This position primarily works remotely but the incumbent must be available to report to the Newark campus if needed.
Grade: 30E
CONTEXT OF THE JOB:
Under the limited direction of the Senior Grants Analyst within the Financial Services Unit (FSU), the Grants Analyst II manages and administers more complex, often expanding research portfolios for a subset of faculty and/or professionals in the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). They provide direct oversight of pre and post award activities relating to budget planning, development, control, and administration of all financial operations. The Grants Analyst actively participates in decision-making for the FSU and maintains productive relationships with constituencies related to the contracts and grants operation in the College.
The Grants Analyst will provide support to Principal Investigators (Pl) to develop competitive grant proposals, assist in preparation of project budgets, and ensure that submission guidelines are followed. They will apply University processes and provide analysis to track and manage financial activities to ensure compliance with University, College, Federal, state and sponsor agency guidelines.
MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:
Pre-award
- Manage complex projects which include the planning and development of budgets for grant packages to various federal agencies, private agencies and foundations; providing instruction to PIs on protocol, regulations and guidelines pertinent to the agency or university; to prepare for timely submissions.
- Interface with collaborating participants to ensure completion of proposal materials including budgets, statement of work and other sponsor and Research Office required documents.
- Ensure all components of proposal including budget, budget justification, and support documents are correctly entered into PeopleSoft and other sponsor sites as required per solicitation. Coordinate and submit approval of complete proposal package.
- Act as liaison between PIs and Research Office on any proposal issues prior to submission.
Post-award
- Independently manage account summaries of budget, expenses and obligations for all grants and contracts, providing monthly updates to PIs.
- Analyze and evaluate awarded grants, contracts, and subcontracts. Advise Pl of sponsor requirements during the life of award to maintain consistency with terms and conditions to reduce the chance of an audit finding.
- Review, approve and monitor grant expenditures and documentation to ensure they are processed in a timely manner. Ensure expenses are allowable, allocable, and reasonable based on project, budgetary, sponsor and University guidelines and Uniform Guidance.
- Recommend changes to current procedures, as appropriate, to enhance accuracy and integrity of data.
- Compile and process no cost extensions, budget reallocations and supplemental funding requests.
- Review, process, and track personnel effort-reporting. Allocate salaries through the Labor Allocation Module to reflect project commitments and budget constraints.
- Ensure timely processing of Effort Certification Reports for faculty, professionals, and students.
- Review and approve supplier invoices ensuring the charges are in line with their budget/justification and the statement of work.
- Manage the preparation, processing, approval and reconciliation of journal vouchers, purchasing cards, purchase orders, web forms.
- Partner with Pl to submit required financial reports to sponsors (quarterly, annually, etc.) and award close-out.
- Assist in complying with audit requests from the Research Office, University or outside organizations.
General
- Work with the Sr Grants Analyst to onboard new faculty and coordinate the transfer of incoming grants/contracts from previous universities.
- Manage additional functional responsibilities as needed and implement special projects or tasks developed by the CEHD leadership team such as support of annual budget, effort planning, account clean up, etc.
- Identify budget issues, provide alternative solutions, and resolve problems.
- Train and mentor Grants Analyst I and hourly staff.
- Schedule routines with PIs, support staff, University departments and external partners to support and manage pre and post award activities to ensure effective communication and positive working relationships.
- Setup and maintain project folders that will be used throughout the life of the award to maintain contract and grant documents. Manage record retention of financial data.
- Perform other job-related duties as assigned.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance or a related field with three years of job-related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Certified Research Administrator or other certification in accounting or related field preferred.
- Proficient in pre or post award activities, preferably both.
- Extensive knowledge relating to various sponsors (federal, state, foundations) and their required systems (Cayuse, Research.gov, etc.) preferred.
- Knowledge of University of Delaware's PeopleSoft Grants preferred.
- Experience operating in a research intensive, higher education environment.
- Ability to work independently. A high level of critical thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and attention to detail.
- Motivated to think outside the box and feel comfortable questioning the current way of doing things in order to provide efficiencies for day-to-day activities. Always looking for ways to improve the processes supported.
- Ability to interact well with people of all ages and diverse backgrounds.
- Ability to communicate effectively with cross-functional, agile, collaborative teams on a variety of research management topics.
- Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously.
- Ability to adjust to a changing environment.
- Ability to develop, plan, and implement short and long-range goals.
- Effective analytical and technical skills.
- Experience with financial and budget planning.
- Expertise in budget preparation and management of contracts and grants.
- Ability to use advanced cost analysis techniques (Excel).
- Ability to analyze budgetary expenditures for compliance with approved budget, and policies and procedures.
- Ability to gather and analyze statistical data and generate ad-hoc reports that are meaningful and understandable to those not familiar with the data being reported.
- Knowledge of 2 CFR 200 Uniform Guidance and other pertinent external regulations preferred. Ability to interpret, adapt and apply guidelines and procedures.