Senior PM, Research Admin Systems (AURA/Huron SaaS)

University of Chicago; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Chicago is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the assessment and modernization of the AURA research suite, guiding the transition from on‑premises to Huron SaaS and overseeing phased upgrades across modules.

You will coordinate with URA, IT, and departmental research administrators, manage budgets and schedules, and deliver executive dashboards while championing best practices in research administration systems.

Qualifications

• Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
• 7+ years of work experience in a related discipline.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification.
• Advanced degree strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Leads a structured fit-gap analysis of the current AURA on-premises environment against Huron’s delivered SaaS platform functionality.
• Engages directly with Huron to evaluate compatibility of existing smart-forms, workflows, and business logic with the new SaaS platform.
• Partners with system and office functional leads to inventory existing customizations and reconcile them against out-of-the-box SaaS settings that preserve the University’s upgrade path.
• Develops detailed migration recommendations, including disposition of current customizations, retain, retire, or replace with native functionality.
• Documents all findings and presents phased transition plans to senior leadership.
• Leads and coordinates the end-to-end upgrade of all AURA modules, including Grants, Agreements, COI, IRB, IBC, ECC, Prime stores, and related integrations with Workday, Oracle and the Business Objects and Orbit reporting tools.
• Develops and maintains a comprehensive project plan, including timelines, milestones, resource allocation, and dependencies across modules.
• Oversees all phases of each module upgrade, requirements gathering, configuration, testing, training, go-live, and post-implementation support.

Skills

Project management

Leadership

Communication

Stakeholder management

AI familiarity

Education

College or university degree in related field

Tools

Huron Research Suite (AURA)

Workday

Oracle

Business Objects

Orbit reporting

Power BI

Job description

The University of Chicago is seeking a Senior Project Manager to lead the assessment and modernization of the AURA research suite, guiding the transition from on‑premises to Huron SaaS and overseeing phased upgrades across modules.

You will coordinate with URA, IT, and departmental research administrators, manage budgets and schedules, and deliver executive dashboards while championing best practices in research administration systems.