Research Program Manager - Information Trust Institute

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign•Urbana, IL

13d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Information Trust Institute (ITI) at The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is seeking a Research Program Manager. ITI is a world-leading institution focused on creating trustworthy critical infrastructure, with a history of significant innovation in cyber-physical research. This role supports ITI leadership and staff in research and program management activities, requiring strong program management, communication, and organizational skills. The position is responsible for planning, overseeing, resourcing, supporting, and leading multiple projects from ideation to completion. It involves continuous interaction with internal and external stakeholders, managing multiple tasks simultaneously, and balancing diverse interests to meet objectives and deliverables on time and within budget. The role also includes creating and maintaining status reports to communicate progress and metrics, and assessing workflow efficiency and effectiveness.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
A total of two (2) years (24 months) in education, training, and/or work experience in professional program management and/or project management.
Demonstrated experience coordinating projects within a business, academic, research, or government environment.
Demonstrated experience working with sponsor-facing, client-facing, or internal stakeholder communication environments.
Excellent communication, organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills.
Ability to be self-motivated, exercise good judgment, and prioritize.
Ability to analyze information, evaluate results, and problem solve.
Ability to work directly with researchers, government representatives, industry representatives, publishers, vendors, and others in this area.
Ability to work independently and see projects through to completion.
Project management and organizational skills.
Ability to communicate effectively and respond appropriately to customer needs.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree.
Experience working on multiple projects with deadlines and deliverable requirements.
Experience working as a research program manager or other related project management role.
Experience with Higher Education and or State Government operations, processes and protocols, working in a role with responsibility for project outcomes and success.
Experience using one or more project or program management tools or software programs.
Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM), Program Management Professional (PgMP) or Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP), or other relevant project management certification.
Experience with relevant technical concepts or managing projects with technical content or subject matter focus.

Responsibilities

Manage day-to-day operations for assigned research projects, including execution of short- and long-term goals to maximize timely deliverables.
Monitor and respond to action items and stakeholder requests to ensure appropriate progress while coordinating with research teams and ITI leadership.
Schedule, facilitate, and attend meetings, including finalizing agendas and communicating and coordinating deliverables.
Assist in development of project plans to monitor and track progress of varying projects.
Participate in establishing goals, maintaining timelines, and ensuring resources are directed efficiently toward achieving objectives.
Draft and publish progress reports and project status reviews with project stakeholders for assigned projects.
Maintain and organize project documents, records, data, and archives.
Utilize tracking, analysis, assessment tools, or other resources to evaluate effectiveness of processes, programs, and activities associated with assigned projects.
Support program office and planning activities such as development of program plans, development of statements of work and basic ordering agreement task orders.
Support assigned education and training programs for new and existing initiatives.
Track and report on fund expenditures for projects being managed.
Track progress of program deliverables, tasks, and milestone achievement to meet program deadlines and to ensure efficiency and success, including budgets, resourcing and workflow.
Serve as a liaison between project staff and other stakeholders, including those at other institutions, to facilitate the accomplishments of goals, objectives and milestones for projects.
Communicate changes to the project scope, project schedule and project costs using appropriate verification techniques.
Collaborate with and support other program managers and senior program managers as needed to meet the overall needs of ITI and CIRI.
Report and escalate to management as needed to address program risk management.
Perform other program and project management tasks as needed.
Support Communication efforts and drive communication management via written or verbal communication of project goals, project status, issues, actions, and risks to internal and external stakeholders.
Communicate with funding sponsors, industrial advisory board members, research faculty, students, and staff as need to support active research and program management.
Assist with identifying, promoting, supporting industry collaboration and mutually beneficial strategic partnerships and opportunities.
Respond to sponsor contacts as needed to meet program objectives.
Assist with event management and coordination activities in support of sponsor programs.
Assist with the creation and support of educational and business activities.
Identify best practices or changes that facilitate improvement in meeting objectives and outcomes.
Ensure educational programs operate in alignment with sponsor requirements.
Proactively review federal sponsor opportunities and postings, identify and track appropriate fits and communicate and track progress toward response compliance.
Assist with business office coordination in support of opportunity response activities.
Track ITI and CIRI engagement activities.
Provide updates to leadership and staff on pursued and active opportunities.
Document ITI activities related to sponsor engagement efforts.
Provide support for responses to grant opportunities and other funding source submissions.