Assistant Director, Award Management - Office of Research & Innovation

Hiring Department

Office of Research & Innovation (ORI) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).

The University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) is entering an exciting new era of research growth and innovation. In 2025, UMKCachieved the prestigious Carnegie Research 1 (R1) designation,recognizing the university as one of the nation's top research institutions and Kansas City's only R1 university. This milestone reflects significant growth in UMKC's research enterprise and positions the university for continued expansion in researchfunding, interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and partnerships across Kansas City, the region, and beyond.

As UMKC's research portfolio continues to grow in size, complexity,and national prominence, the university is strengthening the research administration infrastructure necessary to support faculty, researchers, sponsors, and institutional partners. The Assistant Director, Award Management will play a critical leadership role in this effort, helping ensure that sponsored awards move efficiently from award notification through account establishment and into active project management. This position will contribute directly to building scalable, responsive, and effective research administration processes that support UMKC'scontinued advancement as an R1 research institution.

The Assistant Director, Award Management in the Office of Research& Innovation (ORI) provides a key leadership role in overseeing the effective set-up, negotiation, and administration of sponsored awards. This position ensures that grant and contract agreements are executed in compliance with institutional, sponsor, and legal requirements while supporting a seamless transition from award receipt to active project management.

The Assistant Director serves as an operational leader within Research Administration and works closely with investigators, pre-award and post-award personnel, central administrative units, sponsors, and external partners. The position will also serve as aliaison with the Office of General Counsel on matters related to sponsored agreements and contract negotiation.

As UMKC continues to expand its research enterprise, the Assistant Director will be expected to help develop and implement scalable,efficient, and service-oriented award management practices that can support increasingly complex awards, multidisciplinary research initiatives, federal sponsors, industry and community partnerships,subawards, and other sponsored research arrangements.

This position reports to the Director of Research Administration.

• Award Management
  • Lead and oversee the effective set-up and administration of sponsored awards, ensuring timely transition from award receipt toactive project management.
  • Review, negotiate, and coordinate grant and contract agreement sin collaboration with investigators, sponsors, and the Office of General Counsel.
  • Oversee the creation of grant accounts and issuance ofsubawards, ensuring appropriate institutional and sponsor requirements are satisfied.
  • Coordinate effective cross-unit workflows between pre-award andpost-award functions in collaboration with the Director of Research Administration.
  • Review and coordinate non-financial post-award requests and related institutional approvals.
  • Serve as a primary contact for faculty, staff, sponsors, and external partners regarding award management matters.
  • Provide expert guidance on sponsored award requirements,institutional policies, sponsor regulations, and award terms throughout the award life cycle.
  • Identify opportunities to streamline award setup, negotiation,subaward, and post-award processes while maintaining appropriate institutional controls.
  • Support increasingly complex and multidisciplinary sponsored projects and partnerships associated with UMKC's expanding R1research portfolio.
• Leadership & Collaboration
  • Coordinate with the Director of Research Administration to implement strategic initiatives that strengthen and scale research administration operations.
  • Help establish clear, consistent, and efficient processes that improve service delivery and reduce administrative burden forinvestigators and research teams.
  • Collaborate across academic and administrative units to promote research integrity, operational effectiveness, and compliance.
  • Develop strong working relationships with faculty, research personnel, sponsors, General Counsel, Procurement, Finance, andother institutional partners.
  • Contribute to the development of research administration standards, procedures, tools, and training designed to support agrowing and increasingly complex research enterprise.
  • Assist with staff training, professional development, knowledge sharing, and a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
  • Serve as a resource and subject-matter expert for complex award management and sponsored agreement issues.
  • Other duties as assigned.

A Bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education…