[Hiring] Pre and Post Award Research Grants Specialist @Vitalief

Role Description

Vitalief is seeking an experienced Pre- and Post-Award Research Grants Specialist to join our team as a full-time, fully benefited Vitalief employee. The Specialist will support a major statewide clinical research initiative for our client, a leading academic medical center in New Jersey.

The Specialist will manage and coordinate a portfolio of research, engineering, and education-related grants across the full pre- and post-award lifecycle. This role will work closely with:

• Principal Investigators
• Institutional leadership
• Cross-functional teams including Research Administration, Finance, Sponsored Programs, Contracts, Regulatory/IRB, Data, Operations, and external collaborators

Responsibilities

• Pre-Award Grant Administration:
  • Review and coordinate grant and contract proposals for completeness, accuracy, and compliance with sponsor and institutional requirements.
  • Assist Principal Investigators and research teams with proposal development, budgets, justifications, required forms, and supporting documentation.
  • Coordinate multi-investigator and multi-institutional proposals and ensure submissions meet internal and sponsor deadlines.
  • Submit proposals through institutional systems and sponsor portals and maintain accurate submission records.
  • Serve as a liaison between sponsors and Principal Investigators regarding questions and requirements before award issuance.
• Post-Award Administration:
  • Coordinate award setup, budget management, financial monitoring, reporting, subawards, and closeout activities.
  • Monitor budgets and expenditures, assist with forecasting, and identify and resolve financial or compliance issues.
  • Prepare and submit Research Performance Progress Reports (RPPRs) and other required progress reports.
  • Coordinate sponsor prior-approval requests, including no-cost extensions, budget changes, changes in scope or PI, and carryforward requests.
  • Ensure compliance with sponsor terms, institutional policies, and applicable federal and state requirements.
• Project Coordination & Stakeholder Management:
  • Serve as a central point of contact for assigned grant portfolios and coordinate activities across faculty, research administration, Finance, Contracts, Regulatory/IRB, Data, Operations, and external collaborators.
  • Track project deliverables, milestones, deadlines, dependencies, and sponsor requirements.
  • Identify and proactively address risks, gaps, issues, and potential delays.
  • Coordinate meetings, action items, communications, and follow-up across multiple workstreams.
  • Provide regular project and portfolio status updates to leadership.
  • Maintain comprehensive and organized project documentation to support continuity and knowledge transfer.
• Systems & Process Management:
  • Maintain accurate grant, award, personnel, budget, and milestone information within institutional research administration systems.
  • Support system enhancements, user acceptance testing, and process improvement initiatives.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in life sciences, public health, healthcare administration, business, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in grants administration, sponsored research, research administration, clinical research, or project management.
• Experience managing complex pre- and post-award grants, preferably within an academic medical center, university, healthcare system, or research consortium.
• Strong understanding of the full research grant lifecycle, including proposal development, submission, award setup, budgeting, compliance, reporting, subawards, and closeout.
• Experience working with federal, state, nonprofit, and/or for-profit funding agencies, including NIH, DARPA, and other federal research sponsors.
• Experience with grant submission and research administration platforms such as Grants.gov, NIH eRA Commons/ASSIST, Research.gov, DARPA submission systems, NSPIRES (NASA), NJ SAGE, and/or ProposalCentral.
• Experience working closely with Principal Investigators and multidisciplinary research teams.
• Strong knowledge of grant budgeting, financial monitoring, forecasting, and sponsored research compliance.
• Experience coordinating multiple stakeholders, workstreams, deadlines, and deliverables in a matrixed environment.
• Excellent communication, organization, problem-solving, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to influence and drive accountability across teams without direct authority.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Experience with multi-institutional research, subrecipients, or external collaborators is preferred.
• Certified Research Administrator (CRA) certification is a plus.

Physical Demands

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working at a computer.
• Standing, walking, visual perception, talking and hearing.
• Lifting up to 20lbs.