Senior Grants & Contracts Lead, Research Administration

The University of Texas at Austin; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 68,000 - 83,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Paid time off

Retirement plan

Tuition assistance

Professional development

Job summary

The University of Texas at Austin is recruiting a Senior Grants and Contracts Specialist for the Wireless Networking and Communications Group in the Cockrell School of Engineering. The role provides senior-level post-award financial support, portfolio administration, and coordination with faculty, OSP, and staff on multi-million-dollar projects.

Responsibilities include budget changes, invoicing, reporting, closeout, and proactive financial planning, along with cross-functional process

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business or public administration, social sciences, or technical/scientific field.
• Five years of related experience in research administration, grants/contracts administration, or post-award financial management.
• Demonstrated experience in post-award grant and contract administration and working knowledge of the pre-award lifecycle, fiscal management, and sponsored-project compliance.
• Experience using financial reporting systems to support account reconciliation, budget forecasts, projections, and fiscal reporting.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and independent judgment skills, with experience balancing deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Perform post-award grant and contract administration, including budget changes, extensions, certifications, invoicing, troubleshooting, sponsor-reporting coordination, and compliance-driven award closeout.
• Develop spend plans and projections for faculty funding portfolios; support faculty financial planning; and recommend cost corrections and risk-mitigation strategies.
• Generate and manage routine account reports for faculty portfolios and center-level accounts, maintaining standardized coding and reporting structures.
• Monitor upcoming award expiration cycles and support timely expenditure drawdown, fund closeout, and required actions.
• Support post-award financial administration for center expenditures, costing allocations, and HR-related funding information.
• Facilitate timely action among OSP, PIs, center leadership, and external collaborators on time-sensitive requests.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to improve operational processes and documentation; support special projects.

Skills

Communication

Independent judgment

Detail-oriented

Problem solving

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree in business or public administration, social sciences, or technical/scientific field

Job description

The University of Texas at Austin is recruiting a Senior Grants and Contracts Specialist for the Wireless Networking and Communications Group in the Cockrell School of Engineering. The role provides senior-level post-award financial support, portfolio administration, and coordination with faculty, OSP, and staff on multi-million-dollar projects.

Responsibilities include budget changes, invoicing, reporting, closeout, and proactive financial planning, along with cross-functional process