Summary

The Senior Research Administration Associate will provide Grants Administration support in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases. Primary responsibilities will include advance level support in financial management and post award processes: sub-award continuations, account reconciliations and reporting, resource allocation, invoicing for industry sponsored studies, internal and external reporting requirements such as NIH progress reporting, compliance with federal statues such as A133 audits, and other sponsor requirements. The Senior Research Administration Associate should be comfortable working and navigating federal (NIH, CDC HRSA, US Department of Defense) application process and compliance systems. Role will provide grant program and financial expertise to Leaders, Faculty, and Researches, helping to lead development and continuous improvements in the Division. Requires good communication, interpersonal skills, and organization. A key point is being able to communicate with and work with 15 active faculty investigators: ability to manage wide range of parallel projects.  Must have ability to understand and manage the complexities of research grants, including issues related to informed consent, access to data, and conflict of interest. Ideal candidate will have strong attention to detail, data quality, and problem solving skills. 

Potential for hybrid work after initial training period.

Employees with CRA certification are eligible for certification pay.

Job Duties

• Responsible for financial management and post award processes of grants, managing the award cycle, from Sponsor & Institutional Approval, Funding, and Award closeout.
• Provide guidance to research faculty, employees, and learners for proposal development/continuation and submissions by interpreting granting agency guidelines and instructions.
• Lead with BCM Grants and Contract and Sponsored Programs Office to review established awards, process no cost exceptions request (NCE), continuation requests, and grants award closeout process.
• Communicate with BCM Accounting, Sponsored Programs, Grants & Contracts Office, and collaborating institutions to ensure sub-awards and independent consultant agreements are established and executed in a timely manner.
• Responsible for invoicing for industry sponsored studies.
• Manage Cost/Effort allocations in the BCM Effort Reporting System/PEPT/SAP for research faculty, employees, and learners.
• Manage Payroll Cost Transfer requests for research faculty, employees, and learners.
• Maintain Data of active and closed grants for Pediatrics Infectious Diseases: number of submissions, number of awards, faculty effort and other statistics related to grant reporting.
• Prepare financial reporting and provides feedback to Infectious Diseases leadership and Investigators as directed.
• Budget accountability: creates and compiles reports, reviews account expenditures and allocations, processes journal corrections and submits budget revisions. Completes other budget forms for submission and reporting. Provides ongoing budget guidance and input to principal investigators. 
• Supports Infectious Diseases faculty with 40 total faculty members and 15 active investigators, learners, and research staff.
• Post-Award management for the Division of Infectious Diseases. Annual submission count of approximately 30-50 applications per year. 
• Annual award amounts typically range between $3M -$5M dollars per year. Responsible for invoicing for industry sponsored studies.
• Applications are multi-site applications averaging 3-partnering institutions/sub-awards. Partnering Institutions may be international, which are very complex due to different IRB and government compliance requirements.
• Will be working with BCM’s Biomedical Research and Assurance Information Network (BRAIN), IRB, RCOI, PEPT and other BCM compliance systems.
• Report through the Pediatrics Center for Research Advancement and Division leadership for key deliverables.
• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong attention to detail, project management skills, and time management.
• Must be able to work independently and multi-task. 
• Experience in grant application development, budgeting, and/or grant financial management.
• Prior experience working in finance in an academic research setting strongly preferred. 
• Experience with SAP S4 financial/grants platform, and Power BI reporting. 
• Experience working with application submission systems, such as ASSIST, Workspace, and Proposal Compliance systems.