Summary

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences provide the resources, opportunities, collaborative and innovative research environment, support, mentorship, and education for students to reach their full potential as a leader in biomedical science. We are seeking a Senior Research Administration Associate to serve as the lead in implementing the pre-award and post-award grant activities and programs in the graduate school. This position will also provide budget, financial, and HR support for graduate students and students in our special program areas.

Employees with CRA certification are eligible for certification pay.

Job Duties

Pre-Award Management

• Assist Faculty in the preparation of educational and research training grant applications to federal, state and private organizations by preparing budget and administrative documents for proposals
• Read and interpret sponsor application guidelines and award polices to prepare and maintain proposal checklist
• Assist Faculty, trainees, students and staff with establishing NIH eRA Commons and ORCID accounts for grant applications
• Manage Conflict of Interest (COI) submission for departmental faculty in BCM’s electronic Disclosure of Outside Interest (DOI) system
• Prepare budget and administrative documents for collaborators from external departments including subcontracts with collaborating institutions
• Process proposal submissions to internal servers (BRAIN) and process grant applications in external portals (NIH ASSIST)
• Oversee processing of Salary Reimbursement agreements (SRA’s) through BRAIN to SPO, Legal, and other official signing authorities

Post Award Grant Management

• Allocate budget as awarded in Notice of Grant Award (NOGA) by sourcing labor distributions and applying expenses to appropriate categories within budget guidelines • Process appointments and maintain NIH trainee database via xTRAIN
• Generate financial reports to identify encumbrances for items or services rendered prior to award termination
• Prepare quarterly financial expense reports for Primary Investigator (PI) to monitor expenditures and forecast remaining budget
• Assist faculty with the preparation of RPPR/Progress Reports, internal grant closeout processes, and No Cost Extensions (NCE)
• Pre-review quarterly time and effort reports generated with BCM’s Effort Reporting System (ERS) and route to PI for certification
• Analyze list of grant accounts, number of awards, faculty effort on grants, number of submissions and other statistics related to grant reporting as requested by leadership

Financial, Operations and HR Administration

• Finance Administrator for the Special Programs, SMART, BSHEq, and Graduate Student Council
• Prepare annual operating budget for the Graduate School Division of Special Program Projects
• Process supplemental payments, purchase orders, travel and expense reimbursements and journal entries via S4, Jaggaer and Concur
• Develop, prepare, and maintain specialized financial reports such as post-award forecasting, student onboarding, faculty mentor commitment and SRA spreadsheet
• Responsible for cost and effort allocations in PEPT for research faculty, students, trainees, and staff
• Process journal entries to capture tuition on training grants and fellowships
• Complete the annual on-boarding process SuccessFactors for the SMART students
• Assist with the annual on-boarding process for incoming graduate students
• Negotiate contracts with local hotel management and sales director for SMART program lodging and other events

Compliance

• Advise the Principal Investigator (PI) and Departmental staff on administrative requirements for grant budgets ensuring adherence to Program Announcement and federal, state or local guidelines
• Interpret federal state and local guidelines to laymen preparing grant application and/or RPPR/Progress Reports
• Provide guidance and ensures compliance for xTrain appointment 
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned
   

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.  Certified Research Administrator certification through the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC) may substitute for the degree requirement.
• Four years of relevant experience.

Department Specific Criteria

Must have analytical thinking and problem solving skills:

• Takes ownership of problems, seeks the root cause, and proposes viable solutions
• Escalates and/or informs management of issues and risks on a timely basis
• Educates other stakeholders to prevent problem recurrence

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business, finance, or related field
• Exceptional interpersonal skills, with commitment to excellence in individual and team performance
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills
• Superior organizational skills and efficiency, with strong attention to detail
• Ability to meet critical deadlines and handle multiple projects at once
• Demonstrated ability to use independent judgement to solve problems with diplomacy and discretion, including management of issues with a sensitive and/or confidential nature