsible for apprenticeship program compliance and equal employment opportunity oversight, as required of program sponsors under 29 CFR Part 30.
Prepare, execute and submit apprenticeship agreements (ETA Form 671) through RAPIDS or the applicable State Apprenticeship Agency system, and notify the registration agency within the required 45 days of every new agreement, credit granted, transfer, suspension or cancellation.
Monitor registered apprentice-to-journey worker ratios and progressive wage schedules for continuous compliance, and escalate exceptions to operations leadership before they become audit findings.
Maintain the sponsor recordkeeping and workforce reporting required under the applicable apprenticeship regulations, and keep apprentice selection procedures compliant with the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures.
Administer equal employment opportunity obligations, including posting the equal opportunity pledge, maintaining the annual recruitment source list, documenting orientation and anti-harassment training, and issuing written complaint notices and procedures.
Request Certificates of Completion and interim credentials, supported by complete on-the-job learning and related instruction records.
Manage multi-state requirements, including reciprocity requests and the differing standards of State Apprenticeship Agencies versus the federal Office of Apprenticeship, and prepare for apprenticeship program reviews, compliance reviews and complaint investigations.
Own the system of record for grant and apprenticeship documentation, retaining all required records for the applicable retention period and in a form that can be produced to a funding agency or registration agency on request.
Maintain apprentice records to federal standard, including on-the-job learning hours, related instruction evaluations, progress reviews, job assignments and wage progression.
Reconcile grant and apprenticeship records against payroll, HRIS and shop-level data so that reported hours, wages and ratios match actual practice, and conduct periodic internal reviews against the criteria an external reviewer would apply.
Maintain program outcome data, including apprentices registered, credentials earned, completions, placements and retention, and produce recurring compliance and impact summaries for leadership and funders.
Maintain the master grant tracker and the forward calendar of application, renewal and reporting deadlines, working from the opportunity shortlist provided by the company's external grant strategy partner.
Assemble application packages, manage submissions through funder portals, and prepare first drafts of routine applications and renewals, including support on short-turnaround opportunities.