Senior Manager of Grantmaking

The Senior Manager of Grantmaking is primarily responsible for building and managing a team of grants management professionals that deliver operational excellence, strengthen the applicant experience, and advance the Foundation's mission.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) was founded in 2000 with one clear objective: accelerating meaningful therapeutic advances and, ultimately, a cure for Parkinson’s disease (PD). The Foundation applies extraordinary scientific, business and media assets to this singular focus—thus creating a unique and dynamic organization. Since inception, MJFF has quickly grown into the largest nonprofit funder of Parkinson’s disease research, having funded over $2 billion in research projects in both academic and industry labs worldwide.

Core to our philosophy is how we think of our capital and its risk profile relative to other stakeholders in the drug development pipeline. We work aggressively to de‑risk various therapeutic strategies and tools in the hopes of building a robust pipeline of new treatments for patients. In order to achieve our mission of finding a cure for PD it is critical that we engage with, and bring together, members of the PD community including researchers, physicians, health professionals and most important, people with Parkinson's and their families.

We believe that to find a cure for PD as quickly as possible, our capital needs to push research forward today—we therefore deliberately hold no endowment or excessive reserves. We instead seek to deploy funds raised as quickly and wisely as possible. MJFF raises over $100 million annually. Today, the Foundation has approximately 300 full‑time employees. We offer a collegial and collaborative environment where optimistic problem‑solvers and entrepreneurial, resourceful individuals can thrive and make a tangible difference for millions of people living with Parkinson’s disease.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (“the Foundation”) is seeking top talent for its Senior Manager of Grantmaking position. This position is focused on supporting the Grant Operations function within the Research Operations department. The department occupies a uniquely interconnected position within the organization, partnering with programmatic teams and collaborating across departments to facilitate grantmaking, grants administration and program operations management in support of the Foundation’s mission.

This role is primarily responsible for building and managing a team of grants management professionals that deliver operational excellence, strengthen the applicant experience, and advance the Foundation's mission. This position includes continuously monitoring and refining internal processes to reduce burden, enhance usability and ensure efficient grantmaking operations. This role is also focused on ensuring compliance with grantmaking policies, developing comprehensive documentation and procedures and maintaining effective communication with grantees and researchers.

This is a hybrid‑flex position that may require in‑person attendance at the Foundation’s office in New York City.

Ensure team adherence to grantmaking policies and contribute to policy development that will position the Foundation as state‑of‑the‑field based on operational insights.

Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation of the Foundation’s grantmaking policies and procedures to guide and enhance grantee awareness & compliance.

Maintain and expand existing knowledge library of templates, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and other internal guidance documents in support of efficient staff onboarding and ongoing training.

Conduct regular compliance reviews and implement corrective actions as needed.

Leverage learnings from communication with the Foundation’s researcher community to drive continuous process improvement; support special projects to enhance the Foundation’s grantmaking processes as required.

Manage day‑to‑day grantmaking operations and make decisions regarding workflow prioritization and resource…