Grants Program Manager

AKS Engineering & Forestry•Tualatin, OR

12h•Onsite

About The Position

At AKS, we are growing and building for the future. We bring together multidisciplined experts across the land development, energy, and infrastructure markets to take on bigger challenges and deliver solutions that make a real difference. Our teams combine creativity, technical excellence, and a collaborative, hands-on approach to solve complex problems and deliver results our clients and communities can count on. We take pride in our work and our ability to provide opportunities for our teams, support each other’s growth, and look ahead to what’s next. When you join AKS, you will find opportunities to take ownership of meaningful projects, learn, lead, and make an impact from day one. If you thrive at the intersection of storytelling, strategy, technical understanding, and you know how to turn great ideas into funded projects, this is the role for you. As a Grants Program Manager, you’ll play a key role in helping communities access critical funding for infrastructure, planning, and development projects that shape our communities throughout the West Coast. You’ll dig into capital improvement and comprehensive plans, identify opportunities, and write winning proposals that bring projects to life.

Requirements

Strong understanding of federal, state, and local grant programs, particularly within the AEC industry.
Skilled at analyzing capital improvement or comprehensive plans and identifying potential project matches for grant programs where funding can make an impact.
Exceptional written communication skills with the ability to translate technical content into persuasive narratives and graphics.
Familiar with how grant scoring systems work and how to structure applications to align with evaluation criteria.
Ability to think strategically from the evaluator’s perspective, apply detailed analysis of the evaluation criteria, and ensure the application is easy to review and maximizes scoring opportunities.
Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage multiple deadlines at once.
Collaborative and confident working with engineers, planners, and other technical professionals.
You have a "Do what needs to be done" mindset, taking ownership beyond assigned tasks and stepping in wherever needed to keep projects, teams, and customers supported and running smoothly.

Nice To Haves

Experience managing grants from application through post-award compliance.
Understanding of the upstream and downstream effects of accepting certain grant types (e.g., federal vs. local funding implications).
Familiarity with proper application of AI and other efficiency and automation tools to streamline research, writing, or data analysis.
Background in public agency consulting or AEC proposal writing and funds procurement.
Experience coordinating across multidisciplinary teams.
Demonstrated success working with external clients and developing relationships.
Known as a “go-to” resource for assistance.

Responsibilities

Research, identify, and track federal, state, and local grant opportunities relevant to AKS’s markets (engineering, surveying, land use planning, construction support, landscape architecture, energy/renewables, traffic, water resources, and natural resources).
Review jurisdictional capital improvement and comprehensive plans to identify funding gaps and opportunities and match potential grant programs that could address those needs.
Evaluate the technical requirements, program priorities, scoring criteria, and review panel approach for each grant to develop tailored strategies that increase award success rates.
Write, edit, and submit compelling and compliant grant applications and supporting materials.
Collaborate closely with technical teams and clients to translate technical concepts into clear, persuasive narratives.
Manage post-award activities, including reporting, documentation, and communication with funding agencies.
Develop and maintain relationships with prospective clients to understand their funding needs and present AKS’s grant writing and management services as strategic solutions.
Gain awareness of company culture and the services AKS can provide to assist in grant applications as well as grant implementation.