Assistant Director, Research Operations Management

ntu; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NTU is seeking an Assistant Director, Research Operations Management to lead post‑award research operations, diagnose issues, and route work to Finance, HR, Legal, and RSO. The role ensures compliant, timely, and consistent service delivery across units.

You will harmonise legacy practices, design SLAs, and build SOPs while managing risk and continuous improvement in a complex university environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, public administration, or related field (or equivalent professional experience in research administration).
• 5–7 years of progressive experience in research administration or research operations, with post‑award responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience leading or supervising an operational team or workstream.
• Knowledge of the research funding lifecycle, including post‑award processes: award setup, budgeting, modifications, reporting, subawards, and closeout.
• Knowledge of sponsor regulations and policies and their impact on financial and operational management.
• Proficient in electronic research administration and financial systems, and data extraction for metrics.

Responsibilities

• Lead Team B's day‑to‑day operations: set weekly priorities, assign cases, and monitor queue health.
• Produce a weekly Team B workload review showing volume, age, bottlenecks, and coverage gaps.
• Balance workloads across staff by skill and case complexity; rotate high‑risk queues to prevent burnout.
• Maintain a skills matrix and cross‑training plan so critical tasks have backups.
• Run short operational stand‑ups to triage exceptions and unblock stalled cases.
• Operate a single intake channel for operational exceptions and apply a standard triage framework.
• Route cases to Finance, HR, Legal, RSO, or School admin with clear handover notes and SLAs.
• Track 'no‑owner' or ambiguous cases and resolve ownership within defined SLAs.
• Maintain an exception triage log with root cause tags to inform process fixes.
• Document service scope and publish a simple service catalogue; design SLAs and SOPs.
• Harmonise legacy practices across schools/units into unified operating rules.
• Monitor SLA performance and adjust resourcing or processes to meet targets.
• Coordinate cross‑functional sessions for multi‑party exceptions; share risk summaries.
• Drive process improvements and feed ideas into planning and system enhancement requests.

Skills

Leadership

Research administration knowledge

Budgeting & forecasting

Grant reporting

Sponsor regulations

Electronic research administration

Data extraction & metrics

Cross-functional coordination

Process improvement

Risk management

Education

Bachelor's degree in business administration / finance / public administration

Job description

NTU CoHASS comprises the schools ADM, SOH, SSS, and WKWSCI, along with the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration and the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.

The Assistant Director, Research Operations Management will lead and stabilise post‑award research operations by diagnosing operational issues, routing work to the right workstreams, balancing workloads, and designing service standards that harmonise legacy practices across units. The Assistant Director will act as the operational hub between Finance, HR, Legal, and the Research Support Office (RSO) to ensure compliant, timely, and consistent service delivery.

Roles and Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Workload Management

• Lead the team (Team B)'s day‑to‑day: set weekly priorities, assign cases, and monitor queue health.
• Produce a weekly Team B workload review showing volume, age, bottlenecks, and coverage gaps.
• Balance workloads across staff by skill level and case complexity; rotate high‑risk queues to prevent burnout.
• Maintain a skills matrix and cross‑training plan so critical tasks have backups.
• Run short operational stand‑ups to triage exceptions and unblock stalled cases.

Operational Triage, Case Diagnosis & Routing

• Operate a single intake channel for operational exceptions.
• Apply a standard triage framework (impact, urgency, compliance risk, effort) to classify cases.
• Route cases to the right workstream (Finance, HR, Legal, RSO, School admin) with clear handover notes and expected turnaround.
• Track "no‑owner" or ambiguous cases and resolve ownership within defined SLAs.
• Maintain an exception triage log with root cause tags to inform process fixes.

Service Scope, Standards & SLA Design

• Document the service scope for Team B (in‑scope vs out‑of‑scope) and publish a simple service catalogue.
• Design and maintain SLAs for key request types (e.g., budget adjustments, staffing changes, contract amendments, reporting escalations).
• Build standard operating procedures (SOPs) for repeatable workflows and exception paths.
• Harmonise legacy practices across schools/units into one set of operating rules where feasible.
• Review SLA performance monthly and adjust resourcing or process steps to meet targets.

Cross ‑ Functional Coordination & Stakeholder Management

• Serve as the primary operational contact for Finance, HR, Legal, and RSO on post‑award operational issues.
• Convene short, focused working sessions to resolve multi‑party exceptions (e.g., cost transfers requiring HR + Finance + RSO input).
• Align on escalation paths and decision rights so that school‑owned silo management does not block resolution.
• Share a weekly "operational risk and blocker" summary with DD/SAD and partner leads.
• Coordinate training or briefings when policy or system changes affect post‑award workflows.

Risk Sensing, Compliance & Exception Governance

• Monitor queues for patterns indicating systemic risk (e.g., repeated budget overruns, missed reporting deadlines, effort certification delays).
• Flag high‑risk cases for early Legal/RSO review and document risk‑mitigation steps.
• Ensure audit‑ready documentation for exceptions, approvals, and policy deviations.
• Maintain an operational risk register with likelihood, impact, owner, and mitigation status.
• Drive corrective actions from audit findings or sponsor queries relevant to operations.

Process Harmonisation & Continuous Improvement

• Map current‑state workflows across schools/units; identify duplications and handoff failures.
• Propose and implement process improvements that shorten cycle time and reduce errors.
• Standardise templates (e.g., escalation forms, handover notes, triage checklists).
• Pilot changes in one unit, measure impact, then scale; retire redundant legacy steps.
• Feed improvement ideas into SAD planning and system enhancement requests.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, finance, public administration, or a related field (or equivalent professional experience in research administration).
• Minimum 5-7 years of progressive experience in research administration or research operations, with substantial post‑award responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience leading or supervising an operational team or workstream (formal or informal).
• Knowledge in research funding lifecycle, with deep knowledge of post‑award processes: award setup, budgeting, modifications, reporting, subawards, and closeout.
• Have knowledge in sponsor regulations and policies and how they affect financial and operational management.
• Proficient in electronic research administration and financial systems (e.g., grants management systems, reporting tools) and data extraction for metrics.

We regret that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Hiring Institution: NTU