Senior Project Manager, Research Administration Systems

Responsibilities

• Leads a structured fit-gap analysis of the current AURA on-premises environment against Huron’s delivered SaaS platform functionality.
• Engages directly with Huron to evaluate compatibility of existing smart-forms, workflows, and business logic with the new SaaS platform.
• Pairs with system and office functional leads to inventory existing customizations and reconcile them against out-of-the-box SaaS settings that preserve the University’s upgrade path.
• Develops detailed migration recommendations, including disposition of current customizations, retain, retire, or replace with native functionality.
• Documents all findings and presents phased transition plans to senior leadership.
• Leads and coordinates the end-to-end upgrade of all AURA modules, including Grants, Agreements, COI, IRB, IBC, ECC, Prime stores, and related integrations with Workday, Oracle and the Business Objects and Orbit reporting tools.
• Oversees all phases of each module upgrade, requirements gathering, configuration, testing, training, go-live, and post-implementation support.
• Serves as a primary point of contact with Huron, managing the ongoing vendor relationship and escalating issues as appropriate.
• Maintains monitoring and reporting on Huron deliverables, SLAs, and product roadmap commitments.
• Troubleshoots system issues in coordination with Huron support, ensuring timely resolution.
• Continuously evaluates the University’s Huron subscription to ensure maximum return on investment, identifying underutilized features or modules.
• Collaborates with Procurement on contract management and vendor performance reviews.
• Fosters strong partnerships with key stakeholders, including URA, Office of Research, IT, and departmental research administrators.
• Develops and executes a change management strategy to ensure smooth adoption of upgraded systems across central and departmental offices.
• Facilitates training sessions, workshops, and documentation to ensure all users, central and departmental, are fully proficient in AURA functionality.
• Implements and monitors quality assurance processes throughout all upgrade phases, including test script development and execution.
• Conducts post-implementation reviews to capture lessons learned and identifies opportunities for ongoing system improvement.
• Leads URA AI Working Group, promoting AI adoption across research administration systems and workflows.
• Identifies and champions AI opportunities for automating routine tasks, improving data quality, and optimizing workflow efficiency.
• Partners with cross-functional teams to ensure responsible and ethical AI adoption, paying close attention to data privacy, compliance, and equity.
• Serves as project lead to coordinate complex information technology changes and ensures the success of enterprise-level application rollouts.
• Works with University units and the client community to develop detailed business requirements.

Qualifications

• Education: Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
• Work Experience: Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.
• Preferred Qualifications: Advanced degree strongly preferred. Prior experience in sponsored research administration or research compliance within a higher education or academic medical center environment. Demonstrated experience leading enterprise system upgrades or SaaS migrations, ideally involving the Huron Research Suite or similar research administration platforms, such as Cayuse, InfoEd, Kuali. Conducting fit-gap analyses and translating business requirements into system configuration decisions. Managing vendor relationships for enterprise software contracts. PMP certification or equivalent project management credential.
• Technical Skills or Knowledge: Deep familiarity with the Huron Research Suite (AURA) or comparable research administration systems, including all research types, Grants, Agreements, COI, IRB, IBC, and ECC. Strong understanding of research administration workflows, compliance requirements, and sponsored project lifecycle management. Proficiency in requirements gathering, business process mapping, gap analysis, and solution design. Understanding of developing and executing test scripts and managing UAT cycles. Familiarity with University of Chicago systems such as Oracle Cloud and Workday is a plus. Familiarity with University of Chicago reporting systems such as Business Objects or Orbit is a plus. Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Project or equivalent PM tooling. Proficiency leveraging AI-driven tools for process automation, data analysis, or workflow optimization within research administration systems is highly desirable. Familiarity with data management, data visualization, and business intelligence concepts and platforms, such as Power BI, Tableau, or similar, is a plus. Awareness of responsible and ethical AI principles, including data privacy and equity.