Startup Program Manager Jobs in Tennessee (NOW HIRING)

Title: Grants Manager
Location: Nashville,  TN -- HYBRID 
(37.5 hours per week; hybrid schedule anticipated (1 day in office, 4 days remote per week).
Duration: 12 Months
Key Skills: Grants Management, Budgeting, Accounting, Contract management, Microsoft Office skills
Description:
The Grant Manager supports CEDEP and BGM by leading grant application development, coordinating award startup activities, monitoring budgets and expenditures, and ensuring required programmatic and financial reporting is completed accurately and on time. This position serves as a key coordination point between program leadership, fiscal partners, contracts, procurement, and federal funders to keep grant activities compliant, well documented, and on schedule.
Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with grant application development, grant management, budgeting, accounting, or contract management.
• Experience interpreting federal funding requirements, grant awards, reporting instructions, or fiscal guidance.
• Strong Excel skills, including the ability to maintain expenditure reports, analyze variances, and support projections.
• Experience coordinating work across program, fiscal, procurement, and leadership stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly with internal teams, external partners, and leadership.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, including Excel, Outlook, Word, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, track deadlines, follow up consistently, and maintain accurate records.
• Ability to work independently, exercise sound judgment, and complete assignments with minimal revision.

Key Responsibilities
1.       Lead and coordinate grant applications from NOFO review through submission

• Purpose: Ensure applications are developed, internally approved, and submitted by the federal deadline with minimal revision cycles.
• Review NOFO, NOA, and FOA requirements, including evaluation criteria, attachments, formatting rules, and submission methods.
• Create and maintain application timelines, checklists, SharePoint folder structure, and version control.
• Schedule and facilitate application kickoff meetings with program leadership and contributors.
• Track action items, follow up on missing components, and manage draft-to-final progression.
• Coordinate budget development, budget justification, and alignment with allowable costs.

2.        Post-award startup and implementation

• Purpose: Translate award terms into an actionable startup plan so programs can begin spending quickly and compliantly while identifying constraints, unallowable costs, and required post-award actions.
• Review award terms and conditions and document key requirements such as budget period, reporting cadence, restrictions, match, carryover, and prior approvals.
• Meet with program leadership to discuss NOA terms and startup needs.
• Prepare and submit expansion requests when new funding requires formal or informal permission to accept or implement.

3.        Maintain budget integrity and financial readiness

• Purpose: Keep expenditures aligned to approved budgets and allowable cost rules, reduce discrepancies, strengthen audit readiness, and support accurate forecasting and decision-making.
• Track correction status to completion and document the resolution.
• Review order forms for programmatic and laboratory supplies, equipment, or invoice approval as assigned.
• Pull reports, compile existing budgets, and locate current scopes, budgets, and contract documentation.

4.        Lead reporting and grant closeout

• Purpose: Ensure programs meet reporting requirements, provide accurate metrics to funding agencies, and complete timely, audit-ready grant closeouts.
• Own the reporting calendar, including due dates, internal deadlines, dependencies, and follow-up items.
• Compile financial metrics, including spending, variances, and projections, with fiscal partners.
• Submit reports through the required portal or system and retain confirmation documentation and final versions.

5.        Lead stakeholder communications and fiscal governance

• Purpose: Provide consistent, accurate, and timely communication to partners and leadership while ensuring fiscal governance requirements are met through structured meetings and rapid response to requests.
• Attend federal agency check-in meetings and provide status updates, risks, accomplishments, and upcoming milestones.
• Lead monthly expenditure report meetings covering spenddown, staffing costs, contract expenditures, projections, and risks.
• Prepare meeting materials, document action items and deadlines, and follow up to completion.