How to Apply

A cover letter is required for consideration for this position and should be attached as the first page of your resume. The cover letter should address your specific interest in the position and outline skills and experience that directly relate to this position.

Job Summary

The Department of Biomedical Engineering seeks an energetic, positive, and forward-thinking individual with significant experience and technical competence to serve as a lead research administrator in this growing dual-school department.  The perfect candidate for this position would actively seek to engage with the RA team and under the direction of the Senior Research Process Manager to build a best practice RA support function for BME and consistently provide top-notch support with responsive quality service to faculty investigators and their laboratories for some of BME’s more complex projects.  At the RPM level, this would include some of the department’s larger faculty assignments and program/center projects and department-based training grants.  This individual will work with the RA team to find ways to reduce administrative burden while effectively stewarding sponsored and other projects.  BME seeks an ambitious continuous learner, and an individual who understands the ebbs and flows of research administrative activities, modeling resilience and good humor even under pressured circumstances.

Responsibilities*

Research Administrative Tasks

• Prepare complex proposals and proposal budgets for an assigned cohort of Biomedical Engineering faculty on both sides of the department.  Proposals are often interdisciplinary and may include collaborators across and beyond the university, as well as cost sharing, animal research, salary caps, and more.  Serve as unit lead in proposal submission for all department participation in training grants.
• Provide high-level experienced post-award and financial administrative oversight to an assigned set of faculty and their sponsored and other funded projects, providing analyses and reporting on the optimal use of funds, research effort projection planning, and other customized reports and assistance as needed.  May serve as key lead in assuring timely and responsive stewardship of training grants and other large collaborative research programs, including working with other units to calculate and secure cost sharing contributions, appointments of trainees, and more.  Assure timeliness for all post-award activities, meeting deadlines and minimizing retroactive adjustments to project expense plans.
• Work with leadership, assigned faculty and other members of the RA team to assure PhD student funding is assigned to all students, accurately projected, recorded correctly in UGRAB and other student databases, and that appointments are processed using HR and Student Financials (FAIT) payment systems if needed.   Assure department fellowship support, GSRA support from projects, training grant support, and other support are accurately costed, assigned and processed each semester for all supported students under assigned faculty.  Troubleshoot and resolve funding issues for assigned laboratory PhD students alongside RA leadership, human resources staff, and other unit stakeholders.
• As a Research Process Manager in the unit, under the direction and in conjunction with the Senior Research Process Manager in BME, take on key leadership projects which will help build a best-in-class research administrative support function, tackling such issues and projects as curating the best team culture, building service excellence, identifying and providing RA workload metrics, and more as new ideas emerge.

Required Qualifications*

Bachelors degree in Business, Public or Research Administration or related field with 3-5 years of progressively responsible experience in pre- and post-award sponsored project administration.  Leadership and technical experience in managing the financial stewardship of multiple projects and funds, and demonstrated capability with building and providing custom financial reporting for projects. Significant experience providing pre- and post-award support to sponsored projects at a high level, and familiarity with academic PhD student funding models.

Desired Qualifications*

• Masters degree in Business, Public Administration, or Research Administration, or related field with 5+ years of progressively responsible research administrative experience in an academic environment. Significant experience in financial management and financial reporting for sponsored projects and other types of department funds in a university setting including experience with Human Resources in sponsored research and student funding mechanisms.  Experience, initiating and processing FAIT payments, GSRA appointments, GSI appointments, and other fellowships and financial aid awards.
• Experience providing NIH, DoD, NSF, and foundation budgeting and proposal submission and pre-award support, with emphasis on NIH proposal and its funding mechanisms.  Knowledge and capability with complex elements in proposals including NIH caps, cost sharing, the inclusion of animal research activities, and subcontract and/or sub-project distribution and allocation.
• Experience with post-award actions for sponsored projects, with preference for significant experience in NIH including monitoring faculty effort commitments, carry-forward balances, extensions, budget reallocations, preparation of status reports such as RPPRs and experience with other required administrative post-award actions as needed.
• Familiarity and proficiency with UM datasets including Research, Finance, HR, and Financial Aid, with capability and technical skilsl in building reports using appropriate query and reporting tools such as Business Objects, Tableau, etc.  Assist unit administrator in identifying, reporting on, and reviewing RA team workload metrics, including such measures as proposal volume, proposal and project complexity factors, number of faculty, lab staff supported, volume of research and more.  Engage with other university experts in building fluency in report development using available data sets and business tools. Engage in research administrative service and professional development within and beyond the department.

Additional Information

Michigan Engineering’s vision is to be the world’s preeminent college of engineering serving the common good. This global outlook, leadership focus and service commitment permeate our culture. Our vision is supported by a mission and values that, together, provide the framework for all that we do.  Information about our vision, mission and values can be found at: http://strategicvision.engin.umich.edu/ .

The University of Michigan has a storied legacy of commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). The Michigan Engineering  component of the University’s comprehensive, five-year, DEI strategic plan—along with updates on our programs and resources dedicated to ensuring a welcoming, fair and inclusive environment—can be found at: http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/about/diversity .

Background Screening

The University of Michigan conducts background checks on all job candidates upon acceptance of a contingent offer and may use a third party administrator to conduct background checks.  Background checks will be performed in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for a minimum of seven calendar days.  This job may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO/AA Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer