Director, Research Operations and Administration

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, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Summary

Reporting to the Department Administrator / CAO for the Department of Radiology, the Director, Research Operations and Administration will oversee all pre and post award research administration and financial management services provided to Principal Investigators (PIs) in the Department of Radiology. The incumbent will also oversee centralized research infrastructure within the department that includes quality and regulatory support for clinical research and oversight of the Department's role in providing core services across the medical center community. The Director, Research Operations and Administration will be a key member of the department's research leadership team and will partner with the Chair and Vice Chairs in support of the strategic development and growth of the department's research portfolio and operations.

Responsibilities

The Director, Research Operations and Administration will supervise a team in overseeing the following activities :

Pre-Award and Post Award / Financial Management Services :

• Assists principal investigators (PIs) in the identification of funding opportunities, development, review, submission and renewal of various types of sponsored project proposals from a variety of sponsors including NIH, private foundations and industry; directly manages timelines and the overall progression of work undertaken by team to ensure the on time completion of high quality, responsive, and compliant proposal applications.
• Facilitates grant transfers for NIH and others as needed; includes balance carry-forward funds from other institutions.
• For awarded proposals, liaises with Sponsored Projects Administration (SPA) office to ensure timely setup of award, pre award compliance requirements are met and all sub awards are established.
• Ensures all award reporting requirements (quarterly and / or annual progress and financial reports) are completed according to sponsor and institutional requirements and timeframes.
• Tracks pre-award productivity metrics such as number of submissions, awards, success rate, and other relevant measures
• Stays abreast of NIH and other sponsor policies to align knowledge depth of the overall research administration team and coordinates staff development.
• Organizes internal awards sponsored by department.
• Performs budget vs. actual reconciliation of sponsored and non-sponsored funding sources and salary allocations of faculty and staff on both project year and fiscal year basis.
• Maintains fiscal year funding overviews / forecasts for faculty and meets with faculty to review on a regular basis
• Oversees development and maintenance of financial resources and templates used by finance team.
• Reviews and approves salary allocation transactions and corrective accounting entries (cost transfers, journal entries) entered by analysts.
• Ensures departmental adherence to internal sponsored project compliance requirements (i.e. PI expense attestations, cost transfer audit documentation).
• Manages sponsored project effort reporting and certification process; advises and assists PIs in the effort certification process as needed.
• Participates in annual budgeting process and quarterly reforecasts through data entry of funding overviews into budget tool
• Assists with fiscal year-end close processes through monitoring of payroll suspense, sponsored project overdrafts and other items as requested.
• Maintains complete electronic filing of award documents, including original grant proposal, financial and programmatic reporting, and records that will assist with ongoing grant proposal and reporting requirements (i.e. facilities and resources documents, other support pages).
• Ad hoc projects aimed at rolling out new initiatives or process improvement as it pertains to finance and research administration.

Research Operations :

• Manages service center / cores, including rate development and license application and billing and collections for services provided
• Maintains understanding of operations of cores supporting the research community and identifies opportunities for improvements in both operations and financial management of core activity.
• Oversee clinical research infrastructure of the department aimed at providing regulatory support, clinical research coordination services and quality and compliance oversight of clinical research.
• Partners with Chair, Vice Chairs and Department Administrator / CAO on monitoring and development of research resources available to PIs, including tracking of research space assignments and utilization.

Strategic Research Growth and Leadership :

• Assist in shaping and executing strategic priorities for research growth, in alignment with departmental and institutional goals.
• Identify and support opportunities to increase extramural funding across a range of sponsors, including federal agencies, private foundations, and industry partners.
• Develop analytic tools to enable tracking and forecasting of research funding in the department.
• Oversee and ensure effective management of research laboratories, coordinating the needs of investigators across the full spectrum of imaging sciences.
• Collaborate with research faculty to align infrastructure and resources with cutting-edge trends in imaging research and to maximize the impact of their work.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in education or experience, plus five years of related experience.
• Requires a competent and organized individual that is self-motivated, reliable, conscientious, and able to solve analytical problems, as well as plan independently. Must be highly collaborative and able to work with all levels of staff. Position requires establishing and maintaining relationships within and across departments, as well as servicing the grant and accounting needs of Principal Investigators.
• The ideal candidate will possess excellent verbal and written communication skills. Proficient in MS Excel and MS Word. Ability to meet deadlines and maintain required confidentiality. Knowledge of government and foundation grant administration and PeopleSoft financials required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's Degree Preferred

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.