research administrator-float

RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR-FLOAT (Project/Temporary)

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world.

UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills, and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and natural beauty.

The Department of Medicine has an outstanding opportunity for a temporary, fixed-duration Research Administrator – Float to support the 11 divisions.

The Research Administrator will be responsible for independently providing the Department of Medicine's 11 divisions with assistance in managing research grant and contract proposals with special emphasis on larger award mechanisms such as NIH cooperative agreements, program projects and institutional training grants.

The incumbent will perform as a Department expert and provide assistance to the (11) Department of Medicine Divisions on all post-award matters and serve as back up for pre-award matters.

This person would routinely coordinate program activities, solve problems, and work with administrative staff and campus units to address/resolve issues.

This includes the responsibility to advise faculty investigators and staff of current institutional and agency policies and procedures, and to provide timely notification of policy changes.

This position will also work independently to review and approve grant/contract proposals and other sponsored research documents ensuring compliance and conformance with institutional and sponsoring agency policies and regulations.

This position will have the authority to sign off on grant/contract proposals on behalf of the Department Chair.

This position requires a broad scope of knowledge and experience in the following areas: academic research in medicine, conformance and compliance to policies and procedures at local, state and national levels.

The complexity of this position is derived from the broad range of medical specialties and research interests of the faculty of the Department of Medicine.

The position requires an ability to direct and manage multiple priorities, quickly analyze situations and make sound decisions utilizing effective time management skills, good business acumen and administrative judgment.

The incumbent must have a highly effective level of communication with the Principal Investigators, Division Managers, Directors, Chair, Vice Chairs, Dean's office, faculty, staff, and other university departments.

The incumbent must be able to work very independently to achieve the goals of the Department.

The complexity of this position is derived largely from the fact that the research interests of the faculty span a broad range of medical specialties.

Each of our divisions specializes in different areas of medicine therefore many different agencies are involved in funding research activities and many different types of grant and contract applications are submitted each year.

The incumbent will interface with personnel in the Department of Medicine (faculty, division administrators and division staff), the University (research pre-award administrators in the School of Medicine, the Office of Sponsored Programs, Grant and Contract Accounting, Human Subjects, to name a few), and outside sources (research staff at cooperating agencies such as the Fred Hutch, Bloodworks NW, the Veterans Administration Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS), the NIH, other cooperating academic institution, as examples).

The Department of Medicine (DoM) is the largest academic department in UW Medicine, providing leadership in research, clinical care and teaching across 11 subspecialty divisions, 23 accredited resident and fellowship programs.

It is one of the largest and leading academic departments in the country with > 1,100 clinical and research faculty members, 407 residents and fellows in ACGME-accredited positions, 109 non-ACGME fellows and visiting scientists, 927 staff members and 978 affiliated clinical faculty members, and an annual budget of over $500 million.

The Department has total annual contract and grant research expenditures of approximately $181 million from approximately 800 research awards. Approximately 35% of the faculty members are paid from the grant/contract projects in Medicine.

The Department's Office of Sponsored Projects reviews approximately 1,600 proposals yearly that involve the faculty of the Department of Medicine.

The Research Administrator is responsible for accurate research proposal submission and research budget management. This position requires interpreting a wide variety of information with regard to research proposals and awards.

Errors and omissions made in this position may be result in loss of funding to the Department and could impact our research mission.

This position is vital in ensuring that funds are managed at a high degree of integrity and accuracy in order to maintain good relationships with our sponsoring agencies and cooperating institutions.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

GRANT/CONTRACT FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT (45%)
Serve as the Department resource and knowledge area expert for post-award administration:

• Design, deploy, maintain, and modify user-friendly summary status reports to be used on a monthly and ad hoc basis including forecasts of grant year-end financial projections.
• Create and maintain a thriving community of grant administration professionals across the department, including onboarding of new employees, and ongoing peer-to-peer learning.
• Communicate with the appropriate division administrator, principal investigator(s), and relevant central office staff on post-award activities.
• Participate in audits as necessary

Serve as a "float" grants manager when there are key vacancies in any of the 11 divisions:

• Monitor contract and grant funding, anticipating and detecting financial problems, keeping the appropriate Division administrator and principal investigator(s) informed of problems, proposed solutions, and independently initiating corrective actions and measures as required. Budget monitoring and financial forecasting during current and succeeding grant years involves knowledge of purchasing/acquisition policies, tracking expenditures, as well as, monitoring financial performance, ensuring consistency with the approved award budget.
• Perform other post-award activities as required, including financial reporting, cost sharing, and matching requirements to ensure compliance with agency expenditure policies and procedures, award terms and conditions.

GRANT AND CONTRACT PROPOSAL PREPARATION & DEPARTMENTAL REVIEW (45%)
Serve as back-up to the primary point of contact for the following functions, stepping up in times of surge and/or out-of-office coverage needs:

• Serve as a Department resource for preparing research grant and contract proposals with special emphasis on larger award mechanisms such as NIH cooperative agreements, program projects and institutional training grants.
• Prepare research grants and contract proposals including eGC1 and related forms, initiate development of budgets for grants, contracts and subcontracts, and prepare written justification to support budget proposals.
• Provide technical and administrative support to faculty in the development of accurate proposal submissions to ensure proposals are consistent with federal laws and regulations, sponsor agreements, submission requirements, and University specific policies and procedures. This is key to successful grant and contract acquisition. Many projects involve research partners in industry, academic institutions and non-profit institutions so knowledge of the roles and responsibilities of research participants is necessary in order to discuss issues related to proposals and facilitate problem resolution.
• Serve as the proposal contact with other departments, universities, schools, and offices on grant, research and project submissions involving multiple institutions and coordinates all proposals with the Division receiving funding and the Office of Sponsored Programs.
• On behalf of the department, as chair delegate, independently review and approve grant/contract proposals and other sponsored research documents ensuring compliance and conformance with institutional and sponsoring agency policies and regulations

OTHER RESPONSIBILTIES/PROJECT WORK (10%)

• Lead post award work related to the upcoming implementation of and stabilization phase of Workday implementation across the University.
• Prepare formal communications required by the Department, School, University or funding agencies.
• Coordinate with Division administrators and faculty to ensure the timely submission of progress reports and final reports for funded projects.
• Participate as needed with national societies and relevant peer groups.
• Other responsibilities are ad hoc and on an as assigned and/or as needed basis.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Bachelor's Degree in Business, Social Sciences or a related field or the equivalent work and education AND a minimum of five (5) years progressively responsible experience with extramural proposal preparation and dealing with proposal parathion issues including, but not limited to, compliance and policy issues, foundation and federal policies and practices.

• Demonstrated experience of successfully handing multiple projects with critical deadlines.
• Ability to work independently with a minimum level of supervision and high degree of reliability, accuracy and productivity.
• Work well under stress in a fast paced environment with competing priorities.
• Intermediate computer skills – computer proficiency with spreadsheets (excel), word processing and databases in Windows environment.
• Detail Oriented.
• Excellent communication skills – both written and verbal.
• Ability to work well in a team.
• Ability to handle confidential information responsibly.
• Excellent customer service skills as the Department provides service to multiple customers including 11 divisions, the Associate Chair of Research, and the Department Chair.
• Ability to creatively problem solve.
• Strong organizational ability.

Equivalent education/experience will substitute for all minimum qualifications except when there are legal requirements, such as a license/certification/registration.

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience in preparation of program project proposals.
• Experience in a research or academic higher education health care organization with emphasis on successfully.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

This is a full-time, exempt, position that may require work outside of standard operating hours to meet programmatic deadlines.

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