Specialist III, Grants and Contracts

University of Rhode Island; Kingston (RI); Hybrid; USD 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Rhode Island, located in Kingston, seeks a Professional Staff member to serve as the primary post-award administrator for sponsored research awards. You will manage the full lifecycle, compliance and fiscal closeouts of multiple grants and contracts, working with PIs, the Office of Sponsored Projects, and Cost Accounting.

This role involves overseeing award setup, invoicing, and reports, ensuring allowability, allocability, and reasonableness, and acting as the escalation point

Responsibilities

• Serve as post-award staff member for a sponsored projects team serving PIs and staff in select College of Engineering departments.
• Oversee awards and subawards funding URI research per sponsor requirements and policy.
• Assist with award set-up, invoicing, and preparation of financial reports for sponsors and internal use.
• Interpret sponsor instructions on management, billing, and reporting of projects.
• Monitor compliance with University, federal, and state policies; ensure transactions are allowable and allocable.
• Coordinate with agency sponsors, PIs, and administrative staff to troubleshoot grant administration issues.

Job description

Job Description Summary

The University of Rhode Island enrolls approximately 17,000 students across its graduate and undergraduate programs and is the State's flagship public research university, as well as the land grant and sea grant university, for the state of Rhode Island. The main campus is located in the historic village of Kingston, and the Bay Campus is located in Narragansett. Both campuses are near major beaches in a beautiful coastal community. URI is just 30 minutes from Providence, RI and within easy reach of Newport, Boston, and New York City.

THE POSITION IS ELIGIBLE FOR A HYBRID WORK SCHEDULE

Position Summary

Serve as the primary post-award staff member for sponsored research awards. Manage the full lifecycle, compliance and fiscal closeouts of multiple sponsored research grants and contracts. Maintain a strong working relationship with research groups, Professional Investigators (PIs), Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) and Cost Accounting. To serve as the primary escalation point for compliance and billing issues in the college.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as post-award person on a sponsored projects team responsible for working directly with PIs and staff in a defined subset of departments within the College of Engineering to facilitate understanding of the sponsor's administrative terms and conditions of the awarded project.
• Responsible for oversight of projects from federal, state, non-profit, and corporate entities according to federal, state, and University policies, award set-up, approving invoices, and assisting with the completion of financial reports on behalf of the University, and final close-out of awards.
• Serve as the primary post-award staff member for administration of awards and subawards that fund URI research.
• Works with PIs as the primary problem-solver for team members, regarding compliance requirements, allowable costs and payroll distributions.
• Represent College of Engineering in meetings related to sponsored research awards.
• Analyze and approve requisitions for items to be charged to the sponsored project account in order to ensure expenses are allowable, allocable, and reasonable, and that they are in compliance with sponsor's requirements.
• Analyze, approve, and process basic personnel appointments to sponsored project accounts to ensure expenses are allowable, allocable, and reasonable and in compliance with sponsor's requirements.
• Work with agency sponsors, principal investigators, and administrative staff to troubleshoot grant administration-related issues.
• Maintain working knowledge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Uniform Guidance, as well as the principles of allowability, allocability and reasonableness.
• Monitor cost-sharing, no-cost extension, subawards and Dean's Pledges.
• Assist Cost Accounting with preparation of various reports for submission to funding agencies, as well as for internal use.
• Assist Cost Accounting with the close-out of awards, including pre-closing notice, review projects for open items, encumbrances, advances, deficits, surpluses, adjustments, and final billing.
• Monitor technical reporting requirements, ensuring that they are met by the PI.
• Interpret award instructions from grant and contract documents, including agency requirements for managing the project, restrictions, billing, and reporting.
• Work with other Sponsored Projects and college-wide personnel to resolve problems.
• Monitor compliance and adherence to University, federal, and state policies and procedures.
• Monitor international accounts for expenditure allowability, accountability, and exchange rate calculations.
• Maintain current knowledge of various University financial systems and all related interfaces.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

• Exhibit sensitivity to and consistently meet the support requirements of a research environment and be committed to customer support.
• Be committed to effective teamwork.
• Be flexible and open to change, show initiative, and be proactive.
• Assist the Dean of Engineering, Associate Dean for Research, and the Chief Business Officer on other matters as required.

Licenses, Tools and Equipment

Personal computers, printers; word processing, spreadsheet and database management software and federal electronic proposal submission systems.

Job Details

• Pay Grade Level: Grade Level: 10
• Pay Grade Range: Salary Hiring Range: $70,000 - $80,000
• Position Type: Professional Staff
• Union: PSA/NEA - Professional Staff Assoc
• Department: Dean Engineering
• Campus Location: Kingston