Northeastern University · 1 month ago
Director Pre-Award Administration
United States
Full-time
Remote
Director/Executive
$86K/yr - $122K/yr
7+ years expNortheastern University is seeking a Director of Pre-Award Administration to lead a team focused on service excellence and compliance in research administration. The Director will oversee the pre-award process, ensure operational effectiveness, and provide guidance on regulations and policies while fostering collaboration among faculty and research teams.
Education
Responsibilities
Direct and establish priorities for day-to-day operations, conduct strategic planning to align with our research mission
Successfully manage dynamic workload, meet changing stakeholder and customer demands
Establish and ensure ongoing application of processes and best practices for all services provided by the team. Standardize workflow, communications flow, status tracking, and documentation processes for all tasks, such as new application, progress report, and JIT requests, and new funding type determinations
Represent the Pre-Award Team for the College, interacting with faculty, Finance & HR, leaders of NU-RES offices, and others. Promote success of the Pre-Award team by working closely and collaboratively with all constituents including Associate Dean of Research and Director of Development. Maintain positive relationships with faculty, address escalated issues and concerns, especially complex matters related to large, multi-PI grants
Facilitate portfolio model and ensure cross-coverage and seamless support during personnel leaves and transitions
Foster a compliant environment by staying abreast of changes in agency regulations, requirements, and policies and disseminating agency information. Keep informed of emerging federal issues that will impact sponsored programs
Provide problem resolution to Pre-Award team and (where relevant) include escalation, work delegation, retention, training, performance management, feedback, and alignment to achieve college goals
Lead efforts to review and improve business practices, provide action oriented and expert support to principal investigators
Serves as a technical resource to Pre-Award staff in interpreting sponsor rules and regulations during the proposal development stage
Hire, supervise, and train Pre-Award team members. Provide mentorship and support the ongoing development of the team
Develop and set team metrics addressing and ensuring internal operational efficiencies, maximum productivity, customer satisfaction, and employee proficiency. Ensure monitoring of key performance indicators and reporting to research leadership
Manage assignment coordination and workload distribution of three professional Pre-Award research administrators
Manage annual performance evaluation, mentor current staff in career development, knowledge improvement, and establishments of best practices
Conduct interviews for new hires and onboarding/ training of new hires
Work with Pre-Award staff and other stakeholders to develop and maintain an administrative manual for Pre-Award administration
Advice the Senior Associate Dean, Associate Dean for Research and Director of Research Development on the development and implementation of policies in the college to establish an effective and efficient college level grant administration office
Work closely with the Post-Award Team to ensure the teams provide coordinated and seamless support to departments; Works collaboratively and cooperatively with faculty and the research development and Pre-Award teams, and all aspects of grant administration
Qualification
Required
Demonstrated leadership, as a leader and manager, in a research administration setting; proven record of staff supervision, personnel management, and staff development experience, which includes performance evaluations and ability to mentor and coach staff for change
Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
Experience working with senior leadership and all relevant external and internal constituencies such as sponsor agencies, diverse faculty, research and administrators
Experience in institutional process, policy and procedure development
Demonstrated ability to work independently, as well as part of a team under tight deadlines
Comprehensive knowledge of federal regulations and experience in managing compliance and interpreting and applying university and sponsor policies and procedures
Experience with ePaws, Coeus, electronic grants administration and submission systems such as grans.gov, ASSIST, eRA commons, FastLane - Research.gov, and similar systems
Advanced use of computer applications (i.e. Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Access)
Experience with ‘Project Management' and ‘Lean process' principles
Preferred
Master's Degree in Business Administration or related field preferred and significant related experience (7 to 10 years) managing departments, faculty and researchers in federal and non-federal research administration at a non-profit organization
Designation of Certified Research Administrator preferred
Benefits
Medical
Vision
Dental
Paid time off
Tuition assistance
Wellness & life
Retirement
Commuting & transportation
Company
Northeastern University
Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university with a distinctive, experience-driven approach to education and discovery.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Northeastern University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (131)
2024 (112)
2023 (104)
2022 (100)
2021 (85)
2020 (111)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageLeadership Team
Angela Hosking
CEO Regional Dean
Dave Thurman
Dean & CEO, Seattle Campus
Recent News
2024-01-06
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
2023-10-30
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