PAY GRADE: 32E

CONTEXT OF THE JOB:
The Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN), established in 2009, is a research, education, and outreach partnership involving the Delaware institutions of higher education, State government, and area industry. DENIN is housed within the Research Office at the University of Delaware, with offices located in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Laboratory. DENIN was established to coordinate the University’s multidisciplinary expertise around key environmental issues, facilitate large, interdisciplinary projects, and showcase the University’s well-established, nationally significant portfolio of environmental science, engineering, and policy competencies.

Reporting to the Director of DENIN, the Associate Director, Business Operations, serves as a key leader for developing and enhancing the processes and infrastructure for DENIN. Under the limited direction of the DENIN Director, the Associate Director independently manages DENIN business operations, including grants preparation and project management, and represents DENIN at national meetings to enhance capacity and visibility of activities and programming.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Serves as chief financial officer of DENIN.
• Manages and reports on the scientific, administrative, educational and economic programs of the DENIN portfolio, exercising a high level of independent judgment and self-direction.
• Manages (controls, oversees, and ensures sound fiscal operations) DENIN budgets, including those for federal grants such as NSF CZN, DOD, MARACOOS, DOE, industry grants and reserve budgets(s) of significant size and complexity (~$2M per year; $10-15M total).
• Directs the timely, accurate and comprehensive development, presentation, and implementation of the budgets.
• Runs queries and extracts data for budget projections, analyses of spending patterns and reporting to budget office.
• Supervises the DENIN Program Coordinator and Administrative Assistant who manage the day-to-day planning and execution of financial and administrative activities for DENIN.
• Monitors budgets, reviews charges on purpose codes, moves after-end charges, corrects source code errors, processes journal vouchers, and handles all project closeouts.
• Develops long-range financial models for forecasting and planning.
• Provides guidance and leadership on organizational monitoring and reporting through logic models, annual activities for projects, and data collection for DENIN. Leads submission of annual reporting for grants involving partners and collaborating institutions to funding agencies and responds to inquiries.
• Serves as DENIN human resources liaison ensuring that the human resource function is properly resourced and represented within the senior management team.
• Manages all DENIN pre-award proposal development including the proposal preparation and submission process (e.g. timeline establishment, responsibility checklist, etc.); compiles supporting documents (e.g. biosketches, current and pending support, internal letters of support, external commitment letters, tabulated data, etc.); conceptualizes and develops management; facilitates collaborations both within the university and with other partners; facilitates proposal team meetings; interprets funder guidelines and helps to articulate significance and impact to be responsive to funder goals; develops budget and drafts justifications (e.g. sponsor specific submission forms) and coordinates cost match
• Provides active support for building DENIN to a position of national and international prominence by assisting in the generation of funding from federal and state agencies, foundations and the private sector.
• Performs other job-related duties as assignes

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s or Doctoral-level degree is preferred and five to seven years of related experience
• Experience in program development, management, evaluation, and proposal and scientific report writing.
• Experience in research/education/grants administration.
• Effective interpersonal skills, persuasive oral and written communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with diverse individuals and groups (e.g., federal and state agencies, academic and business communities).
• Experience interacting and leading discussions with state and federal agencies.
• Ability to think strategically and to recognize new opportunities; demonstrates understanding of academe to achieve results across disciplines, units/divisions, and functions; in-depth knowledge of missions and objectives and programs of federal funding agencies and prior management and supervisory experience
• Knowledge of federal funding processes and of federal agency missions and objectives; project management.
• Familiarity with all stages of the grant process from the request for proposal through implementation, evaluation, and closeout including preparing the final report.