• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• Hours Per Week: 20
• Salary Range: $40.00- $42.23/hr

Position Summary

Reporting to the Director of Finance & Administration, this part time 20 hours a week (9 months) Research Administrator is responsible for providing grants administration and program assistance to ensure the effective execution of financial and administrative tasks required in the management of the Lipson Nanophotonics Group and the Gaeta Lab within the Columbia Nano Initiative of Columbia University. The Research Administrator ensures the efficient and effective execution of pre- and post-award management, including assistance in the review and preparation of proposals and budgets, account setup, coordinating expenses and reimbursements, monitoring projects for compliance, analyzing and forecasting trends, aand ssisting with closeouts and reconciliations. The Research Administrator provides administrative support for various needs for two senior faculty PIs and their lab groups, including managing their correspondence, calendaring, shipments and letters of recommendation, travel and business expenses, group events, visitors and meeting arrangements, maintaining records, and other responsibilities and projects as may be needed. 

Responsibilities

• Coordinates with the CNI finance staff to initiate all expenditures and reimbursements; monitors project expenses for compliance, identifying and forecasting trends in spending that exceed current funding levels, assists with reviewing and closing all open commitments; assists with award close-outs.
• Performs monthly, annual, and other periodic reconciliations of grant accounts for PIs review and approval.
• Reviews and assists in the preparation of grant applications, contract proposals, and other related documents to ensure adherence to departmental, School, and University policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs), funding agency specifications, and other relevant rules and regulations. 
• Assists in data collection, writing, collating, and editing and proofing. Assists the CNI grants staff with review of proposals against requirements and submission to sponsoring agencies, often within tight time-frames.
• Preparing and editing correspondence, reports, and presentations: sends packages and letters of recommendation, serves as the main point of contact with students and research staff for recruitment purposes and occasionally will compose and handle correspondence on behalf of the faculty member.
• Process travel and business expenditures.
• Approves expenditures for PI lab groups and assists with purchasing orders.
• Provides a variety of administrative support functions, including but not limited to meeting arrangements such as, reservations, PIs travel, A/V, catering, preparation of meeting materials as well as visitor travel arrangements.
• Manages the scheduling and calendaring for 2 senior Faculty PIs. Organizing and maintaining files and records; tracks recommendation letters. Keeps up-to-date CVs of faculty members. Maintain records of expenses.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree and/or its equivalent required. Minimum 2 years of related experience, preferably in project or lab management, financial accounting and/or grants administration.
• Experience in higher education or other large, complex institution desirable.
• The preferred candidate will have basic understanding of applicable federal, state, and other sponsor regulation related to sponsored projects, including OMB Uniform Guidance, with strong preference for knowledge of Columbia policies governing sponsored projects and grant research compliance, and internal procedures and systems for pre- and post-award financial management.
• Must have the ability to utilize sound fiscal accounting practices and procedures to account for receipt of grant funding and prepare necessary reports.
• Familiarity with Columbia financial systems, particularly the Accounting at Columbia (ARC) system, is also desirable, along with experience with running financial report for project reconciliation, budgeting in the University Budget Tool, handling labor accounting in People @ Columbia (PAC), working in the Financial Front End (FFE) and RASCAL systems.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

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