Pre-Award Specialist

About the role

The Engineering Research Administration (ERA) Team in the School of Engineering and Computing is seeking a Pre-Award Specialist to support all phases of research proposal development and submission.

This position will serve as a key administrator for pre-award activities, working closely with faculty, departmental staff, and institutional partners to ensure timely and compliant submissions of grant proposals.

Responsibilities

• Organizes, facilitates, and tracks proposal development efforts and proposal preparation timelines
• Understands, explains, and clarifies various sponsors' proposal requirements and review processes
• Researches and writes non-technical sections of proposals
• Provides comments, suggestions, and questions on the narrative section
• Ensures compliance with sponsor requirements
• Affords assistance in the facilitation of faculty teams and colleagues in preparing large, complex, collaborative, multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional proposals
• Identifies limited submission funding opportunities, posts them to the limited submission website and listserv, and assists in coordinating limited submission competitions when necessary
• Affords assistance in training and development sessions designed for faculty, staff, postdocs, graduate students, and/or undergraduate students on topics related to the development of proposals for external grant funds
• Affords assistance in preparing ad hoc administrative projects, such as website materials, proposal archives, etc.
• Supports the Principal Investigator (PI) on administrative requirements in proposal preparation, and ensures guidelines are followed for proposal formatting and submission requirements
• Collaborates with the PI to develop and review the budget, and assists with attaining cost-share commitments and sponsor forms
• Coordinates the request and review of subcontract documents
• Performs the data entry into the sponsor portal and Cayuse SP record

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• Two or more (2+) years of related experience in proposal development, project management, and/or accounting

Qualifications

• Demonstrated initiative and ability to work independently as well as collaboratively with faculty, research staff, and external stakeholders
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and strong client service orientation and professionalism in communication across diverse audiences
• Advanced problem-solving skills and the ability to manage complex research and administrative challenges
• Strong organizational and time management skills with ability to prioritize multiple projects and deadlines in fast paced environment
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and familiarity with grant submission systems and related administrative tools
• Prior experience supporting proposal submissions to federal, state, foundation, and other sponsors, including agencies such as NIH, NSF, DOD, DOE, DARPA, CPRIT, ARPA-H, CFF, and JDRF
• Familiarity with research systems such as Cayuse and a working knowledge of budgeting and compliance requirements are preferred

Skills

• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office, including drafting, organizing, editing, and formatting Word and PDF documents
• Ability to develop and recommend process improvements that support research coordination, proposal development, and stakeholder engagement