Senior Grant Writer

Kinoped; Sacramento (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Kinoped is seeking an experienced Senior Grant Writer to spearhead non-dilutive funding initiatives, transforming complex robotics and clinical data into compelling grant proposals.

You will own the end-to-end grant lifecycle, identifying federal, state, and private foundation opportunities, and coordinating across engineering, research, and executive teams to secure funding for commercialization and academic collaborations.

Qualifications

• Experience authoring SBIR/STTR proposals to federal agencies.
• Extensive academic and scientific writing background for multi-disciplinary projects.
• Ability to translate complex robotics, data and clinical methods into persuasive grant narratives.
• Proficient in budgeting justification, milestones, compliance, and post-award reporting.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration with engineering, research, and executive teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end non-dilutive funding initiatives and grant strategy.
• Identify and architect federal/state/private foundation grant opportunities.
• Prepare and manage competitive proposals and funder communications.
• Coordinate with PIs, researchers, and leadership to meet deadlines.

Skills

Grant writing (SBIR/STTR)

Academic writing

Technical writing of engineering data

Grant lifecycle management

Project management

Education

Master's or Ph.D. in science/engineering/technical writing/healthcare

Job description

Overview

Seeking an experienced and highly strategic Senior Grant Writer to lead our non-dilutive funding initiatives. This role is responsible for identifying, architecting, and securing federal, state, and private foundation grants to advance our foundational technologies. Positioned at the intersection of advanced robotics, cloud data engineering, and human biomechanics research, the ideal candidate will transform complex engineering data and clinical methodologies into compelling, high-scoring proposals. You will manage the end-to-end grant lifecycle, driving funding strategies for both commercialization pipelines and collaborative academic research programs.

Required Qualifications

• Proven non-dilutive track record — demonstrated success as primary author on awarded, highly competitive federal grants, specifically SBIR or STTR programs (e.g., NSF, NIH, DoD).
• Academic & scientific writing mastery — extensive experience preparing and structuring multi-disciplinary research proposals, university-industry research partnerships, or collaborative investigator-led grant applications.
• Technical ingestion capabilities — exceptional ability to synthesize complex mechatronics documentation, time-series data architectures, and physiological research concepts into accessible, legally rigorous narratives tailored to scientific peer-review panels.
• Full lifecycle management — complete understanding of institutional proposal frameworks, including budget justification, compliance mapping, milestone schedules, post-award reporting, and data management plans.
• Project management & collaboration — excellent communication skills with a proven ability to project-manage cross-functional contributions from engineering, research, and executive teams under tight, unyielding agency deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced academic foundation — Master's degree or Ph.D. in a scientific, engineering, technical writing, or healthcare-related field.
• Domain specificity — direct experience drafting proposals for physical rehabilitation robotics, medical devices, wearable sensory instrumentation, or human performance software platforms.
• Ethics & compliance familiarity — experience incorporating human-subject testing protocols, Institutional Review Board (IRB) safety data, and strict data-privacy framework compliance into grant applications.
• Institutional network — existing experience coordinating with university Principal Investigators (PIs), institutional research offices, or academic validation consortia.