Staff Positions
Assistant Director of Grants and Contracts
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Department of Computer Science is hiring an Assistant Director of Grants and Contracts to lead and oversee all aspects of the department’s Grants and Contracts team, overseeing the daily operations of the grant management staff and accomplishing grant management duties, including providing pre- and post-award sponsored project support to faculty and staff.
The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability or veteran status. For more information, visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO.
Major Duties and Responsibilities:
Guide and manage the preparation, review and submission of both routine and complex research proposals to various sponsor agencies. This includes preparation of budgets, budget justifications, current and pending, compliance with solicitation requirements, and other proposal materials making sure they are compliant with sponsor guidelines and University policies. Duties include:
- Lead professor strategy discussions, offering guidance for effective submissions.
- Make recommendations for changes in the proposals to meet sponsor guidelines and University policies as needed.
- Guide departmental interactions with partner institutions.
- Ensure necessary information is submitted via sponsor software/portals, including Fastlane, Research.gov, Grants.gov, NIH Assist, and other systems.
- Oversee the submission of proposal information in University systems such as the MyProposals and MyResearch portals, and others.
- Serve as primary liaison to Sponsored Programs Administration (SPA), including proposal submission and grant/contract negotiations as necessary, making independent decisions related to the submission process and any necessary changes to ensure a successful submission.
- Review submission materials for compliance, making or facilitating all necessary changes as needed.
- Take the lead in pre-award support for large center-style grants by serving on the department’s Big Research Initiatives Committee, providing guidance on policy, procedure, agency requirements, and best practices.
- Liaise with college and university research proposal staff to assist with securing large funding opportunities, especially aimed at center-scale research projects led by departmental faculty.
Leadership, Operations and Management of Grants and Contracts group:
- Provide sound leadership and supervise departmental Grants and Contracts staff. This includes providing guidance/mentoring, reviewing work as needed, completing performance reviews, approving timesheets, and managing daily operations of the entire team.
- Lead the collaboration of departmental staff and the SPA Office to assure compliance with funding agency requirements and University submission policies to submit completed proposals.
- Serve as primary point of contact for SPA and the Grainger College of Engineering with respect to identification of funding opportunities, building trans-campus teams, preparation of proposals and related activities. E
- Ensure departmental Grants and Contracts staff are adequately trained, provide necessary continuing education opportunities, and facilitate the uptake of new policies, procedures, and best practices.
- Represent the department on assigned campus committees and other engagements with campus stakeholders.
- Make recommendations to department administrators in terms of hiring, position descriptions, and support needs related to Grants and Contracts positions.
Manage financial aspects of post-award sponsored project activities. Work closely with Principal Investigators to develop and monitor grant spending plans, including staff planning, appropriate rates of spending, and regularly reviewing and updating project expenditures to ensure compliance with sponsor and University policy requirements. Duties might include:
- Serve as primary unit liaison to SPA to independently solve non-routine problems.
- Monitor investigator effort on sponsored projects for assigned faculty to ensure investigators meet the effort obligations on their awards. Recommend changes in investigator effort and appointment requests as necessary to ensure compliance with effort obligations. Help faculty with their summer appointment allocations and their summer exception forms.
- Advise Principal Investigators regarding grant extensions, budget revisions and other post-award tasks. Request and monitor anticipation accounts, sub-awards and no-cost extensions as necessary.
- Work with Principal Investigators to prepare supporting materials, reports and documents for the specific agencies, communicating to these agencies via email, phone calls and agency software. Follow-up with all forms of communication to maintain funding from these agencies.
- Ensure sponsored project close-out reviews are complete, finalize any necessary transactions, and work with the Grants and Contracts Office to close the grant in their system.
- Work with faculty toward the completion of their semi-annual certifications in a timely manner, including making any necessary accounting or effort changes as needed.
- Work with faculty and SPA staff to transfer grants to and from the University as needed.
Assume additional appropriate duties to further the research mission of the department.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in business administration, accounting, finance, economics or a field related to the position.
- Five years of grant experience in a research setting that includes proposal development and review, research proposals, scientific communications documents, or other relevant experience.
- Demonstrated experience overseeing complex projects.
- Demonstrated experience leading teams.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master's degree in accounting, finance, business administration or a related field related to the position.
- Seven years of research grant experience with proposal development and/or proposal creation in a research setting (e.g., grant proposals, research proposals, scientific communications documents, strategic science policy documents, research proposals, etc.).
- Supervisory experience.
- Illinois Certified Research Administrator designation.
Highly qualified candidates will possess the following:
- Demonstrated leadership skills.
- Strong organizational skills with the ability to concurrently manage multiple complex tasks.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, both oral and written.
- Ability to successfully interact with a broad array of internal and external constituents.
- Proven track record of customer service.
Appointment Information:
This is a full-time Civil Service Grants and Contracts Associate position appointed on a 12-month service basis. The expected start date is as soon as possible after the deadline.
To Apply:
Applications must be received by September 3, 2020. Apply for this position using the “Apply for Position” button below. If you have not applied before, you must create your candidate profile at https://jobs.illinois.edu/. If you already have a profile, you will be redirected to that existing profile via email notification. To complete the application process:
Step 1) Submit the Staff Vacancy Application
Step 2) Submit the Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability forms
Step 3) Upload all of the following:
- cover letter for this position
- resume (months and years of employment must be included)
- academic credentials (unofficial transcripts or copy of diploma may be acceptable) for all degrees attained
- names/contact information for three references
In order to be considered as a transfer candidate, you must apply for this position using the “Apply for Position” button below. Applications not submitted through this website will not be considered. For further information about this specific position, contact Denise Corray (decorray@illinois.edu). For questions about the application process, please contact 217-333-2137.
The University of Illinois conducts criminal background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer.
As a qualifying federal contractor, the University of Illinois System uses E-Verify to verify employment eligibility. The University of Illinois must also comply with applicable federal export control laws and regulations and, as such, reserves the right to employ restricted party screening procedures for applicants.