Director-Office of Sponsored Programs

Job Overview

The Director of the Sponsored Programs Office provides institutional leadership for the full lifecycle of externally sponsored projects, including pre-award development, submission, post-award administration, compliance oversight, financial monitoring, reporting coordination, and closeout.

Reporting to the Provost, this position serves as the college's primary resource for faculty and academic staff pursuing external funding and helps ensure that sponsored activities align with institutional priorities, college policies, sponsor requirements, and applicable federal and state regulations.

This is a full-time position and pays $70,000- $80,000 annually based on experience.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and administrative oversight for the Sponsored Programs Office, including daily operations, strategic priorities, and effective support for externally funded projects across the institution.

• Serve as the primary institutional resource for faculty and academic staff seeking external grant funding, offering guidance from opportunity identification through award closeout.

• Assist faculty with proposal development, including project planning, timelines, sponsor-specific documentation, and coordination of required institutional approvals.

• Review sponsor guidelines, requests for proposals, and application instructions to advise applicants on eligibility, budget restrictions, compliance obligations, and institutional requirements.

• Advise applicants on budget development, including direct and indirect costs, matching funds, in-kind contributions, personnel effort, teaching load reductions, and faculty, staff, and student compensation.

• Review grant submissions for compliance with sponsor, agency, and college requirements and serve as the college's Authorized Organizational Representative for designated electronic proposal submissions.

• Provide preliminary review of grant-related memoranda of understanding, award contracts, subaward documents, consultant agreements, and collaborative project agreements in coordination with Wheaton's legal team.

• Coordinate award setup and communicate award terms, approved budgets, reporting deadlines, and allowable-cost requirements to principal investigators and relevant campus offices.

• Collaborate with Accounting to ensure grant fund accounts are properly established, overhead costs are correctly calculated and allocated, reimbursement requests are completed appropriately, and financial records are maintained in accordance with institutional and sponsor requirements.

• Monitor grant expenditures in collaboration with Accounting and principal investigators to help ensure costs are allowable, allocable, reasonable, and properly documented, and provide monthly financial reports to awardees as appropriate.

• Oversee compliance with applicable federal and state laws, sponsor requirements, Uniform Guidance, federal cost principles, conflic...