Director of Contracts and Grants Administration

Division of Research and Innovation

The Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) supports and advances Appalachian State University's research, scholarship, creative activities, innovation, and public service mission by providing leadership, infrastructure, compliance oversight, strategic investment, and administrative support for the university's research enterprise. The division encompasses the Office of Research and Innovation (ORI), which includes research administration, sponsored programs, contracts and grants accounting, compliance functions, internal funding programs, and innovation and commercialization initiatives. Beyond the ORI, the DRI includes other strategic research and creative activity operations that support faculty, staff, and student success. The ORI supports and enhances the research, scholarship, creative activities, and public service initiatives by managing internal and external funding programs, providing research administration services, and supporting both funded and unfunded scholarly initiatives across the campus community.

Click here to learn more about the other Office of Research and Innovation Departments About this role:

The Director of Contracts and Grants Administration position reports to the Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation and provides strategic and operational leadership for the full sponsored project lifecycle within the Office of Research and Innovation. This position ensures that faculty, staff, and institutional partners receive high-quality support from proposal preparation and submission through award closeout, while maintaining strong compliance, financial stewardship, and service-oriented practices. The Director supervises multiple Associate Directors and provides leadership for a team of approximately 20 staff members. In this role, the CGA director will provide leadership, direction, and accountability for administration and accounting functions across the post-award lifecycle of grants and contracts, including post-award financial support, reporting, and closeout.

Master's degree in business administration, public administration, accounting, finance, higher education administration, research administration, or a related field.

A certified research administrator ( CRA) credential is preferred.

More than 10 years of progressively responsible experience in research administration or sponsored programs leadership.

Provide leadership and oversight for all post-award administration and accounting functions across the Office of Research and Innovation.

Collaborate with the Director of Sponsored Programs on processes to ensure the effective integration of pre-award processes with the post-award compliance needs to execute the resulting agreements, including processes such as the review, preparation, negotiation, and execution of incoming and outgoing contracts, subawards, and research-related agreements.

Oversee award intake, review, negotiation, set-up, and handoff processes to ensure awards are established accurately and efficiently.

Oversee post-award financial administration, including financial system fund setup, sponsor reporting, invoicing, financial monitoring, effort and cost-share tracking and reporting support, budget revisions, expenditure review, and closeout.

Lead efforts to strengthen institutional research administration infrastructure through the development of policies, procedures, guidelines, best practices, and service standards.

Foster a highly responsive, service-oriented culture that supports faculty, staff, administrators, and external sponsors while maintaining appropriate institutional oversight.

Supervise, mentor, and evaluate CGA staff and provide overall leadership for a staff of approximately 20 employees.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential job duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential job functions.

Finalists will be subject to a criminal background check prior to the offer of employment. All candidate names and information will remain confidential; however, finalists invited to campus may be asked to waive confidentiality to engage with the broader campus community. References will not be contacted without a candidate's prior knowledge and consent.