Senior Implementation Consultant
About the Role Join Kuali’s Customer Success team as a Senior Implementation Consultant focused on Kuali Research. You’ll partner with university research administration teams and collaborate with Implementation Consultants, Project Managers, Customer Success, and Product colleagues to help institutions modernize their research operations. We value people who know research administration firsthand, whether that experience comes from a university research office, sponsored programs team, or research technology implementation. As a Senior Implementation Consultant, you’ll serve as a functional expert and trusted advisor throughout Kuali Research implementations and migrations. You’ll translate the realities of research administration—such as proposal development, routing, award management, and compliance—into practical system configurations, workflows, and adoption plans. You do not need to come from a traditional software consulting background; the ability to understand research operations, guide stakeholders, and learn technology matters most. This remote position reports to the Director of Professional Services and works with institutions and teammates across the country. Who are we? Kuali builds software solutions for higher education. We help our customers — colleges & universities — focus on providing a fantastic education to students by decreasing their administrative costs. We work in a competitive space, ripe for innovation, with users ready to be delighted. Our Culture As a company, we are guided by ourcultural values: - Iterate to evolve
- Cultivate openness
- Act with accountability
- Assume the best
- Practice humility
- Deliver amazing experiences
At Kuali, we learn from and teach each other, we practice transparency and empathy, we delight in delivering value to our customers, and we WIN! We work remotely and have for years. Distributed work is in our bones, with a history of institutions working across state lines on open-source software for more than ten years. Our employees each work in the environment where they’re happiest, from Pennsylvania to Seattle. We work consciously to create a collaborative and healthy remote work culture, and we travel to meet in person a few times each year. What you’ll be responsible for - Build trusted relationships with sponsored programs, pre-award, post-award, research compliance, and research leadership stakeholders; understand their institutional process, challenges, and success criteria.
- Guide institutions through Kuali Research implementation and migration activities, from discovery and planning through configuration, testing, training, go-live, and stabilization.
- Serve as the research administration functional lead alongside project managers and technical colleagues; facilitate discovery, document current and future workflows, validate requirements, and advise on configuration, data migration, integrations, testing, and adoption.
- Develop deep knowledge of Kuali Research capabilities and explain how they support institutional research administration requirements, including where process changes or product limitations need to be addressed.
- Lead functional workshops, workflow mapping, configuration decisions, data validation, test scenarios, user acceptance testing, training, and change management for research administration teams.
- Lead clear, engaging demonstrations, working sessions, and training for research administrators and institutional stakeholders.
- Partner with project managers on work plans, milestones, risks, and customer readiness; occasionally coordinate smaller engagements directly.
- Analyze complex research administration processes, including proposal routing, approvals, award setup, and institutional policy requirements.
- Recommend practical solutions to research workflow, configuration, data, and adoption challenges.
- Help institutions use Kuali Research effectively by aligning configuration and processes with their research administration needs and operating practices.
- Share research administration knowledge and implementation best practices with colleagues; mentor team members on research workflows and customer needs.
- Support multiple institutional research implementation or migration engagements with varying scope and timelines.
- Bring research administrator feedback and emerging institutional needs to the Product team to inform improvements.
- Support research-focused product demonstrations, discovery conversations, and RFP responses when needed.
- Help build reusable research implementation resources, including workflow examples, configuration guidance, training materials, and lessons learned.
About you - You align with Kuali's values: You model curiosity, openness, accountability, and a commitment to delivering amazing experiences.
- You’re a resourceful executor: You take a broad vision, collaborate on strategic priorities, and own the steps required to make it real, from planning to hands-on implementation.
- You’re calm under pressure: You can handle shifting priorities, ambiguity, and fast-changing situations with resilience.
- You’re collaborative and influential: You build trust quickly and communicate clearly across all levels of the organization.
- You’re organized and detail-oriented: You can manage multiple projects at once without losing sight of the big picture.
- You thrive in remote environments: You know how to create alignment and connection across distributed teams.
- You roll up your sleeves: You’re comfortable being the ‘doer of last resort’ in a resource-constrained environment.
- You bring research context: You understand how university research administration works and can turn complex institutional needs into clear decisions and practical solutions.
Skills & Experience Required: - Hands-on experience in university research administration, sponsored programs, research operations, or implementation of research administration systems; general ERP experience alone is not a substitute for research domain knowledge.
- A bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
- The ability to establish credibility with stakeholders at various levels on the basis of expertise, maturity, and professionalism.
- A desire and willingness to learn new tools, techniques, concepts, and methodologies.
- Excellent interpersonal skills; highly invested in developing strong relationships both with customers and colleagues.
- Experience in supporting multiple projects concurrently.
- Proactive and sensitive to customer needs.
- Strong communication skills, both spoken and written.
- Comfortable presenting information to various levels of stakeholders.
- Flexibility and the willingness to adapt to meet the needs of the team and customer.
We’d be delighted if you bring: - Experience with Kuali Researchor other research administration platforms such as Cayuse, Huron Research Suite, or InfoEd.
- Direct experience in a university Office of Sponsored Programs, Office of Research, pre-award or post-award administration, or research compliance function.
- Experience leading research system implementations, migrations, process improvement, user training, or cross-functional change initiatives; knowledge of grants and awards lifecycle processes is especially valuable.
Other things you should know: - You’ll have the opportunity to travel. This position may require up to 15% travel.
- This team is fully remote. You’d be expected to have a suitable home working environment or alternative.
Perks - The opportunity to work together with smart, passionate people to build a high-growth, highly profitable SaaS company
- Flexible remote work with no expectation of returning to an office setting
- A truly exceptional benefits package, including 100% company-paid medical and dental insurance
- 100% 401(k) matching up to 4%
- Paid maternity/parental leave
- Flexible PTO — no accrual limits, no ‘use it or lose it.’ Just work with your manager to make sure the team’s covered, and take the time you need to recharge.
- Encouragement and support for ongoing learning and skill development
- Recognition platform to celebrate contributions with meaningful incentives
- Company retreats to connect, recharge, and collaborate
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