Pre-Award Specialist

Salary and Benefits

PLEASE NOTE: The starting salary placement depends on qualifications and experience and is anticipated to be in the range of $3,897.00 per month to $5,474.00 per month.

Cal State East Bay offers a broad range of benefits that includes medical, dental, vision, retirement (CalPERS), 401k, 457, 403(b), dependent and health care reimbursement accounts, life insurance, vacation and sick leave, 14 paid holidays, one personal holiday and tuition fee waiver.

For more information on the benefits program, please visit our benefits website. The CSU Total Compensation Calculator demonstrates the significance of our benefits package.

Classification

Administrative Analyst/Specialist, Exempt I

About Cal State East Bay

Cal State East Bay's beautiful main campus is located in the Hayward hills with panoramic views of the San Francisco Bay shoreline. Situated above the city of Hayward, the campus offers an ideal setting for teaching and learning and yet easy access to the many cities along the bay. The University has a satellite campus in Concord, a professional development center in Oakland and a significant presence online. Founded in 1957, Cal State East Bay is one of 23 universities of the California State University system (CSU). Cal State East Bay is recognized as a regionally engaged and globally oriented university with a strong commitment to academic innovation, student success, engaged and service learning, diversity, and sustainability.

About the Position

The Pre‐Award Specialist is responsible for Pre-Award Services within the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP). This position will communicate and interact with a diverse population of students, employees, and community constituents, and serve as a primary contact for pre-award inquiries.

Responsibilities

Proposal Development, Preparation and Submission:

• Coordinate with the Senior Pre-Award Specialist regarding faculty and staff development and submission of responses to public and private grant opportunities in a wide range of fields/disciplines.
• Interpret sponsor guidelines during pre-submittal consultations with Cal State East Bay investigators and ensure that all paperwork, approvals, and pre-award requirements are submitted in a timely manner for governmental funding opportunities.
• Provide financial review and guidance to investigators in the development of their budgets, statement of work, and other required proposal documents.
• In concert with the Grants Strategy Officer, ensure that Principal Investigators submit grant proposals with all required paperwork, approvals, and pre-submittal consultations in a timely manner for private funding opportunities.
• Ensure all submitted documents are stored, distributed, and available upon request.
• Participate in meetings and phone calls with other researchers and/or research partners involved with the development of grant funded initiatives. Contribute information, data or other information needed for collaborative work across institutions.
• Provide Principal Investigators with descriptions of approaches to research for individual programs, based on specific grant goals and desired methodologies of faculty and project partners.
• Enter and/or report out proposal information using a shared database; ensure data captured is accurate for reporting purposes.

Award Coordination:

• Review incoming external funding awards and agreements for accuracy and determine whether they adhere to University policies.
• Interpret contractual language and be in concert with appropriate staff from ORSP, Academic Affairs, Procurement, Risk Management, and/or CSU Legal Counsel, negotiate terms and conditions as needed with the sponsor for items such as (but not limited to): intellectual property, indemnification, and other clauses.
• Ensure that specific compliance-related requirements are completed and/or documented, such as those related to: insurance, conflict of interest, cost share, sub recipient monitoring, and required training - prior to transitioning these to post- award services.
• Coordinate adjustments in budgets, scope of work, and review financial and other required documents for pre-award spending requests, grant acceptance, amendments, no cost extensions, etc.
• communicate with sponsors, project teams, and institutional officials to facilitate these processes.
• Facilitate the resolution of issues with University Accounting and Finance and other units prior to the setup of an award.
• Facilitate training and new award orientation with PIs.
• Enter and/or report out award information using a shared database; ensure data captured is accurate for reporting purposes.

Program Improvement:

• Collaborate with the Director of Grant Administration and Associate Vice President in the development of new and modified pre-award processes.
• Assess and evaluate the impact of pre-award processes and policies from a strategic and operational perspective.
• Evaluate, benchmark, and continuously improve the success of grant submissions to federal and state agencies.
• Exercise good judgement in the development of new and modified policies and procedures that overlap with other grant administration areas including the tracking of compliance issues from the proposal stage to grant implementation.
• Analyze and strategically evaluate department workflow and current practice to streamline functionality for improved efficiency in day to day operations.
• Provide ongoing analysis of current process compared to Cal State University “best practices” using statistical and research methods and data reports.
• Interpret and evaluate results to develop sound conclusions to support new or revised policies.

Development and ongoing maintenance of a strategic plan for research:

• Collect and make accessible via the ORSP's website, reports and publications arising as a result of University investments in research.
• Document, promote and develop presentation materials and strategies for the ongoing stewardship of relationships with internal campus constituencies and external entities (i.e., key funding agencies and organizations that match the research strengths at Cal State East Bay; communicates departmental updates through quarterly newsletter).
• In concert with the Director, assist in the review and update of departmental policies, guidance, and other internal procedures.
• Reviews policies and recommend modification to ensure compliance with University policy, state law, and federal regulations (i.e., 2 CFR 200).
• Benchmark and continuously improving the success rate of grant submittals.

Other Duties to be assigned include, but are not limited to:

• Serve on University/SPA committees as requested/approved.
• Represent Cal State East Bay and participate in external events, task forces, system-wide planning/coordination and special projects as directed.
• Conduct PI trainings to teach and train faculty and staff about the uses of data warehouse, info ready, and pivot systems.

Required Qualifications

• Thorough knowledge of and ability to apply grant administration processes, practices, and explicit requirements with proposal submissions (including those for governmental entities, private and corporate funders, and other non-profit agencies).
• Excellent verbal, written communications and analytical skills.
• Advanced knowledge of and ability to use a variety of technologies including, but not limited to: Microsoft Office suite, Excel, and other applicable software packages.
• Excellent interpersonal skills to develop and maintain cooperative and productive working relationships.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and to anticipate, plan and organize work projects including handling multiple grant proposal deadlines.
• Ability to prioritize tasks, to work independently, to maintain confidentiality and to take initiative to improve upon current operations, including written procedures, processes, forms and web page content.
• Ability to represent the University and partnership well in internal and external interactions, including the planning and organization of work of teams collaborating on grant proposals.
• Must be detail-oriented and have the ability to interpret complex policies and procedures, and ability to proof written materials that will be submitted to external sponsors and distributed among campus constituencies.
• Maintain a consistent and reliable work schedule in order to ensure the timely review of transactions and to ensure that application deadlines are met.
• Ability to solve problems without direct guidance or direction.
• Working knowledge of standard budgeting and accounting, specifically for use in grant
• Must be able to lift 10 lbs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Entry to this classification requires general knowledge and skills in the applicable administrative and/or program field with a foundational knowledge of public administration principles, practices, and methods.
• This foundation would normally be obtained through a bachelor's degree and/or equivalent training and administrative work experience involving study, analysis, and/or evaluation leading to the development or improvement of administrative policies, procedures, practices, or programs.

Preferred Skills and Knowledge

• Foundational knowledge of grant administration principles, practices and methods.
• Demonstrated programmatic leadership.
• Experience in higher education.
• Experience with grant submittals to state and federal agencies and foundations, preferably at a college/university.
• At least 2 years of experience in the applicable administrative and/or program field, including experience with budgets, online. platforms, and accounting and financial systems.

Condition(s) of Employment

Satisfactory completion of a background check (including LiveScan, as appropriate), that may include, but is not limited to: criminal records check, verification of academic credentials, licenses, certificates, credit history, professional references and/or verification of work history is required for employment. Cal State East Bay will issue a conditional offer of employment to the selected candidate, which may be rescinded if the background check reveals disqualifying information, and/or it is discovered that the candidate knowingly withheld or falsified information. Unsatisfactory results may also affect the continued employment of current Cal State East Bay employees who were conditionally offered the position.

All background checks are conducted through the university's third party vendor, Accurate. LiveScan is conducted through the University Police Department.

EEO Statement

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, Cal State East Bay does not discriminate on the basis of any protected categories: age, ancestry, citizenship, color, disability, gender, immigration status, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, or veteran's status. The University is committed to the principles of diversity in employment and to creating a stimulating learning environment for its diverse student body.

Other Information

All California State University campuses, including Cal State East Bay, are smoke and tobacco-free. For more information, please visit our website at http://www.csueastbay.edu/smokeandtobaccofree/

In compliance with state and federal crime awareness and campus security legislation, including The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act, the Cal State East Bay Annual Campus Security Report is available at: http://www.csueastbay.edu/upd/safety-and-security-reports.html

Sponsorship

Cal State East Bay is not a sponsoring agency for Staff or Management positions and we are not an E-Verify employer.

Mandated Reporter

The incumbent in this position may be considered a mandated reporter under the California Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act and will be required to comply with requirements set forth in the CSU Executive Order 1083 as a condition of employment.

Advertised: April 18, 2023 (3:00 PM) Pacific Daylight Time
Applications close: