Financial Assurance Manager - Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development - UTK

The Financial Assurance Manager in the Sponsored Projects Accounting (SPA) unit provides leadership and expertise to strengthen financial stewardship, compliance, and audit readiness across the sponsored projects life cycle. This role supports institutional and sponsor compliance requirements by monitoring risk areas, interpreting regulations and award terms, and partnering with departments to promote consistent, well-controlled financial practices.  In addition, the manager leads policy development and implementation, oversees testing of departmental controls, and drives training and outreach to ensure campus partners understand and can apply compliance expectations. The role also serves as audit liaison, coordinating responses to audits and monitoring reviews in a timely, consistent, and well-documented manner, and uses trends and results to guide continuous improvement.  When issues are identified, the manager develops and oversees corrective action plans.  The Manager supervises two Financial Assurance Officers, ensuring high-quality work, clear priorities, and a strong service-oriented approach in support of the university’s research mission.

Lead the financial assurance program for UTK and UTSI sponsored projects:

• Designs, develops, and implements a risk-based financial compliance monitoring program for sponsored projects, including defining scope, methodology, work plans, documentation standards, and reporting cadence across the award life cycle.
• Benchmarks peer institutions’ and federal agencies’ compliance programs to identify best practices and inform the development of scalable, risk-based monitoring frameworks, tools, and platforms.
• Stays abreast of evolving federal regulations and sponsor guidance impacting sponsored project financial management; interprets requirements and translates them into clear, actionable institutional expectations.
• Partners with IT and data/reporting teams to develop compliance dashboards and exception reports, including requirements gathering, validation/testing, and continuous enhancement to improve monitoring accuracy and usability.
• Leads policy and procedure development related to sponsored projects financial compliance, including drafting guidance, coordinating stakeholder review, supporting implementation, and communicating updates to campus partners.
• Serves as the primary coordinator for sponsored projects audit/monitoring requests, coordinating information gathering, ensuring timely, consistent, and well-supported responses; tracks trends and uses results to inform corrective actions and risk mitigation strategies.
• Conducts departmental financial compliance reviews of internal controls, assessing documentation, approvals, allowability/allocability practices, and timeliness; communicates results and works with departments to develop and track corrective action plans.

People Management and Talent Development

• Leads and manages two professionals, fostering a collaborative, service-oriented culture and ensuring consistent execution of responsibilities across the sponsored projects life cycle.
• Recruits, interviews, and hires staff, including developing position requirements and coordinating selection processes.
• Plans and delivers structured onboarding, ensuring new employees understand unit expectations, key policies/procedures, customer service standards, and role-specific workflows.
• Develops and oversees training and cross-training plans to strengthen coverage, reduce single points of failure, and support continuity during peak periods and staff transitions.
• Sets clear priorities and communicates work expectations, translating leadership direction into actionable team deliverables, timelines, and service-level goals; monitors progress and rebalances workload as needed.
• Evaluates performance and provides ongoing coaching, including establishing performance goals, delivering feedback, conducting formal evaluations, and addressing performance issues in a timely, constructive manner.
• Provides oversight and complex decision support, resolving escalated issues, guiding staff through high-risk or high-impact situations, and ensuring decisions align with compliance requirements, policy, and institutional risk tolerance while supporting individual development and team goals.

Training:

• Plans and executes stakeholder engagement and change management for program rollout, including identifying stakeholder groups, gathering input, addressing concerns, and supporting consistent adoption across departments.
• Creates and maintains training communications and resources, such as job aids, guides, FAQs, quick-reference tools, templates, and recorded demos to support ongoing learning and self-service.
• Evaluates training effectiveness and continuously improves materials, using feedback, monitoring results, audit trends, and common issues to refine messaging, strengthen understanding, and reduce repeat compliance findings.

Communications:

• Develops and executes communication and outreach strategies to effectively engage faculty, principal investigators, and departmental staff on sponsored projects financial compliance expectations, resources, and service updates.
• Drafts and distributes timely stakeholder communications regarding changes to institutional policy, sponsor terms and conditions, and applicable regulations, translating requirements into clear, actionable guidance for campus partners.
• Issues formal notifications when compliance concerns or violations are identified, coordinating with appropriate offices to ensure messaging is accurate, consistent, well-documented, and aligned with established escalation and resolution processes.
• Represents the division in meetings, working groups, and committees, providing subject-matter input, communicating unit priorities, and ensuring two-way communication between stakeholders and Sponsored Projects Accounting.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree
• Experience: 
  • Six years of Sponsored Projects Accounting (Grants & Contract) experience OR eight years of related work experience with background in accounting, auditing, risk assessment or regulatory compliance.  
  • Must have experience with computer systems, including spreadsheet software (such as MS Office).  
  • Must have three years prior supervisory oversight of personnel.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities: 
  • Knowledge of research administration issues including financial management and the ability to interpret and communicate federal, state, and local laws and regulations relevant to research administration operations, policies, and procedures.
  • Knowledge of Uniform Guidance, Federal Acquisition Regulations, and granting agency requirements
  • Ability to communicate effectively, including active listening skills, plus the ability to work with a diverse group of faculty, staff, administrators, and other stakeholders.
  • Ability to be detail-oriented with strong organizational and problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to be flexible, have sound judgment with an open and collaborative style of leadership that encourages teamwork and cooperation. 
  • Ability to provide excellent customer service with a commitment to exceptional quality.
  • Ability to be an independent analytically, quantitatively, creatively, and strategically thinker with skepticism.
  • Ability to be a team player who works well collectively and collaboratively with colleagues to achieve common goals.
  • Knowledge of Microsoft Office
  • Ability to use judgment skills in the determining compliance and the knowledge to implement process to mitigate the risk
  • Ability to develop and conduct training
  • Supervisory skills to be a role model, lead, coach and professionally develop staff

Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without need now or in the future for sponsorship for employment-based visa status.

Preferred Qualifications

• Education: Master’s Degree, Certified Research Administrator or Certified Professional Accountant
• Experience: 
  • SAP experience
  • Experience in higher education administration with knowledge of federal cost accounting principles
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 
  • Experience in higher education administration with knowledge of federal cost accounting principles
  • Knowledge of UT fiscal, human resource, and research policies
  • Knowledge of IRIS and Cayuse

Work Location 

• Location: Knoxville
• Hybrid with occasional in-person requirements
• Applicant must live in Knoxville or within a commutable distance 

Compensation and Benefits 

UT market range:  MR15

• Anticipated hiring range: 
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
• Find more information on UT Benefits here

Application Instructions 

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. 

• Resume
• Cover Letter

About The College/Department/Division 

Here at the University of Tennessee, thousands of world-class faculty, staff, students and postdoctoral fellows are engaged in research, scholarship and creative work on a daily basis. With a shared commitment to creating a more just, prosperous, and sustainable world for the citizens of Tennessee and communities far beyond, the UT community is creating new knowledge and generating solutions to some of the most challenging issues of our time.

The Office of Research, Innovation & Economic Development is here to support you, our community of researchers, scholars and creatives, from ideation to impact. Our dedicated team is here to help you develop competitive proposals and sources of support for your work, seed investments in promising new areas, nurture new and established multidisciplinary communities of scholars and support and sustain a strong culture of research integrity.

The university’s strategic relationships with corporate, venture, community, non-profit and government partners help extend the impact of our community’s work across the state and around the world. In collaboration with these partners, we are working to establish Tennessee as a go-to destination for cutting-edge research, innovation and a skilled workforce.

We understand that a creative, productive, and empowered community of researchers, scholars, and creatives is critical to the university’s future as a world-renowned research institution.