Grants Monitor II, Home Energy Rebates Program

About the role

The Grants Monitor II (GM II) will support the Department of Energy (DOE), Office of State and Community Energy Programs (SCEP), Home Energy Rebates program. This program lowers household energy costs through whole-home efficiency retrofits and the electrification of appliances and equipment. Funding is delivered through both formula and competitive awards to states, territories, and Indian Tribes. The role provides support in grants management to promote practices compliant with applicable statutes, regulations, best practices, and organizational objectives across the Home Energy Rebates portfolio. It supports both pre-award and post-award functions and maintains a medium portfolio of awarded grants and cooperative agreements from award through closeout.

The portfolio consists of a mix of state and Tribal awards: state awards are fewer in number and substantially larger in dollar value, while Tribal awards are lower in dollar value and considerably higher in volume. The successful candidate will manage a high transaction count without compromising monitoring rigor.

Responsibilities

• Participate in pre-award application and program plan review for both formula and competitive awards to assess responsiveness against established submission requirements.
• Apply differing pre-award requirements of formula and competitive awards, including allocation-based eligibility and program plan review for formula recipients, and merit review support and selection documentation for competitive applicants.
• Review the applicant's risk profile and past performance to advise on appropriate methods of constructing the selected applicant's award package and assign a monitoring profile accordingly.
• Ensure legal, regulatory, and policy issues are addressed by the selected awardee's submissions in support of program requirements, budgetary requirements, and other applicable requirements.
• Identify areas of risk or gaps in the grant application in accordance with 2 CFR 200 and 2 CFR 910, and address options to resolve the gaps.
• Conduct critical and thorough reviews of proposed budgets, including rebate delivery and processing costs, administrative and implementation costs, income eligibility verification and quality control costs, and data collection and reporting costs, ensuring costs are reasonable, allowable, appropriate, allocable, and necessary.
• Ensure all review outcomes and funding recommendations are properly documented and filed prior to making an award.
• Maintain a medium portfolio of awarded grants and cooperative agreements, working with awardees to ensure all required reports and deliverables are submitted within specified timeframes from award through closeout.
• Monitor a mixed portfolio of state and Tribal awards, scaling monitoring effort and risk assessment appropriately across a smaller number of high-dollar state awards and a substantially larger number of lower-dollar Tribal awards.
• Coordinate with Tribal recipients and DOE Tribal program staff, accounting for distinct administrative capacity, reporting, and technical assistance needs accompanying a high-volume, lower-dollar Tribal award portfolio.
• Review and disseminate awardee deliverables to SCEP to ensure compliance with technical, financial, and regulatory requirements of the agreement.
• Collaborate with the DOE/SCEP Operations team on budget matters and ensure organizational compliance with regulations for the assessment of payments.
• Assess grantee progress, deliverables, and milestones, including obligation and expenditure rates, households served, rebate processing volumes, and energy savings reporting, and communicate relevant assessments to DOE/SCEP.
• Review and recommend action on awardee requests for adjustments in requirements, ensuring all requirements stated in the agreement are met.
• Identify gaps in grant management policies, procedures, practices, and documentation, suggest feasible methods to address identified concerns, and work with management to implement improvement recommendations.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts in business administration, public administration, or a related discipline. Four years of relevant education/experience may substitute for the Bachelor's degree.
• Minimum of five or more years of related experience. A Master's degree may substitute for two years.
• Demonstrated use of excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Effective understanding of Federal government agencies, State and local government offices, non-profits, Tribes, businesses, and contractors to remain current on new initiatives, programs, grant requirements, and regulations.
• Working knowledge of grant and cooperative agreement pre-award functions, including application review, risk assessment, and budget review.
• Working knowledge of grant and cooperative agreement post-award functions, including deliverable review, progress monitoring, adjustment requests, and closeout.
• Ability to identify gaps in grant management policies, procedures, practices, and documentation and recommend feasible improvements.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing DOE grants and cooperative agreements.
• Experience supporting DOE residential energy efficiency, weatherization, electrification, or home energy rebate programs.
• Experience administering or monitoring Federal financial assistance awarded to Indian Tribes or Tribal organizations.
• Experience with both formula-allocated and competitively awarded Federal financial assistance.
• Experience supporting SCEP or the Department of Energy.
• Familiarity with DOE systems.

Schedule

This position is full-time remote with some travel.

Pay

Salaries are determined based on several factors including external market data, internal equity, and the candidate’s related knowledge, skills, and abilities. The range for this position is $70,000–$80,000.

Benefits

• Employer-paid employee Medical, Dental, and Vision Care.
• Low-Cost Family Health Care offered.
• Federal Holidays and three weeks’ vacation.
• 401(k) with Employer Match.
• Cross-training opportunities.

About MELE

With over 300 employees and offices in Rockville, MD, Washington, DC, and Albuquerque, NM, MELE is a veteran-owned government contractor empowering its customers with innovative solutions for more than three decades. MELE has team members located across the U.S. and has served more than a hundred countries across hundreds of project locations. The company offers technical, engineering, and programmatic support expertise to a host of U.S. federal and international agencies, including the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, INTERPOL, and the International Atomic Energy Agency. MELE’s services include national security, intelligence, IT/cybersecurity, facility management and engineering, CBRNE defense and nuclear security, emergency response training/management, and mission and program support.