Director Grants Research Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Southwest Tennessee Community College is a comprehensive, multicultural, public, open-access college. Southwest has four campuses/centers from which it offers over 100 programs and over 20 technical certificate programs.

We foster student success, transform lives, and increase the educational level of a growing community in Shelby County. Southwest is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution, accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Title: Director - Grants Management

Employee Classification: Other Professionals

Institution: Southwest Tennessee Community College

Department: Institutional Advancement

Campus Location: SWTCC - Multiple Campus Locations

Job Summary

This is a full-time, fiscal-year permanent position reporting to the Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Communications. The Director of Grants Management is responsible for the administration, oversight, coordination, and compliance management of the College's grant portfolio from award acceptance through closeout.
The Director works closely with principal investigators, project directors, College leadership, Finance, Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, Workforce Development, and other relevant departments to ensure that all grant-funded activities are implemented in accordance with award terms, institutional policies, applicable federal, state, local, and private-funder regulations, and reporting requirements.
The Director serves as the College's central resource for post-award grant administration and supports the Director of Grants Development by assisting with grant research, reviewing funding opportunities, coordinating proposal-development materials, and ensuring a seamless transition from grant development to grant implementation and compliance.

Job Duties

• Provides centralized oversight of the College's post-award grant-management process, including award acceptance, grant setup, implementation support, monitoring, reporting, amendment coordination, closeout, and records retention.
• Serves as the primary point of contact for principal investigators, project directors, and grant leads regarding grant requirements, reporting deadlines, documentation, allowable expenditures, budget modifications, and compliance responsibilities.
• Reviews grant award notices, agreements, contracts, terms and conditions, and funder requirements; coordinates internal review and routing processes with appropriate College departments.
• Develops and maintains comprehensive grant-management systems, calendars, dashboards, procedures, templates, and tracking tools to ensure timely completion of all grant deliverables, reports, invoices, performance measures, and closeout requirements.
• Monitors grant timelines, deliverables, performance objectives, budgets, expenditures, matching requirements, and reporting obligations in collaboration with principal investigators, project directors, Finance, Purchasing, Human Resources, and other College offices.
• Works with Finance and grant leads to monitor grant budgets, reconcile expenditures, identify potential compliance concerns, and support timely corrective action when needed.
• Coordinates the preparation, review, and submission of required programmatic, financial, performance, interim, final, and closeout reports to funding agencies.
• Ensures that grant files, supporting documentation, approvals, reports, correspondence, contracts, budgets, and other records are maintained in accordance with College policy, funder requirements, and applicable records-retention standards.
• Assists with audit preparation, monitoring visits, site visits, desk reviews, and other funder, institutional, state, or federal compliance reviews.
• Identifies grant-management risks, compliance issues, missed deadlines, or potential budget concerns and promptly communicates findings and recommendations to the Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Communications and appropriate College leadership.
• Develops and delivers training, orientation, and technical assistance for principal investigators, project directors, faculty, staff, and administrators regarding post-award responsibilities, grant compliance, budget monitoring, reporting, documentation, and institutional processes.
• Collaborates with the Director of Strategic Advancement and Grants Development to support the pre-award process, including reviewing funding opportunities, assisting with proposal timelines, gathering institutional data and supporting documents, developing budgets, and preparing grant-submission materials.
• Supports grant research and prospecting by monitoring public and private funding opportunities that align with College priorities and communicating relevant opportunities to appropriate College leadership and program areas.
• Maintains a current inventory of active grants, pending proposals, awards, reporting deadlines, funding sources, grant outcomes, and institutional grant activity.
• Prepares regular grant-management reports, dashboards, briefings, and recommendations for the Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Communications, College leadership, and other stakeholders.
• Builds and maintains productive working relationships with funding agencies, College departments, community partners, and other stakeholders.
• Represents the College professionally in meetings, trainings, funder conferences, and other relevant activities as assigned.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's degree from an accredited college or university.
  
• Minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in grants management, post-award administration, sponsored programs, compliance, fiscal administration, program management, or a closely related field.
  
• Demonstrated experience managing grant-funded programs, including reporting, compliance, budget monitoring, documentation, and closeout activities.
  
• A background check will be required for the successful candidate.

Preferred Qualifications

• 7+ years' experience in higher education, community colleges, nonprofit organizations, government, workforce development, or public-sector grant administration.
  
• Experience administering federal grants, including grants from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Labor, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, or other federal agencies.
  
• Experience with Uniform Guidance, including 2 CFR Part 200, or comparable federal grant-compliance requirements.
  
• Experience with grant-management software, enterprise resource planning systems, customer relationship management systems, or financial-management systems.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Working knowledge of federal, state, local, corporate, and private-foundation grant requirements, including post-award administration and reporting expectations.
  
• Experience working with grant budgets, financial reports, expenditure tracking, invoices, matching requirements, and budget revisions.
  
• Strong organizational, analytical, problem-solving, communication, and project-management skills.
  
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple grants, deadlines, reporting requirements, and competing priorities with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.
  
• Ability to interpret grant agreements, regulations, policies, funding guidelines, and compliance requirements.
  
• Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with faculty, staff, administrators, finance professionals, principal investigators, funding agencies, and other stakeholders.
  
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, online grant portals, spreadsheets, database systems, and project-management or tracking tools.
  
• Ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise sound professional judgment.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representation of the types of duties and responsibilities that will be required of positions given this title and shall not be construed as a declaration of the total specific duties and responsibilities of any particular position. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.

Candidates who are called for an interview must notify Human Resources in writing at least five (5) days in advance of any reasonable accommodation needed prior to the date of the interview.

First consideration will be given to current Southwest Tennessee Community College employees who meet the minimum qualifications for the position.

In order to be considered for the position, the following items must be uploaded:

• Resume
• Cover letter
• Unofficial Transcripts

A summary of our benefits can be found below: 

https://www.southwest.tn.edu/hr/benefits-overview.php

Incomplete applications will not be considered.

The TBR does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity, or national origin, sex, disability, age, status as a protected veteran or any other class protected by Federal or State laws and regulations and by Tennessee Board of Regents policies with respect to employment, programs, and activities. 

The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies:  LeVetta Hudson, Vice President of People & Culture, myhr@southwest.tn.edu, 737 Union Ave, Memphis, TN 38103, 901-333-5000. See the full non-discrimination policy.