Grants & Research Development Manager

University of North Dakota•Grand Forks, ND

2d•$100,800 - $104,600•Onsite

About The Position

The position provides assistance to faculty and staff with grants and contracts, proposal preparation and monitoring of sponsored program activity. This position also provides financial administration for sponsored research, service, and instructional programs in accordance with Federal, State, University, SMHS, and commercial contractual requirements. The duties of this position include but are not limited to supporting faculty, departments, and institutional leadership in advancing a growing research portfolio, ensuring regulatory compliance, monitoring SMHS sponsored projects, representing the SMHS during financial and technical audits, providing training, monitoring effort certification of, providing sponsored project advice and guidance, and enhancing pre-award and post-award services. This position is the liaison between the SMHS and the VPRED pre and post-award offices.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Research Administration, Public Administration, Business administration or related field
Five years of research administration experience.
Five years of experience with pre and post award activities related to management and compliance of diverse types of federal, private, and state awards.
Supervisory experience
Successful completion of a Criminal History Background Check
Leadership and strategic thinking
Compliance expertise
Financial acumen
Communication skills
Problem-solving
Familiarity with Clinical and Translational Research

Nice To Haves

Master's degree or CRA Certification
Experience in a medical school environment
Familiarity with clinical and translational research

Responsibilities

Partner with the Senior Associate Dean of Research to shape long-term research strategy
Analyze funding and submission trends and prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual reports for the Office of Research Affairs and Compliance and the Dean
Develop and recommend SMHS policies and procedures that enhance research efficiency and compliance
Identify gaps in infrastructure and propose scalable solutions to support growth
Participate in institutional committees related to research, compliance, and finance
Manage ad hoc projects as designated by the Senior Associate Dean for Research
Maintain the Grants Management website.
Directly supervise research affairs and compliance pre and post award specialist staff.
Set performance goals, conduct evaluations, and provide regular feedback.
Allocate workload across team members to ensure efficiency and coverage.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Design and deliver training programs for staff, including: Proposal development, Compliance requirements, financial management
Encourage and support staff in obtaining certifications (e.g., CRA).
Stay current with changing regulations and ensure staff are informed.
Provide hands-on guidance to faculty, especially early career investigators and new hires unfamiliar with grant processes
Offer workshops or one-on-one support on grant writing basics, budgeting strategies, submission systems (ASSIST, Novelution)
Evaluate existing workflows and identify inefficiencies.
Implement standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Track and analyze metrics such as proposal success rates, Turnaround time, Compliance error rates
Use data to inform staffing models and process improvements.
Oversee the full lifecycle of proposal development, including reviewing funding announcements (RFPs, RFAs, FOAs), guiding investigators on proposal structure and requirements, ensuring accurate and compliant budget development (personnel, fringe, indirect costs, subawards), ensuring proposals meet the sponsor guidelines (NIH, federal agencies, foundations) and institutional policies, and performing or overseeing final proposal review and submission, ensuring completeness, accuracy, compliance with deadlines.
Oversee the financial and administrative management of awarded grants, including award and account setup and budget allocation, monitoring expenditures and burn rates, reviewing monthly, quarterly, and annual financial reports and projections, and hosting new award kickoff meetings and 90 day cool down meetings.
Ensure allowable, allocable, and reasonable spending per federal regulations (e.g., Uniform Guidance).
Guide departments through rebudgeting requests, No-cost extensions, Prior approvals, close out processes, salary/expense corrections, temporary project requests, at-risk spending.
Track, facilitate, and monitor all faculty/staff effort certification forms including providing education and training and forwarding to Grants Accounting.
Ensure adherence to Federal regulations (e.g., Uniform Guidance, NIH policies) and Institutional policies.
Map current processes across pre- and post-award lifecycle. Identify redundancies, bottlenecks, or risks.
Redesign workflows to improve efficiency, Turnaround times, User experience.
Evaluate and implement research administration systems (e.g., proposal tracking, financial systems).
Ensure systems integrate with institutional tools (HR, finance).
Provide training and support for system users.
Establish dashboards and reporting tools to monitor proposal volume, Award success rates, financial performance.
Use data analytics to support leadership decision-making.
Stay informed about best practices in research administration.
Benchmark against peer institutions.
Lead or support change management initiatives when introducing new processes or technologies.