Job Description

Senior Grants and Contracts Specialist

As a top-10 engineering school with the No. 1 program in Texas, the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has been a global leader in technology innovation and engineering education for over a century. With 11 undergraduate and 13 graduate programs, over 20 research centers and a faculty community that boasts one of the highest number of National Academy of Engineering members among U.S. universities, Texas Engineering has launched some of the nation's most accomplished leaders and pioneered world-changing solutions in virtually every industry, from space exploration to energy to health care. Situated in the heart of Austin named "America's Coolest City" by Expedia and "The Best Place to Live in the U.S." by U.S. News and World Report the Cockrell School embodies the city's innovative spirit. Major companies with Austin campuses, such as Dell, National Instruments, Apple, IBM, Samsung, Google and many others, continue to recruit Cockrell School students at a remarkable rate, launching thousands of successful careers and developing Texas Engineers into industry leaders.

The Senior Grants and Contracts Specialist provides post-award financial and administrative support to the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering faculty, including account monitoring, reconciliation, projections, effort reporting, and compliance with sponsor and university requirements. Serves as a key resource to faculty and administrative partners.

Post-Award Financial Management & Reporting

• Prepare and distribute accurate monthly expenditure reports to PIs.
• Support quarterly, annual, and final sponsor financial reporting; coordinate with OSP, D2I, and related offices.
• Monitor project spending, identify issues, and advise PIs on allowable costs and corrective actions.

Subaward Administration

• Initiate and manage subaward agreements, including budget review and compliance checks.
• Review subrecipient invoices for allowability and accuracy.
• Track reporting requirements and manage subaward modifications or extensions.

Compliance, Policy Interpretation & Risk Management

• Serve as a subject-matter expert on federal, state, sponsor, and university post-award requirements.
• Interpret sponsor guidelines, advise on allowable costs, and ensure adherence to university financial policies.
• Identify compliance or financial risks and collaborate with leadership on corrections or process improvements.

Effort & Payroll Oversight

• Manage effort certification for assigned faculty and researchers.
• Ensure accuracy in payroll distributions, cost transfers, and effort commitments.
• Review/approve expense certifications for sponsored and internal research projects.

Post-Award Actions & Award Maintenance

• Process and track budget revisions, staffing changes, cost transfers, rebudgeting requests, no-cost extensions, and related actions.
• Ensure all changes comply with sponsor and institutional requirements.
• Support PIs through ongoing project lifecycle adjustments.

Award Closeout

• Verify final expenditures and resolve unallowable costs.
• Confirm deliverables and coordinate final reports with faculty and central offices.
• Ensure timely, accurate closeout of projects.

Records & Departmental Support

• Maintain complete, accurate award files per UT Austin retention standards.
• Provide backup support to the ChE Financial Analyst for approvals on sponsored and internal research accounts.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business or public administration, social sciences, or a technical/scientific field.
• Five years of experience in the preparation, processing, and negotiation of grant and contract proposals and awards.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively as part of a team.

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree.
• Four or more years of related experience, working in the area of processing research grant and contract proposals and/or sponsored projects' management in a university environment.
• Demonstrated math and computer skills.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills.
• Attention to detail and multi-tasking skills.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative and work as a team member without day-to-day supervision.
• Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Outlook.
• Familiar with web-based documents.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.

Salary Range

$60,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• Work is performed in a standard office environment.
• Repetitive use of keyboard at workstation.
• Position includes significant travel is required (if applicable)
• Work outside of standard business hours, including evenings and weekends, is required.

Work Shift

• Standard business hours are Monday Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Work outside of normal business hours may be required on an occasional basis during peak times (if applicable)

Required Materials

• Resume/CV
• Letter of interest
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor

Important for applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers: You will be prompted to submit your resume in the first step of the online job application process. Then, any additional Required Materials will be uploaded in the My Experience section; you can multi-select the additional files or click the Upload button for each file. Before submitting your online job application, ensure that ALL Required Materials have been uploaded. Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers: As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find Jobs. Before you apply though, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will need to click the Upload button multiple times in order to attach your Resume, References and any additional Required Materials noted above.

The University of Texas at Austin will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information.

The University of Texas at Austin Staff

Job Tags

Contract work, For contractors, Live in, Work at office, Monday to Friday, Shift work, Afternoon shift

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