CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $73,000 to $80,000

Position Summary

Reporting to the Associate Director of Finance and Grants in the Department of Computer Science, the incumbent is responsible for all aspects of pre & post-award grants management and unrestricted accounts (discretionary/gift) management. In close cooperation with Principal Investigators (PIs),  this will manage preparation of proposals; determining format and requirements of proposals for content and ensuring compliance with the federal, University and sponsor policies and requirements. This role functions at an intermediate level, with responsibility for independent management of simple to complex grants/contracts, including those from NSF, DARPA, foundations, industry, and other sponsors. Ensure compliance in all areas related to grant, contract, gift management, including sponsoring organization guidelines, internal protocols, accurate protocol information within grant documents, conflicts of interest, etc.  This will assist with development of ad hoc financial reports for PIs.

Responsibilities

• 1 .  (50%) Post-award. Pro-actively manages all post-award aspects of the departmental external and internal grants portfolio, working closely with the department finance personnel, lab personnel, and Sponsored Projects Finance. Conduct complex award management activities and provide oversight to other employees, including monitoring and managing accounts, audits, and evaluations and reporting. Reviews Notices of Award, award terms and conditions, variances between the proposals and awards. Sets up awards, project budgets and fiscal year budgets, personnel effort allocation. Regularly monitors expenses, obligated balances, variance between actual expenses and budgets, grant expense eligibility, A/P and purchasing transactions. Reviews effort / payroll allocations on grants against the budgets; initiates effort / payroll allocation updates as needed. Develops and monitors comprehensive post-award reports and a dashboard of grant portfolios for departmental PIs.  Prepares quarterly grants attestations, performs grant financial analysis to identify and forecast trends in spending and potential shortfalls or overdrafts, recommending strategies to effectively manage spending patterns and mitigate business risk. Reviews and resolves all open commitments and overdrafts, re-budgeting when necessary, completing project close outs, and performing general financial reconciliations.  Liaises with central offices, collaborates with PIs outside departments, works closely to ensure all financial activities on projects are within the University, Government and sponsor guidelines. Maintains all pertinent records, files and documents. Assists PIs with annual effort certification..

• 2. ( 30%)  Pre-award. Pro-actively manages the pre-award process for the department. Provide planning, instruction, preparation assistance and support related to grant application procedures. Develop and review budgets and related justification for appropriateness and completeness of content. Ensures that all applicable and indirect costs have been applied. Provide groundwork for subcontract negotiations as needed. Maintains up-to-date list of planned grant submissions. Works with Principal Investigators to prepare complete grant proposal packages by established deadlines. Assists PIs in all aspects of pre-award grants management to ensure timeliness, accuracy, and compliance. Assembles and reviews grant proposals, contract proposals, outgoing sub-awards and other related documents. Ensures completeness and compliance with federal, University and sponsor policies and requirements. Coordinates proposal budget preparation, review of proposal against sponsor and University requirements, obtaining departmental approvals, submission to Sponsored Projects Administration and submission to sponsoring agencies, often within tight timeframes. Prepares Just-in-Time and other pre-award information as needed. Serves as departmental point of contact and knowledge resource on grant proposal matters. Prepares, updates proposal guidelines, forms and checklists to facilitate pre-award process. Provides PIs with updates on government and University grant policies and procedures.

• 3.  (10% ) Reporting. Develops financial, personnel and other reports to facilitate all pre- and post-award activities. Assist in the preparation of reports regarding the department research and grant activity. Maintains up-to-date standard information packages for the department PI’s such as Other Support, Biosketches, Facilities and Resources; lab space / research infrastructure usage. Ensure that post-award responsibilities are completed, including budget distribution, account reconciliation, e-form setup, effort reporting, cost transfers, paying invoices and paperwork finalization related to subcontract setup. Conduct complex award management activities and provide oversight to other employees, including monitoring and managing accounts, audits, evaluations and reporting. Provide information and direct assistance required to complete contract and grant closeouts.

• 4. (5%) Subcontracts. Initiates the process of preparing and processing sub-contracts, works with PI’s to ensure sub-recipient financial monitoring. Works with Investigators, Administrators and Columbia University central administrative offices to prepare and process sub-contracts. Responsible for receipt of subcontract award documents, closeout documents, invoicing and final account closeout.

•  5. (5%) Perform other duties, as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree required; preferably in a technical, scientific, or financial field. 

• Experience: Must have at least three years of grants pre-award experience. Must have at least three years of grants post-award or financial analysis / reporting experience. The pre-award experience must include hands-on grant proposal submission experience with NSF and DARPA grants. The ideal candidate will possess firm understanding of NSF and Columbia Sponsored Projects and financial policies. Must have an advanced level experience developing complex spreadsheets.

• Ability to make independent judgments and to act on decisions on a daily basis.

• Ability to work with flexibility on several tasks simultaneously and to meet various concurrent deadlines.

• Knowledge of external Federal policies (such as Uniform Guidance), guidelines/procedures for grants and contracts, including NSF, DARPA, NIH and other government and private funding mechanisms, proposal submission platforms such as InfoEd, ASSIST, BAA, FastLane, Research.gov, and Grants.gov.

• Skills: Must be detail oriented with excellent quantitative, analytical, organizational, interpersonal, oral and written communication and computer skills. Ability to work independently in a dynamic environment with changing priorities and multiple responsibilities required. Proven ability to multi-task and meet multiple deadlines is required. Ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, other departments while providing strong attention to detail. Ability to work discretely with confidential information. Must be customer service – focused, pro-active and a self-starter; capable of working with a diverse constituency, being flexible and maintain positive attitude while meeting strict deadlines. This position will involve advanced use of MS Excel including creation of pivot tables and use of formulas (i.e. VLOOKUP and Pivot) to create reports and analyze variances on a variety of data sets.

• Preferred: Thorough knowledge and understanding of Columbia University accounting, financial reporting system and related fiscal policies preferred. Experience in a higher education institution with engineering research background. Master’s degree preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.