Grants Manager, Mechanical Engineering

Position Overview

The Grant Manager is part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering within the School of Engineering (VUSE) at Vanderbilt University. The position requires a working knowledge and understanding of pre- and post-award grants management to serve the work unit. It demands the exercise of independent judgment, initiative, and the ability to make decisions regarding departmental operations and other assigned tasks.

The position will function with a high degree of understanding of university life, policies, and procedures.

This Grant Manager position is primarily post-award focused; however, some pre-award responsibilities might be required.

Key Responsibilities

Responsibilities: Post-award responsibilities:

• Analyzes and interprets complex grants and contract specifications, guidelines, and regulations.
• Monitors, analyzes, and manages budgets and expenditures to ensure compliance with sponsor terms and conditions, Uniform Guidelines, and University policies.
• Creates budget reconciliation and forecasting reports and meets regularly with faculty to review effort and financial situations.
• Ensures compliance with requirements such as effort reporting, financial reporting, and progress reporting.
• Collaborates with sponsors for prior approval requests, extensions, budget revisions, and general inquiries.
• Serves as Human Capital Management (HCM) Costing Specialist.
• Completes timely journal entries, manages grant closeouts, and performs related financial tasks.
• Assists with rate setting/implementation for PI/Faculty Service Center(s).
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Responsibilities: Pre-award responsibilities:

• Provides policy guidance and assistance with all aspects of proposal development, including administrative forms, sponsor-required certifications, representations, and compliance requirements.
• Develops appropriate budgets for proposals.
• Works directly with Principal Investigators and collaborators while interfacing with central administrative offices to ensure that applications meet all university, school, and sponsor requirements.
• Assists with Just-In-Time (JIT) submissions.
• Assists with C&P and other support documents.
• Responds to sponsor requests and questions.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree – preference in finance, accounting, or business is strongly preferred
• 3+ years of experience in pre- and post-award management (both federal and non-federal); a combination of education and experience may be considered
• Financial Unit Manager (FUM) and Procurement training is preferred
• Strong administrative support skills
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Outstanding attention to detail
• Problem-solving skills and the ability to be flexible
• Experience working with investigators on the management of complex research awards and with a variety of sponsors
• Intermediate Excel skills
• Advanced working knowledge of research compliance issues and key federal grant regulations