Senior Director (Financial Admin Leader), Research Administration and Finance

About the role

Indiana University seeks a fiscal leader for IU LAB (Indiana University Launch Accelerator for Biosciences), a new organization focused on translating research into real-world impact in biosciences.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the primary back-end point of coordination for grant, industry, and consortium funding flowing into IU Inc. and IU LAB, and its distribution throughout IU.
• Translates executed agreements into IU's financial and research-administration systems - establishing accounts, budgets, subawards, and fund distributions across IU schools, departments, and units.
• Collaborates with IU's Office of Research, sponsored programs (pre- and post-award), and school-level research administrators to ensure smooth and compliant administration of external funding.
• Acts as the "IU-fluent" interface for external partners, facilitating their navigation of university processes and approvals.
• Manages the full financial lifecycle of funds, including receipt, allocation, subaward and subcontract setup, invoicing, indirect and administrative-fee handling, reconciliation, and reporting.
• Coordinates agreement execution across IU schools, departments, central offices, and capital planning, ensuring alignment with budgets, obligations, deliverables, and timelines.
• Ensures compliance with funder requirements, IU policies, and agreement terms, and supports audit readiness.
• Builds and documents repeatable, scalable processes and internal controls for moving external funding through IU, preparing for future growth.
• Provides financial reporting, forecasting, and analysis to leadership, external partners, and funders.
• Operates under a dotted-line relationship to the IU Inc. Chief Administrative Officer, aligning fund flows, administrative-fee structures, and reporting with IU Inc. and IU central finance.

Department-Specific Responsibilities

• Serves as the primary point of coordination for grant, industry, and consortium funding.
• Translates executed agreements into IU's financial and research-administration systems.
• Collaborates with IU's Office of Research, sponsored programs, and school-level research administrators.
• Facilitates external partners' navigation of university processes and approvals.
• Manages the full financial lifecycle of funds.
• Coordinates agreement execution across IU schools, departments, central offices, and capital planning.
• Ensures compliance with funder requirements and supports audit readiness.
• Builds and documents repeatable, scalable processes and internal controls.
• Provides financial reporting, forecasting, and analysis.

General Responsibilities

• Directs the daily and long-term financial and/or administrative operations of multiple university units or an unusually large multi-faceted academic, research, and teaching department within a school or college.
• Maintains accuracy, timelines, and integrity of the Financial Administration family, and fiscal, policy, and internal control management.
• Develops annual revenue and expenditure budget for a large school/college.
• Develops budgetary policies and procedures.
• Develops and introduces growth strategies and identifies risks.
• Maintains division and campus budgets and reports any significant deviations from approved budgets.
• Controls all expenditures and statement of accounts to ensure regulatory compliance and fiscal integrity.
• Directs the management of special projects, including space renovations, space allocations, staffing, equipment purchases, long-range plans, leasing of off-campus space and services.
• Provides leadership and direction through other managers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, business, or related field.
• 5 years of related functional experience.
• 3 years of management experience in related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong grant experience.
• Knowledge of not-for-profit and Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) accounting standards.

Skills

• Proficient written and verbal communication skills.
• Maintains a high degree of professionalism.
• Demonstrates time management and priority setting skills.
• Demonstrates a high commitment to quality.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Excellent collaboration and team building skills.
• Effectively coaches and delivers constructive feedback.
• Instills commitment to organizational goals.
• Demonstrates excellent judgment and decision making skills.
• Effective conflict management skills.
• Builds and manages effective teams.
• Effective leadership skills.
• Able to represent the company with external constituents.
• Able to drive multiple projects to successful completion.
• Experience using large scale financial platforms in and/or for a variety of financial operations.
• Advanced ability to interpret financial documents from an accounting, policy, and practice perspective.
• Experience in project management, user-testing, and implementation and/or development of financial structures, policies, and procedures.
• Intermediate accounting skills and an understanding of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).
• Ability to mine data from multiple sources and integrate into usable formats.
• Ability to clearly present material and make it accessible to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to understand and interpret financial policies, regulations, and pertinent state/federal laws.
• Advanced knowledge of financial statements and different budgetary models; ability to apply in different situations.
• Knowledge of human resources laws and procedures as related to managing staff; knowledge and understanding of the importance of mentors and mentorships.
• Demonstrates ability to create workable solutions from broad concepts and ideas, projections, forecasting, and long term planning.
• Ability to effectively communicate and operate a computer and other standard office productivity equipment.
• The person in this role must be able to perform the essential functions with or without an accommodation.
• Regular travel required across Indiana University campuses (Bloomington, Indianapolis, and regional campuses), as well as to national conferences, partner corporate headquarters, and international destinations as needed.

Pay

TBD

Schedule

TBD

Benefits

For full-time staff employees, Indiana University offers a wide array of benefits including:

• Comprehensive medical and dental insurance
• Health savings account with generous IU contributions
• Healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts
• Basic group life insurance paid by IU
• Voluntary supplemental life, long-term disability, critical illness, and supplemental accidental death & dismemberment insurance
• Base retirement plan with generous IU contributions, subject to vesting
• Voluntary supplemental retirement plan options
• Tuition subsidy for employees and family members taking IU courses
• 10 paid holidays plus a paid winter break each year
• Generous paid time off plans
• Paid leave for new parents and IU-sponsored volunteer events
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Contact Information

To guarantee full consideration, please submit your application within 5 business days of the Posted Date. If you wish to include a cover letter, you may include it with your resume when uploading attachments.