Grant Program Manager - Future Ready Graduates

Job Profile:

Administrative Operations Specialist 3

Job Family:

Administrative Operations

Time Type:

Full time

Apply before 11:59 PM Arizona time the day before the posted End Date.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree and five (5) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.

Job Profile Summary:
Supports and instructs those served by the department with complex queries, applies specialized knowledge of multiple standards, policies and procedures, and maintains accurate and detailed records.

Job Description:

Salary Range: $75,000 - $85,000 per year; DOE

About the University Innovation Alliance

The University Innovation Alliance is a national coalition of public research universities working together to improve student success and post graduate economic mobility, particularly for low-income students, first-generation college students, and students of color. UIA member institutions collaborate to design, test, refine, and scale practices that help more students persist, graduate, and successfully transition from college to careers. In 2025, the UIA aligned on expanded impact goals. One of the expanded goals is focused on improving value and mobility for students. The future ready graduates initiative is a direct result of the UIA now focusing on student success beyond degree completion. The UIA has secured 2 grant projects under this initiative and anticipates securing another 2 in the next year.

About Future Ready Graduates

Future Ready Graduates is UIA’s portfolio of work focused on helping member institutions expand and improve the number of work based learning experiences available to students to support their career preparation and employment outcomes. Current FRG projects are focused on work integrated learning redesign (focus on internships and project based learning) and student employment redesign leveraging a partnership with the Work + team at ASU. Through coordinated grant-funded initiatives, UIA supports campuses in redesigning student experiences, improving access to meaningful paid opportunities, strengthening employer partnerships, and connecting work-based learning more directly to persistence, completion, and career outcomes.

Position Summary

The Grant Program Manager, Future Ready Graduates is responsible for the day-to-day delivery, implementation, coordination, and program management of UIA’s Future Ready Graduates grant portfolio. The position will initially manage delivery of two active awards and may assume responsibility for up to two additional awards.

The Program Manager will coordinate participating campuses, partners, consultants, employers, and internal UIA contributors to ensure that project activities are completed on time, meet funder commitments, and achieve the expected level of quality. This role will maintain project plans, monitor campus progress, facilitate meetings and events, organize employer feedback processes, maintain accurate records in Salesforce and Google Drive, and represent program implementation during funder meetings and written updates.

The ideal candidate is a highly organized and collaborative program manager who can manage multiple grants and campus workstreams simultaneously. This person will be skilled at setting clear expectations, holding partners accountable, identifying risks early, and helping campus teams translate project requirements into practical implementation.

This position offers the flexibility of fully remote work, with approximately 25% travel required. Arizona residency is not required.

Key Responsibilities

Grant Portfolio Management

• Manage the implementation and operations of two active Future Ready Graduates awards, with the potential to manage up to two additional related awards.
• Translate grant agreements, workplans, budgets, milestones, and funder commitments into coordinated implementation plans.
• Develop and maintain project plans that identify activities, owners, deadlines, dependencies, decision points, and required deliverables.
• Monitor implementation across all assigned awards and provide regular updates on progress, risks, delays, and resource needs.
• Ensure work is delivered on time, within the approved scope, and at the level of quality expected by UIA and its funding partners.
• Coordinate overlapping activities and shared deliverables across awards so that the Future Ready Graduates portfolio operates as a cohesive body of work.
• Support grant launch, implementation, reporting, evaluation, dissemination, and closeout activities.

Campus Implementation and Accountability

• Serve as a primary point of contact for campus teams participating in assigned Future Ready Graduates projects.
• Lead campus onboarding and establish clear expectations for participation, implementation, reporting, and deliverable quality.
• Help campuses translate grant requirements into campus-specific implementation plans, milestones, and workstreams.
• Monitor progress toward campus deliverables and follow up regularly to address missed deadlines, incomplete work, or implementation barriers.
• Review campus submissions and project materials for completeness, alignment, and quality.
• Coordinate coaching, technical assistance, and problem-solving support with ASU Work+, consultants, evaluators, and other subject-matter experts.
• Maintain regular communication with campus leads and ensure institutional teams remain engaged throughout the project period.

Employer Engagement and Feedback Loops

• Work with UIA colleagues and campus teams to recruit and engage employers as project advisors, co-design partners, and sources of ongoing feedback.
• Establish and maintain structured employer feedback loops across the Future Ready Graduates portfolio.
• Plan employer listening sessions, validation meetings, feedback activities, and other engagement opportunities.
• Ensure employer perspectives inform program design, student journey redesign, implementation testing, and refinement.
• Document employer feedback and help campus teams translate it into actionable program or system improvements.
• Track how employer input influences campus decisions and project outcomes. Employer feedback is intended to be embedded throughout the redesign cycle, including discovery, prototype validation, implementation, and planning for scale.

Meetings, Convenings, and Project Events

• Plan and coordinate project-based meetings, campus working sessions, communities of practice, workshops, employer sessions, and in-person convenings.
• Develop agendas, participant materials, timelines, run-of-show documents, and follow-up communications.
• Facilitate selected meetings and working sessions and coordinate facilitation by ASU Work+, consultants, or other partners.
• Organize cross-campus learning opportunities that allow institutions to compare progress, troubleshoot barriers, and refine their approaches.
• Coordinate event logistics in partnership with UIA’s Campus Engagement & Events Manager and operations staff.
• Capture decisions, action items, and follow-up responsibilities after project meetings.

Funder Engagement and Reporting

• Prepare updates, project summaries, briefing materials, and talking points for funder meetings.
• Maintain documentation needed to demonstrate progress against funder commitments.
• Identify risks or changes that may require early communication, funder guidance, or formal approval.
• Support preparation of continuation requests, change requests, final reports, and grant-closeout materials.

Project Records and Knowledge Management

• Maintain complete, accurate, and current project records in Salesforce and Google Drive.
• Establish and maintain a clear folder structure, naming conventions, version-control practices, and documentation standards.
• Record campus participation, meetings, milestones, deliverables, decisions, risks, employer engagement, and follow-up activities in Salesforce.
• Ensure key documents, reports, workplans, participant materials, and final deliverables are stored consistently and accessible to the appropriate team members.
• Maintain project calendars, trackers, contact lists, reporting schedules, and shared implementation tools.
• Support development of standard templates and processes that can be used across the Future Ready Graduates portfolio.

Progress Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Capture

• Track progress toward grant milestones, deliverables, campus participation targets, and intended outcomes.
• Coordinate collection of implementation updates, participation data, feedback, and supporting documentation from campuses and partners.
• Work with evaluators and internal partners to ensure campuses understand data requirements and submit information on schedule.
• Identify common implementation barriers, promising practices, and conditions that influence success across participating institutions.
• Help translate project learning into case studies, playbooks, implementation guides, employer-feedback resources, and other materials for broader diffusion.
• Support final evaluation, synthesis, dissemination, and planning for scale.
• Design and develop evaluation frameworks, data collection instruments, templates, surveys, interview protocols, rubrics, dashboards, and reporting processes that enable campuses to consistently collect, analyze, and use implementation and outcome data.
• Design AI-enabled workflows that transform complex institutional data into actionable insights, scalable evaluation processes, and decision-making resources.

The Future Ready Graduates work plan calls for shared resources such as campus case studies, dashboard guidance, employer feedback-loop templates, implementation guidance, and a strategy for broader diffusion.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Work across UIA’s program, learning, development, finance, operations, communications, and campus-engagement functions.
• Establish clear ownership, review processes, and deadlines for work requiring contributions from multiple teams.
• Coordinate with the Business Operations & Finance Manager on budgets, campus stipends, contracts, and grant-related financial processes.
• Coordinate with communications staff on external storytelling, case studies, dissemination, and project visibility.
• Perform other duties as assigned in support of Future Ready Graduates and UIA’s student-success portfolio.

Desired Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in higher education, education, workforce development, nonprofit management, public administration, project management, or a related field.
• 3-5 years of relevant experience in program management, grant implementation, higher education, workforce development, student success, or a related area.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple complex projects or grants with overlapping milestones and stakeholder groups.
• Strong experience managing workplans, deliverables, deadlines, risks, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Ability to hold partners and participating teams accountable while maintaining constructive, collaborative relationships.
• Experience organizing and facilitating meetings, convenings, workshops, or communities of practice.
• Excellent organizational skills, attention to detail, and follow-through.
• Ability to manage several active workstreams and adjust priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to work independently while maintaining consistent communication across a distributed team.
• Commitment to improving career readiness and postsecondary outcomes for students.
• Experience using Salesforce, Google Workspace, and project-management platforms.
• Experience working in a remote team environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with student employment, paid work-based learning, internships, career readiness, experiential learning, or employer engagement.
• Experience managing a portfolio of related grants or initiatives.
• Experience working with employer partners and developing structured feedback or advisory processes.
• Familiarity with design thinking, human-centered design, service design, process mapping, or journey mapping.
• Demonstrated experience leveraging AI tools to support institutional evaluation, research, evidence synthesis, and continuous improvement.

Working Environment:  

• Approximately 25% travel required.
• Climate-controlled office setting subject to extended periods of being in a stationary position. 
• Regular use of a computer and other office productivity equipment, such as a calculator, copy machine, and printer. 

Term of Appointment

This is a full-time, grant-funded position expected to continue for two years. Continuation throughout the two-year appointment is contingent upon satisfactory performance and the ongoing availability of grant funding. The position is not guaranteed to continue beyond the funded grant period.

Department Statement:

The University Innovation Alliance is a national coalition of public research universities working together to improve student success and post graduate economic mobility, particularly for low-income students, first-generation college students, and students of color. UIA member institutions collaborate to design, test, refine, and scale practices that help more students persist, graduate, and successfully transition from college to careers. In 2025, the UIA aligned on expanded impact goals. One of the expanded goals is focused on improving value and mobility for students. The future ready graduates initiative is a direct result of the UIA now focusing on student success beyond degree completion. The UIA has secured 2 grant projects under this initiative and anticipates securing another 2 in the next year. 

Driving Requirement:

Driving is not required for this position.

Location:

Off-Campus: Other AZ Locations

Funding:

Grant Funded

Instructions to Apply:

Current employees, student workers seeking staff opportunities, and students applying for student worker positions must apply directly through the Workday Jobs Hub.

To be considered, your application must include all of the following attachments:

• Cover letter
• Resume or CV

Multiple documents may be uploaded in the attachments section. Alternatively, applicants may combine all required materials into a single PDF for submission. Please ensure uploaded documents are clearly labeled and include your name.

Please ensure your resume includes all employment information in month and year format, for example 6/04 to 8/14, along with job title, job duties, and employer name for each position. Your resume should clearly demonstrate how your experience and background meet the minimum and desired qualifications for this position. Incomplete applications or missing required materials may not be considered.

Important: Do not withdraw your application to make edits. Once an application is withdrawn, it cannot be edited, reactivated, or replaced with a new submission. If you have questions or need assistance, please contact The Office of Human Resources Talent Acquisition before the posting close date.

Graduate Assistant, Intern and part-time positions are counted as half time for experience equivalency, meaning one year equals six months of experience.

Only electronic applications will be accepted for this position. By submitting an application, you confirm that the information provided is accurate and complete.

ASU Statement:

Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, entrepreneurial energy and broad access. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses positively impacting the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 100,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation's fifth largest city. ASU champions inclusive excellence, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations across the globe.

ASU is a tobacco-free university. For details visit https://wellness.asu.edu/explore-wellness/body/alcohol-and-drugs/tobacco

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

Notice of Availability of the ASU Annual Security and Fire Safety Report:

In compliance with federal law, ASU prepares an annual report on campus security and fire safety programs and resources. ASU’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report is available online at https://www.asu.edu/police/PDFs/ASU-Clery-Report.pdf. You may request a hard copy of the report by contacting the ASU Police Department at 480-965-3456.

Relocation Assistance – For information about schools, housing child resources, neighborhoods, hospitals, community events, and taxes, visit https://cfo.asu.edu/az-resources.

ASU’s comprehensive benefits package is a key part of your total compensation. Visit the ASU Compensation Estimator

Employment Verification Statement:

ASU conducts pre-employment screening which may include verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications.

Background Check Statement:

ASU conducts pre-employment screening for all positions which includes a criminal background check, verification of work history, academic credentials, licenses, and certifications. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the background check.

Fingerprint Check Statement:

This position is considered safety/security sensitive and will include a fingerprint check. Employment is contingent upon successful passing of the fingerprint check.