Essential Job Duties

The College of Engineering is looking to hire multiple Sponsored Research Administrators (SRA) within the newly established college-managed operating model, responsible for orchestrating both pre-award and post-award lifecycles for an assigned departmental faculty portfolio. While the incumbent is physically co-located within a department to provide high-touch, localized customer service, the position is an integral part of the centralized College ORA team.

The primary purpose of this role is to apply advanced accounting principles, federal/state regulations, and university guidelines to ensure the fiscal and administrative integrity of all sponsored projects.

Pre-Award Portfolio Management & Proposal Development

• Localized Faculty Consultation: Partner directly with PIs in the embedded unit to develop accurate, compliant proposal budgets and detailed justifications from initial concept through final submission.
• Standardized Regulatory Screening: Analyze complex agency Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) to ensure strict alignment with F&A rules, cost-sharing restrictions, budget caps, and direct cost allowability, reducing front-end submission errors.
• Institutional System Management: Fully execute and route records within institutional software suites, including RED Proposal Development, ensuring data integrity is validated at the departmental level before final central routing.
• Electronic Research Administration (eRA): Build, format, and package proposal submissions within varied sponsor portals (Research.gov, GRANTS.gov, eRA Commons, ASSIST), acting as the localized technical expert for the department's faculty.

Post-Award Financial Management, Forecasting & Closeout

• Award Onboarding & Budget Translation: Review select incoming award notices alongside the PI to establish accurate internal ledger setups, ensuring F&A is calculated correctly based on MTDC or TDC parameters.
• Compliance Monitoring & Risk Mitigation: Perform continuous financial analysis of active grant ledgers. Monitor expenditures for accuracy, allowability, and strict compliance with Cost Accounting Standards (CAS), Uniform Guidance, state rules, and university policies.
• Projections & Planning Models: Build multi-year spending projections and variance analysis models for faculty to optimize fund utilization, prevent over-expenditures, and manage labor distributions/personnel charges.
• Reconciliations & Cost-Share Tracking: Audit human resource expenditures, travel vouchers, and procurement charges against grant terms. Track, document, and report mandatory or voluntary committed cost-sharing obligations.
• Lifecycle Closeouts: Execute comprehensive closeouts for expiring grant segments. Prepare and process Project Modification Requests (PMRs) for budget modifications, no-cost extensions, or residual balance distributions, ensuring audit-ready documentation is permanently archived.