SENIOR RESEARCH ADMINISTRATOR, Sargent Administration

Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences is one of the country's leading schools of health and rehabilitation sciences. Home to more than 1300 undergraduate and 600+ graduate students, Sargent College combines outstanding faculty and cutting-edge research to provide superb education and clinical experiences. The college has more than 30 on-campus research facilities, clinical centers, and labs. It offers top-ranked degree programs in occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech, language and hearing sciences, health sciences, human physiology and nutrition.

The Senior Research Administrator, reporting to the Director of Research Administration, manages a complex and diverse grant portfolio for the college. The role is a senior position within a team of 3.0 FTE research administrators who oversee the complete grant life cycle.

The Senior Research Administrator will provide accurate, responsive, and service-driven pre-award and post-award services for an ambitious and dynamic community of investigators working across a wide variety of federal, state and industry sponsors. The role will actively support, collaborate with and advise principal investigators (PIs) and serve as a liaison with central administrative offices, including the Office of Research and Office of Sponsored Programs to ensure effective and timely management of all sponsored awards. Pre-award responsibilities will include independently reviewing and preparing grant proposals for submission, accurate interpretation and review of sponsor guidelines, budget development, drafting administrative sections, collecting materials, review of application to ensure adherence to sponsor guidelines, and obtaining institutional review/approval. Post-award responsibilities include monitoring the budget, reconciling expenses, management and monitoring of subawards, effort certifications, preparing detailed financial projections and reports. The role will identify any areas of over-or under expenditure to suggest corrective actions and contingency planning in a proactive manner.

This position is eligible to work fully remote work following flexible work policies set forth by Boston University's Human Resources.

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, training and internal pay comparison. The advertised hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Required Skills

• Five or more years of professional experience in research administration at an R1 University or academic medical center
• Comprehensive knowledge of sponsor/university guidelines, policies, and procedures including federal funding agencies such as NIH, NSF, ARPA-H, and DoD
• Proven ability to exercise independent judgement to ensure compliance with established university procedures and policies among research community
• Strong professional knowledge of federal grants management systems, enterprise financial systems, query tools or grants management tools
• Excellent technical skills to manage and learn new software platforms and financial reporting tools
• Excellent attention to detail and a service-oriented approach
• Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to meet multiple deadlines and prioritize competing tasks
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with skills to develop positive working relationships with internal and external stakeholders, faculty, administrators, and central administrative offices
• BA/BS required

Preferred Qualifications: 

Certified Research Administrator (CRA) designation 


We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate's current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last 7 years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer's applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign an authorization to release information' after execution of an offer letter.

Required Experience