Pre-Award Grants Coordinator

The Department of Chemistry at Virginia Tech seeks a full-time Pre-Award Grants Coordinator to support faculty in the identification, development, and submission of sponsored research proposals. This position serves as a key resource for faculty throughout the proposal development process, assisting with funding opportunity identification, proposal coordination, budget preparation, document collection, and submission activities to ensure complete and compliant proposals.

The successful candidate will be highly organized, detail-oriented, and committed to providing excellent customer service, with the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously. This position requires strong communication skills, initiative, and the ability to build effective working relationships with faculty, staff, students, and university partners. The department is committed to supporting professional development and training in research administration systems and processes.

This on-site position also serves as a backup to the department's Post-Award Grants Coordinator. Some flexibility may be considered following successful completion of the probationary period; however, this position is primarily on-site with an expectation of regular in-person engagement.

Required Qualifications

• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Demonstrated experience in using MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Teams) and Adobe Acrobat Pro
• Demonstrated ability to work with numerical data and financial information while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
• Strong organizational and prioritization skills, including the ability to manage multiple deadlines and work under pressure while maintaining accuracy and attention to detail.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with individuals from diverse backgrounds at varying levels of an organization including faculty, students, and staff.
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive and confidential information.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business, science, or related field or equivalent level of training and/or experience
• Experience developing, managing, or monitoring budgets.
• Certified Research Administrator (CRA)
• Experience coordinating, preparing, reviewing, or submitting proposals, contracts, reports, or other complex administrative documents.
• Experience interpreting and applying policies, regulations, guidelines, or compliance requirements of federal funding agencies (e.g., NSF, NIH, USDA).
• Experience with research administration systems and electronic submission platforms (e.g., grants.gov, Research.gov, Cayuse, or similar systems).
• Experience using enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial, human resources, reporting, or business intelligence systems (e.g., Banner, HRIS, MicroStrategy, or similar platforms).
• Experience supporting scientific, technical, academic, or research-related activities.