Grants Finance Analyst

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary:
  Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard
  
  Work Schedule:
• Building:
• Salary Range: $66,300 - $79,000

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

The mission of the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) Office for Research is to facilitate the highest caliber of biomedical research, from basic to translational to clinical, among the VP&S faculty, students, and staff at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC).

As a member of the Post-Award Team, the Grants Finance Analyst I, contributes to CUIMC's research mission by supporting grant-related post-award administrative activities for the basic sciences and other participating departments in VP&S.

In this role, the Analyst I will collaborate to manage a sponsored award portfolio for faculty members with a wide range of research projects, in order to ensure compliance with federal, sponsor, and institutional regulations. Key areas of responsibility will include setting up accounts and budgets; conducting budget planning and projections; performing financial reconciliation; performing payroll accounting; and assisting with close-outs and reporting.

Through this role, the Analyst I can expect to learn to perform the full scope of post-award grant management; develop skills in financial analysis and management of complex portfolios; and build experience managing internal client relationships.

To be successful in this role, the Analyst I should be able to leverage grant management experience, knowledge of finance and accounting best practices, and strong critical thinking, analytical, and communication skills to support financial management of assigned portfolios, working collaboratively and independently in a deadline-driven environment.

Responsibilities

Post-Award Grant Administration

• Maintains a portfolio of Sponsored Project accounts, in close collaboration with manager. Accurately performs monthly budgeting, projecting, updating and reconciling of research finances for portfolio of accounts.

• Trains under the direction of senior staff to develop skills in financial analysis, management of multiple award types, and Notices of Awards and communication.

• Co-leads monthly meetings with PIs, together with manager, to address financial portfolio.

• Assists with portfolio summaries to prepare for meetings, collaborates with manager on post-meeting summaries and action items.

• Sets up new grant accounts and budgets and modifies existing awards with new incoming funding, collaborating closely with Sponsored Projects Administration and senior team members as needed. Ensures that PIs have necessary information, such as chart string details and any pertinent terms and conditions of the awarded project.

• Reviews and sets up subaward agreements, setting up new grant accounts and budgets.

• Collaborates with faculty to establish salary distributions or address suspense in continuation of projects.

• Serves as initial point of review for accuracy of grant related invoice and expenditure payments, requisitions, purchase orders, interdepartmental invoices, expenditure corrections, and journal entries. Requests PI approval and initiates internal processing.

• Ensures that research funding is allocated and spent in accordance with PI plan and all applicable guidelines. Tracks and monitors invoices throughout life of award to ensure that subawards are spending their funding in a timely manner.

• Performs accurate and timely payroll accounting for assigned grant-related personnel, including initiating and documenting salary distributions, cost transfers, clearing suspense and repository accounts.

• Leverages reporting mechanism to tracks internal and external support for faculty and research personnel, including keeping team trackers up to date

• Assists in the University year end close-out procedures, including, but not limited to, ensuring there is no grant overrun, all necessary grant expenses have been posted, SAPOS and POs are correctly accounted for and encumbered in ARC Sponsored Projects Financial reports.

• Maintains records in accordance with internal procedures, demonstrating compliance with sponsor and sponsor agreements, and University regulations concerning project expenditures, equipment, and other fiscal concerns.

• Assists faculty with grant progress reports, necessary compliance documents, review of summary statements and responses.

• Performs all other duties as assigned within scope of practice and/or training.

Strategy and Continuous Improvement

• Continuously develops and maintains sound knowledge of relevant federal rules and regulations and stays informed about sponsor terms…