Reporting to the Director of Post Award Administration, the Grants Finance Manager will be responsible for managing an independent sponsored award portfolio for faculty members with a wide range of research projects. The main responsibilities will include post-award management, with emphasis on financial reconciliation, and budget planning and projections across the assigned accounts in accordance with departmental processes. The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring compliance with Federal, sponsor, and institutional regulations such as attestations, effort certifications, salary allocations, cost transfer requirements, etc. This is a hands-on grants management role that requires extensive familiarity with all aspects of post-award management, especially federal grants. The Manager will utilize research administration expertise to advise individual PIs on the status of their sponsored and non-sponsored funding and will act as an in-house expert resource to other grant administrators.
Subject to business needs, we may support flexible and hybrid work arrangements. Options will be discussed during the interview process.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Maintain suite of PI Portfolio Update reports for multiple PIs and meet monthly with each PI to review the PI???s individual funding portfolio, which may consist of grant, contract, gift, endowment, and other types of restricted and unrestricted funding
Capture and implement PI feedback and changes from meeting
Maintain labor schedules for faculty and research personnel and submit labor cost transfers
Ensure completion of quarterly expense certifications with each PI
With departmental effort coordinator, coordinate annual effort reporting
Monitor project balances. Ensure ongoing clearing of suspense account and grant overruns
Review grant-related transactions (such as requisitions and vouchers) for compliance; provide guidance on complex or non-routine compliance issues
Assist/train departmental staff on initiation of grant-related transactions; advise departments on best practices for procurement and other types of routine financial transactions
Coordinate with departmental finance staff and with VP&S Finance on maintaining accurate budget information in Budget Tool for sponsored projects (and research support in funds flow)
Coordinate with departmental pre-award team and with central sponsored research offices (SPA and SPF) on new project setup
Coordinate with pre-award staff, SPA, and SPF on progress reports and closeouts; provide pre-award staff with financial data for incorporation into progress and final reports
Maintain familiarity with evolving regulatory and compliance context. Stay up to date on new grant-related rules and procedures. Participate in and present at meetings and training sessions of VP&S grant and finance personnel
Provide junior staff with training on grants management; may supervise one or more junior grants analysts
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor's degree or equivalent in education, training, and experience, plus four years of related experience
Ability to set priorities and exercise sound judgment
Ability to work independently, meet deadlines, and multi???task
Ability to work effectively as part of a team, as both a team member and leader
Outstanding interpersonal and communications skills. Must be able to communicate clearly and accurately directly with department chairs and other senior principal investigators. Must be able to communicate effectively on a technical level with operations personnel in central offices and sponsoring agencies
Must be detailed oriented, possess analytical skills, and be highly organized
Must possess advanced Excel skills, including familiarity with creation and use of complex pivot tables, lookup functions, and other features for formatting, manipulating, and analyzing data
Must possess detailed familiarity with principles of sponsored project financial management, including relevant federal regulations as well as typical institutional policies, procedures, and best practices
Must be familiar with online systems pertinent to position (examples include eRA Commons, InfoEd, and ASSIST)
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with grants and contracts in a university or academic healthcare/basic science research setting
Management/supervisory experience. (This position will offer the ideal candidate the opportunity for continued development of managerial skills)
Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran
Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.
Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.