Pre-Award Manager, Office of Sponsored Projects

University of Texas at Austin•Austin, TX

12d•$90,000

About The Position

The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) serves as the coordinating office for externally funded research and sponsored projects at The University of Texas at Austin. The mission of OSP is to assist faculty and professional research staff in their efforts to secure and ensure proper stewardship of external funding. We do that by assisting research faculty and staff with the following: proposal review, authorization, and submission; award negotiations and acceptance; account management; close-out, reports, audits, collection; professional development and education; export control, and research compliance. UT Austin offers a competitive benefits package that includes: 100% employer-paid basic medical coverage Retirement contributions Paid vacation and sick time Paid holidays Please visit our Human Resources (HR) website to learn more about the total benefits offered. Purpose Provide Pre-Award management of staff; provide guidance for complex proposal-related matters, provide training to Pre-Award staff to ensure consistent treatment of proposals, provide signature coverage for Pre-Award Associate Director, contribute to success of initiative to improve award processing times.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and seven years of broad grants administration or other relevant experience in all aspects of proposal review.
Knowledge of grant policies and regulations for the public and private sectors.
Ability to interpret and ensure compliance with federal, state and University policies.
Must be able to meet deadlines and be proficient in the use of computers, including database management, spreadsheets, word processing applications and the Internet.
Excellent organization, time management, oral, written, communication/interpersonal skills
Ability to work with a wide variety of personalities as part of a team.
Must be eligible to work in the United States for an employer on a full-time basis.
Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Nice To Haves

Advanced Degree
Certified Research Administrator (CRA)
Managerial experience
More than seven years of progressively responsible experience in research/grants administration or other relevant experience in all aspects sponsored proposal review.
Experience with UT Austin financial systems including DEFINE, UTRMS, and/or FRMS.

Responsibilities

Manage and provide direct supervision of professional and administrative staff responsible for the review and submission of proposals.
Hire and train (or oversee the training of) new team members. Provide on-going coaching and mentoring to team members to ensure individuals and team are successful. Effectively communicate policies/procedures and expectations to staff. Provide general advice or guidance to team and assist with items complex in nature.
Collaborate with OSP’s Training and Outreach Team on grants-related training topics (e.g, Grant Fundamentals, Grant Application Preparation, Budgeting Tips, etc.)
Establish bi-weekly meetings with Proposal Team to monitor workflow. Facilitate successful submissions of proposal applications. Act as authorized official and signatory on all proposal submissions. Secondary review team's proposals as outlined in SOPs.
Interpret University and Sponsor policies and procedures; ensure compliance with System, University, State and Federal rules, regulations, and laws as they relate to sponsored project proposals. Interface with extramural and intramural grants/contracts officers and program officials on matters of grant administration and problem-solving, e.g., grant restrictions, cost allowability, etc.
Manage Proposal Team workload and efficiency, and shift assignments based on volume of incoming proposals. Regularly monitor and revise constituency lists, as needed, to balance workload. Provides recommendations to Associate Director of Pre-Award for revision of constituencies to balance workloads.
Document recurring workflow and process issues and collaborate with other OSP leadership and campus constituents as needed to create and execute short and long-term solutions. Establish SOPs and regular review of policies/practices.
Support management of eRA systems, as it pertains to pre-award operations. Review and ensure quality assurance for pre-award data input and management to ensure accurate reporting on grant activity. Serve as backup to Associate Director of Pre-Award.