Assoc. Director of Research Administration- Accounting & Post Award Compliance

Nacubo; Golden (CO); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Colorado School of Mines seeks a strategic leader for the Office of Research Administration to guide the research enterprise, partnering with faculty to secure and optimize world‑leading sponsored projects.

The role oversees post‑award operations, financial reporting, cash management, and compliance with federal regulations. Hybrid work is possible in Colorado, with a minimum on‑site presence in Golden three days per week.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business, or related field.
• 10 years progressive experience in accounting/financial management.

Responsibilities

• Lead Post-Award staff including Research Accountants, Grant Administrators, Billing Specialists and the Financial Compliance Analyst; manage HR functions.
• Oversee reconciliation of sponsored research accounts, revenue, expenses, and balance sheet activity; monitor invoices and collections.
• Develop and maintain SOPs for PPS functions and provide regulatory and fiscal guidance to ORA and faculty.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Problem solving

Financial systems knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in accounting or business

CPA or licensure (preferred)

Tools

Workday

Banner (Ellucian)

Job description

Colorado School of Mines is a public R1 STEM-focused research university focused on applied science and engineering, located in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Mines’ talented graduates and faculty bring knowledge and solutions to serve industry and benefit society. Mines is seeking a strategic leader for its Office of Research Administration to guide inside the research enterprise, partnering with faculty to secure and optimize world-leading research.
The Office of Finance, Administration and Operations (FA&O) provides critical support to our mission and strategic initiatives while managing $325 million in operating activity, stewarding $1 billion in assets, and supporting 1650 faculty and staff. Within FA&O, the Office Research Administration (ORA) provides oversight and stewardship for approximately $100 million of annual sponsored research funding. This position reports to the Senior Director of Business Services and is responsible for the overall financial management, including expense and deficit monitoring, financial reporting, cash management, revenue reconciliation, balance sheet activity, and closeout of sponsored projects for ORA.

This position may be eligible for hybrid work in Colorado and requires a minimum of 3 days per week on campus in Golden, Colorado. Onboarding for this position includes introduction and integration with Research, Faculty, and campus partners. It will involve training on policies and procedures, and technical training opportunities for systems and technology required for this role.

Primary Responsibilities

Post-Award Department Leadership

This leadership position will be responsible for building culture and managing all the Post Award staff members; including Research Accountants, Grant Administrators, Billing Specialists and the Financial Compliance Analyst. This includes all HR functions such as hiring, training and onboarding, conducting performance reviews, resolving personnel concerns.

• Determine work prioritization by evaluating deadlines, complexity of the workload, and available resources; build standard and ad hoc reports to provide performance metric data.
• Resolve complex administrative or accounting questions or issues that arise and coordinates with and escalates to ORA Director on resolution, as needed and as appropriate.
• Develop and maintain a highly skilled and engaged team through managing the organizational structure, roles, and responsibilities of the ORA Post Award team, fostering a service-oriented team environment.
• Develop and maintain a respectful work environment with a team capable of working through new challenges, responsive to ad hoc requests, and is highly accountable for accuracy in their work product.
• Ensure high quality, expert customer advising services to the campus community and implement service metrics and feedback reporting.
• Develop performance-based metrics and ensure robust feedback loops between supervisors and employees are regularly utilized and documented.
• Foster a culture of professional development and continuous improvement within the staff. Create a team known for creative problem-solving and solutioning by streamlining support and user-facing resources.
• Ensure the development and maintenance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all PPS functions.
• Provide expertise and consultation related to regulatory and policy issues and fiscal management of research projects to ORA staff, departmental administrators and faculty.
• Remain knowledgeable about current federal regulations, pending changes, OMB Circulars, Federal Acquisition Regulations and Cost Accounting Standards.
• Develop policy and processes that comply with general accounting standards, Mines’ policy and sponsor regulations. Processes should include strong internal controls to mitigate risk to the University and employ industry best practices that maintain efficiency and optimal resource utilization
• Assist in the maintenance of ORA’s Research Management software and the University’s financial system; specifically, with regards to Post Award functions and processes. Ensure there are adequate training materials and coordinate with other campus offices and faculty on process changes. Ensure quality control over financial data entered in the Mines’ financial system.
• Develops Post Award training material for ORA staff and campus. Training will be targeted to the audience and include one-on-one trainings, larger training sessions and web-available communications material.

Financial Stewardship and Reporting

• Oversee the reconciliation of sponsored research accounts revenue, expenses and balance sheet activity, track outstanding invoices, monitor collection activity, subrecipient financial monitoring, time and effort compliance certifications and provide general accounting support to ORA staff.
• Manage cash flow and proper financial reporting of research project expenditures and revenue, refer accounts receivables for write offs or collections and authorize refunds to sponsoring agencies as needed.
• Ensure compliance with all financial and reporting requirements from sponsoring agencies.
• Serve as the authorized organization official for the submission of required financial report to sponsoring agencies.
• Analyze indirect cost revenue trends and ratios to provide data for forecasting Mines’ indirect cost revenue.
• Work with the Director and the Controller to strategically align Mines expenses for maximum reimbursement of the F&A rate. Oversee the preparation of the data gathering process for the University indirect cost rate proposal.
• Coordinate and prepare response to all audit requests; follow-up and implement, if necessary, any audit recommendations.
• Develop and enhance ORA’s fiscal reporting and analysis tools for frequent ad hoc analyses of sponsored research activity, rate-setting, and other complex modeling.
• Build standard and ad hoc reports using Mines’ business intelligence reporting tools to provide information to ORA staff and Mines’ Senior Leadership for financial monitoring purposes. Analyzes data to identify compliance issues, accounting irregularities, etc.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, business, or related field
• 10 years progressive experience as a professional in either accounting or financial management with an in-depth understanding of generally accepted accounting principles, financial policies and procedures in the public sector
• Five or more years of experience supervising professional staff (including hiring, onboarding, training, and evaluation)
• Five or more years of progressive experience in sponsored project financial administration
• Working knowledge of OMB Circulars and other pertinent external regulations
• Excellent communication skills (oral and written)
• Problem solving and analyzation skills including the ability to critically analyze information in order to make independent decisions
• Demonstrated customer service skills, the ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies and ability to meet multiple deadlines
• Experience with enterprise financial systems

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Public Accountant or other professional licensure
• Working knowledge of public higher education systems
• Experience with Workday, Banner (Ellucian) , or other similar enterprise financial system