Senior Manager of Research Development

Job Description The Institute for Protein Design's (IPD) has an outstanding opportunity for Senior Manager of Research Development to join their team.

About this Opportunity This position reports to the Director of Translational Research with a dotted-line relationship to IPD Leadership The Sr. Manager of Research Development leads the Institute for Protein Design's (IPD) research development enterprise, overseeing both the organization of inbound research projects and the strategic management and oversight of the Institute’s sponsored research portfolio. This position serves as the Institute's scientific proposal coordinator and oversees the development of high-impact grant applications, corporate-sponsored research proposals, center applications, annual reports, and other strategic research documents that secure external funding and advance IPD's scientific mission.

Working closely with IPD Leadership, Principal Investigators (PIs), and scientific staff, the Sr. Manager engages with projects at the stage of proposal development. This role assists the Director of Strategy and Director of Translational Research in coordinating with IPD scientists on structural and operational needs to meet proposal goals, and then works with the IPD Project Management (PM) team on those objectives when funding is secured.

Beyond proposal coordination, the Sr. Manager oversees IPD's active research portfolio, ensuring effective stewardship of sponsored awards through project oversight, high-quality progress reporting, and sponsor engagement. The Sr. Manager supervises IPDs Grants, and Project Management teams and works closely with post-award staff who support the administrative, financial, and compliance aspects of sponsored research.

Position Complexities:

This position operates in a highly dynamic, interdisciplinary research environment where scientific excellence, strategic thinking, and exceptional communication directly influence institutional funding success.

The role requires rapidly synthesizing complex scientific concepts spanning computational protein design, artificial intelligence and machine learning, structural biology, experimental biology, protein therapeutics, vaccines, agriculture, sustainability, advanced materials, and translational research into persuasive, scientifically rigorous proposals tailored to diverse funding audiences.

This role will supervise a growing team of eight project managers and grant managers. The role will be required to bring the teams together for seamless management of pre- and post-award grant management. It will also closely collaborate with the IPD Finance and administrative teams.

The Sr. Manager simultaneously manages multiple large-scale proposal efforts, active sponsored projects, and strategic initiatives with competing deadlines driven by federal funding announcements, foundation cycles, industry opportunities, and philanthropic priorities. Success requires balancing sponsor expectations and institutional priorities, while coordinating faculty, scientists, collaborators, and staff across complex, multi-investigator programs.

Position Dimensions and Impact to the University:

This position has institute-wide impact by directly increasing IPD's ability to secure and manage external research funding.

The Sr. Manager ensures that the Institute is prepared and capable to deliver on fast moving, high impact, research programs and projects essential for our scientific impact and corporate, national, and global partnerships. Successful proposal development and subsequent strong performance and oversight of research programs directly supports the University of Washington's research mission by increasing extramural funding, expanding interdisciplinary…