Job Details

Director, Pre-Award Office

Position Number: 6927945
Location: Salt Lake City, UT
Position Type: Sponsored Programs, Grants, and Contracts

Director, Pre-Award Office

Job Summary

The Vice President for Research (VPR) Office in partnership with the Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Office seeks a Director to lead the University of Utah Pre-Award Office, a centralized unit that supports investigators across main campus and the health sciences in the preparation and submission of extramural funding proposals.

The mission of the Pre-Award Office is to assist investigators with the preparation and submission of applications for extramural funding. Services include researching funding opportunities; initiating and managing applications; providing instructions and compliance checklists; assisting with budget development; reviewing proposal materials for accuracy, clarity, and compliance; and coordinating with the Office of Sponsored Projects for submission. The Pre-Award Office serves select departments and colleges across both main campus and the health sciences and continues to expand its scope of support in response to institutional growth.

The Director of the Pre-Award Office provides strategic and operational leadership for a growing, high-volume pre-award organization, ensuring consistent, compliant, and investigator-centric services while scaling support to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding research enterprise. Reporting jointly to the Associate Vice President for Research (AVPR) and the Executive Director for the Health Sciences Research Office, the Director partners closely with research leadership and administration (example: OSP), colleges, and departments to advance institutional research goals. Within the first 12-24 months, the Director will be expected to scale pre-award services in line with growth opportunities, strengthen relationships with colleges/units, advance consistent training and best practices, and continue to position the Pre-Award Office as a trusted strategic partner in proposal preparation and submission across the University.

Learn more about the great benefits of working for University of Utah: benefits.utah.edu
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Responsibilities
Primary responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to, the following:

Provide strategic and operational leadership for pre-award services across main campus and the health sciences, including defining service models, workflows, staffing structures, performance standards, and scalable processes that support a growing research enterprise.
Direct and manage the Pre-Award Office team, including recruitment, onboarding, training, mentoring, workload balancing, and performance management, to ensure a high-functioning, professional, and sustainable organization.
Oversee the preparation, review, and submission of foundation-, and government-sponsored extramural proposals, ensuring accuracy, compliance, competitiveness, and timeliness across a broad sponsor portfolio.
Guide proposal planning and feasibility assessment, including review of sponsor guidelines, timelines, and institutional requirements, and advising investigators and units on submission readiness and risk mitigation.
Ensure high-quality review of proposal components for compliance, clarity, and alignment with sponsor and institutional expectations, while establishing clear boundaries and expectations regarding scope of service.
Serve as a key liaison between research leadership, colleges, departments, faculty, administrators, the Office of Sponsored Projects, and other central offices to ensure alignment of pre-award operations with institutional strategy.
Cultivate investigator-centric service models that balance high-quality support with transparent expectations, consistent service delivery, and sustainable workloads.
Inform and advance University best practices in pre-award operations, including the development and delivery of training programs for research administrators and campus partners.
Advise university leadership on pre-award operations, and emerging issues related to research growth, regulatory complexity, and service expansion across academic and health sciences environments.
Assess and report on service effectiveness, including conducting periodic service satisfaction surveys of research leadership, colleges, departments, investigators, and administrators, and developing reports and recommendations as requested.
Perform related duties in support of the University's research mission, as assigned by the AVPR.

Minimum Qualifications
EQUIVALENCY STATEMENT: 1 year of higher education can be substituted for 1 year of directly related work experience (Example: bachelor's degree = 4 years of directly related work experience).
Director, Grant Development Management: Requires a bachelor's (or equivalency) + 12 years or a master's (or equivalency) + 10 years of directly related work experience.

Preferences

Experience leading pre-award services at the departmental, unit, college, or institutional level within a research-intensive university.
Demonstrated success managing and developing professional staff, including recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and change leadership.
Experience working across broad sponsor portfolios, including federal agencies (e.g., NIH, NSF, DoD, NEH, DoT), foundations, and industry.
Strong organizational, analytical, and process-improvement skills, with the ability to manage fluctuating proposal volumes and competing deadlines.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with faculty, administrators, and research leadership.

Special Instructions

Requisition Number: PRN44281B
Full Time or Part Time? Full Time
Work Schedule Summary: The schedule for this role will typically be Monday-Friday & standard VPR business hours of 8:00am-5:00pm. This position leads an external grant assistance team. Some nights and weekends may be required based on deadlines of external grants and needs of the business. This is a hybrid position with a required 2-3 days in office, on campus. No fully-remote option is available.
Department: 02111 - Pre-Award Research Support
Location: Campus
Pay Rate Range: $75,398 - $128,889
Close Date: 4/13/2026
Open Until Filled:

To apply, visit https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/196504