Research Accountant II

Engineering a world of possibilities

As our next Research Accountant II, you will be responsible for the expense management of research grants and contracts in the Office of Research Administration (ORA). This position is key to the research team and serves as a resource to faculty and administrators regarding the financial administration of sponsored research awards. Essential duties include the set-up of new awards in the financial system, expense and account monitoring, financial reporting, financial closeout and other post-award financial analysis and support for sponsored awards.

As a Research Accountant, you will interpret federal, state and School terms and advise Mines’ research community on their application. This position requires critical thinking skills to apply regulatory interpretation to sponsored activity. You will also be responsible for independently compiling, analyzing, and presenting financial data. You will work with campus constituents including faculty and staff to manage and reconcile sponsored activity.

This position is currently hybrid; the successful candidate must commute to campus in Golden, Colorado on a regular basis.

Primary Responsibilities

Award Set-Up and Modifications

• Transactional responsibilities include: create new research accounts and amend existing accounts in the School’s financial system and ORA’s enterprise project tracking system.  Utilize information obtained from the legal agreement, proposal documents and other project related documents. Decides appropriate financial codes to input into the School’s financial system to accurately administer and monitor awards in accordance with federal regulations, sponsor terms and conditions, and School policy.
• Serve as subject expert for Sponsor agreement format, financial terms and conditions to be able to perform setup appropriately and provide consultation.

Award Financial Monitoring

• Monitor, review and reconcile award budgets, balances and expenses.   This includes deficit monitoring and expense review both pre-expenditure and post-expenditure. Expenses must be allowable, allocable, and reasonable in accordance with grant terms and conditions, the budget limits and period of performance.
• This position will work with the other ORA staff (i.e. Contract Administrators) to review deficit spending requests (currently, At-Risk Spending Requests) to determine if the financial risk to the School is acceptable under current policy and practices.
• Review, approve, and perform transactional salary redistributions and journal entries as needed to ensure proper expenditure accounting.
• Identify, investigate and resolve discrepancies or errors found within research accounts. Resolution will require coordination with the applicable faculty members, ORA staff members, other departments and/or project sponsor, as applicable. 
• When allowed under the terms and conditions of the agreement, the Research Accountant will approve faculty requests for no-cost time extensions, budget deviations, and pre-award spending.
• Assist the Property Manager in the Controller’s Office to ensure all equipment is titled, accounted and tagged properly within School systems and per regulations.
• Develop and/or update ad-hoc reports using data from Workday, Cognos or other database applications for tracking, diagnostic and financial analysis of sponsored activity.
• Develop templates to improve and expedite financial administration of awards (i.e., tuition proportionate to salary calculation, re-budgeting, closeout workbook, etc.)
• Develop and improve effective business practices, standing operating procedures as it relates to award financial monitoring.
• Serve as subject expert on the financial monitoring of awards

Award Reporting

• Prepares and accurately submits required financial reports within sponsoring agency timeframes. This position will analyze the financial statements, supporting documentation and other necessary information for each research account to ensure accurate financial reports are submitted.
• Prepares and accurately submits required non-financial reports within sponsoring agency timeframes. This includes Property Reports, Patent Reports, Cost Share reports, etc.
• Utilize School systems, such as Workday, Cognos and ORA’s project software, to extract data needed for required reporting. Successfully navigate sp