Senior Grants Manager

Position Overview:
The Senior Grants Manager will be a key member of the grant administration team within the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering (VUSE), specifically the College of Connected Computing (CCC). This position will focus on pre and post award activities, award setup, and will include additional leadership responsibilities. The Senior Grants Manager will serve as a resource and problem-solver for the school, ensure compliance with institutional policies and sponsor requirements, and support faculty and departmental needs. This role will involve collaboration across departments and central offices, playing a pivotal role in the success of grant proposals and administration.

Key Responsibilities:
Leadership and School-Wide Support:
• Serve as a resource and subject-mater expert for grants management, offering guidance to faculty, departments, and staff across the VUSE and CCC.
• Review proposals submitted by departments to ensure compliance and adherence to school and sponsor requirements.
• Pull data and analyze trends to support decision-making and strategic planning within the school.
• Address complex problems related to grant submissions and award management, collaborating with central offices and sponsors as needed.
• Support proposals from the CCC Dean’s office, including submissions for leadership personnel.
• Provide pre-award and post-award assistance and training for the CCC grants managers.
• Provide interim leadership and decision-making support to ensure continuity in grants management, compliance, and operations.

Pre-Award Responsibilities:
• Provide expert guidance on proposal development, including budget preparation, sponsor certifications, compliance, and administrative requirements.
• Ensure school-level approvals are included in proposal attachments.
• Collaborate with faculty and departmental staff to meet sponsor deadlines and requirements.
• Perform application submission.
• Identify and resolve issues during the proposal preparation and submission process.

Award Setup:
• Oversee the setup of newly funded awards to ensure alignment with institutional and sponsor guidelines.
• Act as a CCC liaison with VUSE and central administrative offices to facilitate award activation and fund management.

Post-award responsibilities include:
• Ensures that the post-award operation is running smoothly
• Creates budget reconciliation and forecasting reports and uses these reports to meet regularly with faculty to review their financial situations.
• Ensures compliance with requirements such as effort reporting, financial & progress reporting
• Human Capital Management (HCM) Costing Specialist
• Completes timely journal entries as necessary, grant closeouts, etc.
• Assisting with rate setting/implementation for PI/Faculty run Service Center(s).

Other Responsibilities:
• Processing of salary verification letters related to proposal submission.
• Provide interim account setups and courtesy extensions as required.
• Perform other duties as assigned by leadership to support grants management operations.

Supervisory Relationships:
This position supervises CCC Pre-award Grants Managers and reports directly to VUSE Assistant Dean for Research Administration.

Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree, preferably in finance, accounting, business, or a related field.
• Minimum of 7 years of pre-award and post-award grants management experience.
• Strong knowledge of federal and non-federal grant regulations and compliance requirements.
• Supervisory experience highly preferred.

• Exceptional organizational, time management, and communication skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and grants management systems.
• Experience working with faculty on complex awards and familiarity with a variety of sponsors.
• Problem-solving skills with the ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage competing deadlines.
• Advanced understanding of research compliance and sponsor-specific regulations.
• Familiarity with the Vanderbilt University grants management ecosystem.