Director Post-Award Research Administration

About this role

SHIFT:
Day (United States of America)Seeking Breakthrough Makers

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) offers countless ways to change lives. Our diverse community of more than 20,000 Breakthrough Makers will inspire you to pursue passions, develop expertise, and drive innovation.

At CHOP, your experience is valued; your voice is heard; and your contributions make a difference for patients and families. Join us as we build on our promise to advance pediatric care—and your career.

CHOP does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, or any other legally protected categories in any employment, training, or vendor decisions or programs. CHOP recognizes the critical importance of a workforce rich in varied backgrounds and experiences and engages in ongoing efforts to achieve that through equally varied and non-discriminatory means.

A Brief Overview
The Director, Post-Award Research Administration & Research Portfolio Management, serves as a strategic and operational leader responsible for ensuring excellence in financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, workforce capability, technology optimization, and service delivery across all post-award functions at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute (CHOP RI).
The Director is accountable for ensuring operational transparency, advancing institutional strategy, maintaining compliance integrity, and fostering a high-performing workforce while promoting an investigator-centric service model with clear expectations for responsiveness, clarity, and partnership. This role is integral to advancing CHOP's enterprise strategic plan, including world-leading research-driven precision medicine, financial resilience, workforce-of-the-future development, and implementation of a next-generation operating model.
Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Research Administration & Operations (SVPRAO), the Director partners closely with the Directors of Research Business Operations (RBO), Specialized Accounting, Pre-Award, Research Compliance, Clinical Research Contracts & Subaward Administration, Clinical Trial Financial Management, Research Contracts, and Finance Technology and oversees a team of 47 FTEs executing the core post-award and portfolio management functions. The Director does not manage an individual portfolio; instead, they provide strategic oversight of the portfolio management framework and are accountable for the performance, capability, and service quality of the Post-Award team.
The Director is responsible for (but not limited to) ensuring that the fiscal administration of CHOPRI Principal Investigators' extramural and intramural research portfolios are managed and executed in accordance with industry best practices and regulatory guidelines as stipulated by federal, state and local entities as well as CHOP policies and guidelines. This dynamic position will partner regularly with faculty, researchers and early-career investigators and liaise with the leadership and staff across the CHOP enterprise key business areas in Research Administration, Finance, Practice Plans, Human Resources, Supply Chain, Internal Audit, Centers of Emphasis, and the six (6) academic departments.

What you will do

• Strategic Leadership & Partnership

• Provide strategic leadership to ensure Post-Award operations directly advance CHOP’s enterprise strategy and Research Institute priorities.

• Serving as subject-matter expert on Uniform Guidance, NIH Grant Policy Statement, and other regulatory rules, as they relate to post-award and ensure compliance with all grant regulatory requirements.

• Ensuring operational transparency, advancing institutional strategy, maintaining compliance integrity, and fostering a high-performing workforce.

• Collaborate closely with the SVPRA-O, RBO Director to align Post-Award operations, workforce strategy, process standardization, and automation/AI-enabled modernization, while maintaining clear delineation of responsibilities.

• Ensure Post-Award services support CHOP’s strategic imperatives:

• World-leading research-driven precision medicine by enabling timely, accurate financial and administrative support for complex research portfolios.

• Workforce of the future by building a high-performing, inclusive, and development-oriented Post-Award team.

• New business models by supporting financial stewardship, sustainable grant revenue management, and risk-aware operational practices.

• Next-generation operating model by promoting standardization, scalability, automation, and resiliency across Post-Award processes. Leads and promotes enhancement, installation of new electronic systems, and lead technology optimization efforts to advance post-award portfolio management activities.

• Represent Senior Vice President in institutional forums, committees, and governance structures related to research operations, policy, compliance, and systems.

• Portfolio Management Oversight

• Provide strategic oversight of the Research Institute’s entire post-award portfolio consisting of grants funded by the federal government (i.e., NIH, DoD, NSF, HRSA), state, city, philanthropy, and internal grants, ensuring consistent, high-quality support across the entire grants lifecycle (setup, monitoring, reporting, and closeout).

• Ensure that day-to-day portfolio management post-award grants lifecycle activities are performed by Senior Managers, Managers, and RBAs I–III; the Director does not carry an individual portfolio.

• Oversee portfolio assignment principles, workload distribution, and alignment of staff capacity with award complexity, risk, and department needs.

• Monitor portfolio-level trends (e.g., burn rates, overdrafts, compliance flags, late reports, frequent adjustments) and drive systemic interventions to reduce risk and administrative burden.

• Ensure clear communication channels and escalation pathways exist between investigators, departments, and Post-Award staff.

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