Job Description

The Director of the Sponsored Programs Office provides institutional leadership for the full lifecycle of externally sponsored projects, including pre-award development, submission, post-award administration, compliance oversight, financial monitoring, reporting coordination, and closeout. Reporting to the Provost, this position serves as the college’s primary resource for faculty and academic staff pursuing external funding and helps ensure that sponsored activities align with institutional priorities, college policies, sponsor requirements, and applicable federal and state regulations. This is a full-time position and pays $70,000- $80,000 annually based on experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and administrative oversight for the Sponsored Programs Office, including daily operations, strategic priorities, and effective support for externally funded projects across the institution.
• Serve as the primary institutional resource for faculty and academic staff seeking external grant funding, offering guidance from opportunity identification through award closeout.
• Assist faculty with proposal development, including project planning, timelines, sponsor-specific documentation, and coordination of required institutional approvals.
• Review sponsor guidelines, requests for proposals, and application instructions to advise applicants on eligibility, budget restrictions, compliance obligations, and institutional requirements.
• Advise applicants on budget development, including direct and indirect costs, matching funds, in-kind contributions, personnel effort, teaching load reductions, and faculty, staff, and student compensation.
• Review grant submissions for compliance with sponsor, agency, and college requirements and serve as the college’s Authorized Organizational Representative for designated electronic proposal submissions.
• Provide preliminary review of grant-related memoranda of understanding, award contracts, subaward documents, consultant agreements, and collaborative project agreements in coordination with Wheaton’s legal team.
• Coordinate award setup and communicate award terms, approved budgets, reporting deadlines, and allowable-cost requirements to principal investigators and relevant campus offices.
• Collaborate with Accounting to ensure grant fund accounts are properly established, overhead costs are correctly calculated and allocated, reimbursement requests are completed appropriately, and financial records are maintained in accordance with institutional and sponsor requirements.
• Monitor grant expenditures in collaboration with Accounting and principal investigators to help ensure costs are allowable, allocable, reasonable, and properly documented, and provide monthly financial reports to awardees as appropriate.
• Oversee compliance with applicable federal and state laws, sponsor requirements, Uniform Guidance, federal cost principles, conflict of interest requirements, audit standards, and college policies related to sponsored programs administration.
• Support institutional readiness for audits, sponsor reviews, compliance inquiries, and Facilities and Administrative cost rate negotiations related to sponsored programs.
• Develop, update, and maintain grant-related policies, procedures, forms, templates, guidance materials, web content, institutional registrations, sponsor system access, and official sponsored programs records.
• Coordinate Academic Affairs’ internal faculty development and sabbatical programs, including annual application cycles, communications, review materials, committee support, award notifications, budget tracking, recordkeeping, and policy consistency.
• Perform other related duties as assigned by the Provost.

Required Professional Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Demonstrated ability to read, interpret, and apply sponsor guidelines, institutional policies, and applicable state and federal regulations.
• Knowledge of federal funding guidelines and regulations.
• Strong financial management skills.
• Ability to effectively plan, prioritize, coordinate, manage, and direct multiple projects and activities with varied deadlines.
• Ability to work effectively with faculty, administrators, Accounting, Advancement, Human Resources, and support staff.
• Excellent written, verbal, organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills.
• High degree of accuracy, attention to detail, discretion, and ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a small-office environment.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, especially Excel, and ability to learn institutional financial systems and sponsor grant portals.

Preferred Professional Qualifications

• Certification such as Certified Research Administrator, Certified Pre-Award Research Administrator, Certified Financial Research Administrator, or related credential.
• Significant experience with grants, sponsored programs administration, research administration, or related financial/compliance processes.
• Demonstrated knowledge of grant proposal development, budget preparation, award management, and reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to manage grant award budgets and monitor expenditures.
• Experience in higher education sponsored programs administration.
• Experience with federal grants and Uniform Guidance.
• Familiarity with federal grant systems such as Grants.gov, Research.gov, eRA Commons, SAM.gov, or similar sponsor portals.
• Experience serving as or supporting an Authorized Organizational Representative.
• Experience supporting undergraduate research programs, faculty development programs, or internal grant programs.
• Experience with Facilities and Administrative cost rate processes, effort reporting, subawards, and grant closeout.
• Proficiency with Filemaker Pro or other database environments.
• Familiarity with liberal arts college environments.

Faith Qualifications

• Affirmation of the Wheaton College Statement of Faith as a faithful expression of one’s own theological convictions
• Affirmation of the biblical standards for Christian character and God-honoring behavior described throughout the Wheaton College Community Covenant, and promise to adhere to them in personal practice
• Support of the Wheaton College Christ-Centered Diversity Commitment, the Gender Equity Vision Statement, and the College’s Convictions on Human Sexuality. These commitments can be found on the Wheaton College website.

Physical Requirements

The employee is regularly required to sit, talk, or hear; frequently required to use repetitive hand motion, handle or feel, and to stand, walk, reach, bend or lift up to 10 pounds.

FLSA Status – Exempt