Senior Fund Manager (RA 3)

UCLA School of Dentistry; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

UCLA School of Dentistry is seeking a Senior Fund Manager to oversee post-award administration of complex contracts and grants. The role covers multi-million-dollar awards, subawards, and inter-campus arrangements, with liaison to OCGA and Purchasing for compliance and timely processing.

The position emphasizes financial reporting, budgeting, and analysis using Cognos and Microsoft Office tools, while ensuring adherence to university policies and funding agency terms.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7-10 years experience in contract and grant administration in academia.
• Experience with complex multi-departmental projects and subawards is preferred.
• Strong knowledge of federal, state and private grant regulations for higher education.

Responsibilities

• Manage post-award administration of complex multi-million-dollar contracts and grants across multiple entities.
• Process award setup, funding allocations, subawards, payroll changes, and transfers; establish recharge IDs.
• Coordinate with OCGA, EFM, and Purchasing to ensure compliant subawards domestically and abroad.
• Ensure compliance with policies and negotiate issues; follow up to resolution.
• Produce internal financial reports and expense forecasts using Cognos and other systems.
• Reconcile ERS reports and review effort with Principal Investigators for timeliness.
• Collaborate with PIs to adjust distribution and funding, advise on policies and financial matters.
• Meet with PIs regularly to review status, monitor expenses, and ensure funds are spent before grant close.

Skills

Contract & grant administration

Financial analysis

Budget management

Data reporting

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Attention to detail

Training & mentoring

MS Excel

Tools

Cognos

Outlook

Excel

Adobe Acrobat

Job description

Under the direction of the Director of Research Administration, the Senior Fund Manager is responsible for the preparation, analysis, reconciliation, problem resolution, and financial reporting of contract and grant awards, managed at the Research Office of the School of Dentistry. Major duties include pre- and post-award administration of highly complex multi-million-dollar state, federal and private contracts and grants; pre-award preparation/submission and post-award management of large, complex, collaborative center grants and training grants; effort reporting; reconciliation of purchasing, travel, and reimbursements; working with the Research Office team; and providing training or back-up support for other fund managers at the school when needed.

Work Location

In-person and eligible to work remotely 2X Week

Responsibilities

• Manage post-award administration of highly complex multi-million-dollar state, federal, local and private contracts and grants. Examples of complex types of awards are interdisciplinary multi-departmental projects, training grants, projects with multiple subawards including multi- campus awards, non-profit organizations, and projects with more than one indirect cost rate.
• Process award set up including contacting OCGA regarding impending award, initiating ERAS, allocating funds, linking FAUs, initiating payroll changes, establishing recharge IDs and petty cash funds, initiating inter campus transfers, and interdepartmental transfers. Establish subawards.
• Work closely with OCGA, EFM, and Purchasing to ensure that domestic and foreign subawards are accurately executed in a timely manner and managed in accordance with University and agency guidelines. Process modifications and perform closeout of sub awards.
• Ensure that Contracts and Grants remain in compliance with University and various funding agency policies, procedures, terms and conditions. Identify problems and work with appropriate departmental, school, university, and agency personnel to negotiate and resolve issues. Follow up to ensure complete resolution.
• Review individual projects on a regular basis. Identify and correct errors and potential problems. Reconcile and adjust indirect cost charges. Work with the Principal Investigators to resolve issues, prepare scheduled and ad hoc custom internal financial reports from Cognos and other online systems including expense forecasts based on trends and planned changes.
• Reconcile the university Effort Reporting System (ERS) reports for employees paid from federal funds, ensuring that Principal Investigators review and approve the effort charged to their projects in a timely manner.
• In consultation with Principal Investigator, process appropriate paperwork to change distribution and funding status of academic and staff personnel expenses. Identify payroll issues and work with respective departments to resolve where feasible and provide guidance to PIs where possible.
• Meet with the Principal Investigators on a regular basis to review and discuss project status. Collaborate with Principal Investigators on contracts and grants post award administration; plan, monitor and analyze project expenses and project status, and ensure that all contract and grant funds are spent prior to the close of the granting period. Advise faculty on policies, financial matters, and letters to agencies
• Performs training, policy analysis, pre-award administration, and other duties as assigned.

Copy and Paste URL for complete position description. https://jobs.ucla.edu/careers-home/jobs/11838?lang=en-us

Qualifications

• Minimum 7-10 years Experience in contract and grant administration in an academic setting, with preference for center and training grant expertise. (Required) And
• Recent working experience as a fund manager/financial analyst and well-established track record of contributing to the preparation, submission and management of contracts and grants. (Required)
• Strong understanding of federal, state, and private grant/contract regulations and standard proposal requirements as they pertain to the administration of higher education contracts and grants. (Required)
• Ability to monitor, learn, interpret, and train/advise on changing University or federal regulations, administrative policy and procedure manuals, contract and grant regulations and guidelines, as well as legal requirements and accounting guidelines pertaining to University business activities. (Required)
• Skill in effective management of various budgets, with different timelines, project personnel, and deliverables from multiple sources. Demonstrated skill in standard accounting transactions, budgetary control, computational excellence, interpretation of financial data, and reconciliation of expenses. (Required)
• Skill in analyzing information, practices, or procedures to Identify and define problems or objectives; Identify patterns, trends, and relationships; Articulate concerns and formulate logical and objective conclusions; Recognize alternatives and their implications; Provide appropriate follow through, refer or elevate as needed to resolve issues. (Required)
• Mastery of Excel as well as other Microsoft Office and Adobe programs to prepare reports, presentations, documents, and to analyze financial data. Working knowledge and effective organization of Outlook and preservation of documents. Experience designing and developing clear and detailed correspondences, memos, financial presentations, mathematically accurate spreadsheets, and other advanced reports. (Required)
• Excellent time management and organizational skills to meet pre-determined goals and ad-hoc requests. Demonstrated follow-through on multiple tasks, often under fluctuating priorities, competing deadlines, and frequent interruptions. (Required)
• Interpersonal skills to effectively establish and maintain positive and productive working relationships with faculty, staff, administrators, and coworkers, students and other administrators. (Required)
• Ability to work under pressure, be detail oriented and exercise individual judgment and initiative to work both independently and as a team, while following through on assignments and produce high quality work products with minimal direction or supervision and within tight time constraints. (Required)
• Ability to maintain strict confidentiality of information related to financial matters and other materials, as appropriate. (Required)
• Skill in negotiating, exchanging ideas, information, and opinions in collaboration with faculty, staff and administrators. Creativity and strong initiative to develop workable solutions to problems when answers are not readily apparent. (Required)
• Knowledge of Campus Administrative units and their services, roles, and responsibilities; ability to contact them appropriately to obtain needed information, troubleshoot, and resolve issues. (Preferred)