Post-Award Specialist

University of Colorado • Hybrid, CO

3d • $55,586 - $73,145 • Hybrid

About The Position

This position will serve as a post-award specialist in the department, providing day-to-day management and oversight of a diverse portfolio of sponsored projects for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. The role is responsible for ensuring accurate financial stewardship from award setup through closeout, including monitoring expenditures and cost share, reconciling project accounts, supporting payroll distribution and cost transfers as needed, and coordinating timely reporting and deliverables in accordance with sponsor terms and conditions as well as Department, School of Medicine, and University policies.
In collaboration with the Finance Office, Office of Grants & Contracts, and departmental leadership, this position provides proactive guidance on allowability and compliance, develops funding projections and spend plans, and identifies risks or issues requiring resolution (e.g., overdrafts, unallowable costs, rebudgeting needs, subaward invoicing concerns, or effort alignment). The incumbent serves as a key customer-service resource for investigators and trainees by translating complex sponsor and institutional requirements into clear recommendations, maintaining complete and audit-ready documentation, and contributing to continuous process improvement for post-award operations within the department.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in public health, public administration, social/behavioral sciences, physical sciences, nursing, healthcare, finance, accounting, business administration, business, or a directly related field from an accredited institution and 1 year of professional experience in post-award management.
• A combination of education and related technical/military/paraprofessional experience may be substituted for a bachelor’s degree on a year for year basis.
• Applicants must meet minimum qualifications at the time of hire.
• Intermediate to advanced computer skills, especially in Microsoft Excel.
• Experience with sponsored programs accounting
• Experience with managing T32 training grants
• Experience in an academic medical/research setting or higher education institution.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both in writing and orally.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with employees at all levels throughout the institution.
• Outstanding customer service skills.
• A thorough understanding of University fiscal policy and State and Federal rules and regulations
• Able to manage multiple projects and prioritize tasks with competing deadlines
• Able to identify and address problems using independent judgement and critical thinking
• Strong organizational skills and accurate attention to detail
• Good interpersonal communication skills and able to work as part of a team
• Knowledge of standard accounting policies and procedures
• Knowledge of CU operating systems PeopleSoft, Concur, CU Marketplace, CU Data
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without requiring sponsorship. We are unable to provide work visa sponsorship and employment authorization for this position now or in the future.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for oversight and seeing assigned sponsored projects for the department through completion, including both federal and non-federal sponsored projects
• Ensure compliance with all applicable federal guidelines (including OMB Circular A-21 and OMB Uniform Guidance), sponsor-specific rules and restrictions (AHA, ACS, ADA, JDRF, etc.), state regulations and University fiscal policies.
• Schedule and participate in regular meetings with departmental faculty members, to provide and analyze funding forecasts and to discuss future business decisions/plans.
• Reconcile direct and indirect costs for all projects to ensure all appropriate expenditures have been posted to project speedtype before close-out process and to prevent any overages/deficits.
• Work with the Finance Office and Office of Grants & Contracts to process journal entries for projects
• ePERs monitoring; run the outstanding ePERs report for the department, contact faculty and staff to ensure compliance, perform PETs to correct as necessary and ensure accurate effort reporting on projects.
• Contact sponsors regarding all re-budgeting requests, carry-forward requests, special permission requests and guidelines/restriction clarifications.
• Efficiently maintain all subcontract activities for assigned faculty, including initiating subcontract setup process, interfacing between OGC and subcontract sites, performing monthly tracking of all contract and subcontract invoicing and payments for all sponsored projects and contracts.
• Reconcile Federal Financial Reports and Final Expenditure Reports to the general ledger prior to Office of Grants & Contracts submission to sponsor. Work with the OGC Post-Award manager to close out projects in a timely manner and prepare all reports for the close-out process.
• Monitor changes in University, state, and federal regulations and recommend updates to departmental post-award procedures to maintain compliance and improve efficiency.
• Support the Director of Finance & Administration in identifying and evaluating future funding needs (e.g., bridge funding scenarios) using projections and historical spending trends.
• Monitor payroll funding distributions and salary charges monthly for sponsored and departmental accounts; adjust funding, compensation, and job codes as needed to align with awarded budgets and effort commitments.
• Coordinate with the Pre-Award team on personnel effort reporting to ensure submissions are accurate, timely, and compliant with sponsor requirements.
• Process payroll expense transfers (PETs) and funding distribution updates for assigned speed-types to address revised budgets, late awards, overages/surpluses, and payroll-related adjustments needed for FFRs.

Benefits

• Medical: Multiple plan options
• Dental: Multiple plan options
• Additional Insurance: Disability, Life, Vision
• Retirement 401(a) Plan: Employer contributes 10%25 of your gross pay
• Paid Time Off: Accruals over the year
• Vacation Days: 22/year (maximum accrual 352 hours)
• Sick Days: 15/year (unlimited maximum accrual)
• Holiday Days: 10/year
• Tuition Benefit: Employees have access to this benefit on all CU campuses
• ECO Pass: Reduced rate RTD Bus and light rail service

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level