Team Lead of Grant Accounting

About the role

This role is an on-campus, in-person position. The position will lead the overall financial management of grants and contracts, including financial reporting to sponsors, award set ups in the PeopleSoft financial system, monitoring cash collections, review of select transactions, and special leadership projects.

Responsibilities

• Provide overall financial management of grants and contracts, including financial reporting to sponsors, setup of awards in the PeopleSoft financial system, and timely collection of funds owed by sponsors to maximize University cash flow.
• Manage work for the external audits while minimizing risk to the University.
• Lead efforts to improve customer service and increase funding sources, thereby delivering higher value-add to the University while still maintaining compliance requirements.
• Develop action plan to build stronger relationships with researchers and their staff.
• Partner with other administrative groups to create and present training materials for campus.
• Lead special projects assigned by Manager, including research of complex technical issues and development of comprehensive business recommendations.
• Key goals include timely award closeout in compliance with Uniform Guidance requirements and evaluation of various electronic tools and systems to improve efficiency.
• Develop and refine financial metrics for use by University Administration to track progress against strategic plans.
• Serve as key leader in supporting growth of overall research expenditures.
• Review select expenditure requests to ensure they are reasonable, allocable, and allowable in accordance with SMU policy, sponsor regulations, terms and conditions, and the project budget.
• Develop and maintain documentation of departmental operating processes, with a focus on standardization and efficiency.

Requirements

Essential Functions:

• Provide overall financial management of grants and contracts, including financial reporting to sponsors, setup of awards in the PeopleSoft financial system, and timely collection of funds owed by sponsors to maximize University cash flow.
• Manage work for the external audits while minimizing risk to the University.
• Lead efforts to improve customer service and increase funding sources, thereby delivering higher value-add to the University while still maintaining compliance requirements.
• Develop action plan to build stronger relationships with researchers and their staff.
• Partner with other administrative groups to create and present training materials for campus.
• Lead special projects assigned by Manager, including research of complex technical issues and development of comprehensive business recommendations.
• Key goals include timely award closeout in compliance with Uniform Guidance requirements and evaluation of various electronic tools and systems to improve efficiency.
• Develop and refine financial metrics for use by University Administration to track progress against strategic plans.
• Serve as key leader in supporting growth of overall research expenditures.
• Review select expenditure requests to ensure they are reasonable, allocable, and allowable in accordance with SMU policy, sponsor regulations, terms and conditions, and the project budget.
• Develop and maintain documentation of departmental operating processes, with a focus on standardization and efficiency.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s is required, preferably in accounting or finance.
• A minimum of five years of accounting or financial management experience, preferably managing grants (e.g. award set-up, grant billing, determining allowability of expenses, award closeout).

Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrate strong interpersonal and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate broadly across the University and develop and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of constituencies.
• Show strong written communication skills.
• Show a strong customer service orientation.
• Show strong problem-solving skills with the ability to be resourceful, proactive and seek assistance as needed.
• Show strong organizational, planning and time management skills.
• Show a strong working knowledge of MS Office (Excel, Word and Outlook) and Windows is required.
• Experience in PeopleSoft grants module preferred.

Physical and Environmental Demands

Sit for long periods of time.