Grants Manager

Position Summary 

The Grants Manager will oversee the end-to-end application review lifecycle, including review planning, reviewer recruitment and assignment, reviewer training, conflict-of-interest controls, technical and administrative reviews, merit reviews, scoring quality assurance, data validation, progress reporting, and competition closeout. The position will ensure that applications are reviewed impartially, consistently, thoroughly, and in accordance with applicable funding announcements, evaluation criteria, scoring rubrics, confidentiality requirements, and established review procedures.

The successful candidate must have direct experience managing or supporting competitive grant reviews and formal merit-review processes. Experience reviewing programs or proposals involving economics, economic development, innovation, entrepreneurship, workforce development, or related areas is preferred. Familiarity with artificial intelligence technologies, AI workforce development, responsible AI, or technology commercialization is a plus.

Core Responsibilities 

• Lead the planning, execution, monitoring, and closeout of competitive grant and merit-review activities.
• Develop and manage review schedules, reviewer assignments, deliverables, quality controls, risks, and contingency plans.
• Interpret funding announcements, application requirements, evaluation criteria, and scoring rubrics and translate requirements into clear reviewer guidance.
• Recruit, vet, assign, onboard, and coordinate qualified reviewers and subject-matter experts.
• Facilitate reviewer training, calibration sessions, office hours, and other activities to promote consistent application of evaluation criteria.
• Manage technical, administrative, and formal merit reviews and monitor reviewer progress, workloads, completion rates, and deadlines.
• Manage conflict-of-interest, confidentiality, and reviewer-independence requirements and coordinate application reassignment when necessary.
• Review scores and narrative comments for completeness, consistency, evidence sufficiency, and compliance with established review procedures.
• Coordinate the validation, reconciliation, ranking, and reporting of application-review results and ensure accurate entry into designated grants management systems.
• Prepare review-status reports, management updates, scoring reports, dashboards, and final competition documentation.
• Conduct portfolio-level analysis to identify scoring trends, application strengths and weaknesses, risks, and other decision-support insights.
• Facilitate project meetings, progress briefings, issue resolution, debriefings, and knowledge-transfer activities.
• Maintain accurate, secure, confidential, and audit-ready grant-review records.
• Perform other grant-review, program-evaluation, and project-management duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications 

• Master's degree in Public Administration, Public Policy, Economics, Business Administration, Finance, Program Evaluation, Research, Data Analytics, Social Science, or a related field.
• Seven (7)+ years of progressively responsible experience in grants management, grant program operations, program evaluation, application review, research administration, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience supporting or managing competitive grant reviews.
• Demonstrated experience supporting, conducting, or managing formal merit reviews.
• Experience managing reviewer recruitment, assignments, training, conflicts of interest, application tracking, scoring, quality assurance, and reporting.
• Experience evaluating applications against established funding requirements, evaluation criteria, and scoring rubrics.
• Experience coordinating reviewers, subject-matter experts, analysts, or review panels in deadline-driven environments.
• Strong knowledge of competitive grantmaking practices, confidentiality requirements, reviewer independence, and defensible decision documentation.
• Strong analytical and quality-assurance skills, including experience validating quantitative and qualitative data and identifying scoring or documentation inconsistencies.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office and virtual collaboration/project-management tools.
• Experience working with electronic grants management, application review, workflow, or similar systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, organization, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment, impartiality, discretion, and professionalism when handling sensitive or proprietary information.
• Ability to work effectively and independently in a remote environment.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience supporting federal or state competitive grant programs.
• Experience evaluating grants related to economic development, entrepreneurship, innovation, workforce development, technology commercialization, or related areas.
• Experience leading multi-reviewer panels, reviewer calibration, portfolio analysis, or score normalization.
• Experience with Salesforce or comparable grants management platforms.
• Familiarity with artificial intelligence, AI workforce development, responsible AI, technology commercialization, or related emerging technologies.
• PMP, Certified Grants Management Specialist (CGMS), or comparable professional certification.