Research Development Coordinator

University of Texas at Austin

9d•Onsite

About The Position

The Department of Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin is home to internationally recognized research programs spanning brain and behavioral science, cognitive science, developmental science, clinical psychology, social neuroscience, quantitative methods, and related interdisciplinary fields. This position supports the department's growing research enterprise, including emerging large-scale collaborative initiatives. The successful candidate will work closely with faculty, researchers, trainees, and campus partners to strengthen proposal competitiveness, research development activities, training programs, and strategic research initiatives across the department. This is a 3-year fixed-term position. The Department of Psychology seeks a highly organized, detail-oriented, and collaborative Research Development Coordinator to support the growth of the department's research enterprise. Working closely with faculty, the department's Senior Grants & Contracts Specialist, and campus partners, this position coordinates proposal development activities, identifies and disseminates funding opportunities, supports training grant and accreditation administration, and manages the research metrics and reporting that advance major research initiatives. The successful candidate will play a key role in helping faculty compete for external funding and in building the administrative infrastructure for innovative, interdisciplinary research programs.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in public administration, business administration, higher education administration, research administration, communications, social sciences, or a related field.
At least 3 years of experience coordinating or administering a program.
Experience coordinating projects, programs, research initiatives, grants administration activities, academic operations, or other complex administrative functions.
Demonstrated experience managing multiple competing priorities, tracking deadlines, maintaining accurate records, and coordinating activities across multiple stakeholders.
Strong written and verbal communication skills with experience preparing professional correspondence, reports, presentations, spreadsheets, and other administrative or project documentation.
Proven ability to work collaboratively and build effective working relationships with faculty, staff, students, and external partners.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a research-intensive academic department, center, institute, or university setting.
Familiarity with pre-award research administration processes, including proposal preparation, sponsor guidelines, budget development, internal review, and submission coordination.
Experience supporting institutional training grants, fellowship programs, accreditation activities, or research reporting requirements.
Working knowledge of sponsored research regulations, sponsor requirements, and research compliance practices, including federal funding agencies such as NIH and NSF.
Experience using electronic research administration systems and proposal submission platforms, such as UTRMS, Cayuse, Grants.gov, or Research.gov.

Responsibilities

Proposal development and coordination. Assist faculty and research teams with proposal preparation logistics, internal timelines, required materials, and sponsor requirement tracking, in coordination with the Senior Grants & Contracts Specialist. Collect and organize proposal components from investigators and collaborators. Maintain the department's proposal calendar, tracking systems, and documentation for multi-PI, center-level, training grant, and initiative-related proposals, with submission deadlines and pipeline management overseen by the Grants & Contracts Specialist.
Research development administration. Conduct proactive, department-wide identification, tracking, and organization of funding opportunities aligned with departmental research priorities and disseminate opportunities to faculty through funding announcements and other routine research communications. Coordinate administrative elements of proposals, assist with research development meetings and events, planning materials, and follow-up communications.
Research metrics, reporting, and information management. Collect, organize, and maintain research metrics, proposal information, initiative activity, reporting materials, and data needed for department, research initiative, COLA, and OVPR requests. Prepare spreadsheets, reports, correspondence, and presentation materials related to research development activity.
Training program and accreditation support. Provide administrative support for T32 training grant submissions and administration, including annual progress reports, trainee appointment documentation, data collection, and timeline management. Support APA and PCSAS accreditation documentation, data collection, reporting, and compliance records.
Faculty and internal stakeholder coordination. Coordinate with faculty, research staff, departmental leadership, the Senior Grants & Contracts Specialist, COLA, OVPR, and other campus partners to support timely, organized, and compliant research development activities. Provide support during peak proposal and reporting periods, including assistance with funded and non-funded agreements (e.g., DUAs), Just-In-Time documentation, and other sponsor-required materials, as needed.
Other duties as assigned