ERP Module Lead - Research Administration

Hiring Department

ERP Project

The University of Missouri ERP Forward Program strives to strengthen our administrative foundation to enable a greater focus on delivering enterprise-wide missions. The program will implement a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system along with supporting technology to streamline administrative processes, improve user experience, reinforce a primary system of record, and enable enterprise-wide compliance.

A successful candidate for this position in the ERP Forward Program will:

• Understand financial and research administration operations, business processes, and systems.
• Demonstrate strong analytical, documentation, and organizational skills.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders across the University.
• Support continuous improvement through process evaluation and system innovation.

The ERP Forward Finance Workstream supports the University of Missouri's financial systems and manages technology processes and functions that affect transaction processing, data reconciliation, reporting, system maintenance, and upgrades. The University is preparing to implement a new ERP system over the next three years, along with an Electronic Research Administration (ERA) platform that will be implemented first to support pre-award grants management.

The Finance Workstream team will provide functional expertise for both efforts and will assume ownership of the ERA platform after implementation.

Reporting to the ERP Pillar Lead, this position serves as the functional lead for pre-award research administration systems with initial focus on implementing the University's pre-award ERA platform. The role will document requirements, redesign processes, lead testing, and prepare the organization for adoption in coordination with stakeholders across all four campuses and the health system. It will work closely with the post-award functional lead, a peer role under the same manager, to support a seamless proposal-to-award-to-project lifecycle.

Following ERA go-live and stabilization, the position will retain ongoing functional ownership of the ERA platform in production. The position will also support the broader cloud ERP implementation where ERA, finance, research administration, reporting, data validation, integrations, or business process design intersects.

This position offers a substantive role in the implementation and long-term support of major University systems, with opportunities for growth as the ERA and ERP programs mature.

• Own assigned work streams for the ERA implementation, with primary responsibility for pre-award functionality and related business processes.
• Partner with Research Administration, Finance, Sponsored Programs, and Information Technology stakeholders across all four campuses and the health system to define requirements, redesign processes, and prepare for adoption.
• Guide pre-award process design for proposal development and budgeting, internal routing and approval, sponsor submission, and award intake.
• Lead functional design for ERA integrations with the University's financial system of record (currently People Soft), including data mapping, interface design, error handling, and the transition from People Soft to the new cloud ERP, partnering with the post-award functional lead on the award handoff between the two systems.
• Maintain key implementation documentation, including process maps, configuration workbooks, security role definitions, data validation and testing materials, and functional decision records.
• Coordinate system integration, end-to-end, and user acceptance testing; manage defect triage and resolution with the implementation partner.
• Develop and deliver end-user training and change management activities across decentralized campus research administration offices.

• Serve as the primary functional owner of the ERA platform after go-live, including configuration maintenance, security administration, user provisioning, and resolution of escalated user issues.
• Manage vendor's SaaS release cycle impacts by assessing functional changes, coordinating regression testing, and communicating updates to campus users.
• Monitor ERA data quality and integration activity, resolve exceptions, and support ongoing reporting needs.
• Maintain end-user documentation and training resources, and identify opportunities to improve processes, configuration, and user experience after…