Senior Proposal Development Officer

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world.

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including: the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Costs and Cost Effectiveness; Local Burden of Disease; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.

IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which is cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.

IHME has an outstanding opportunity for a Senior Proposal Development Officer.
This role will manage proposal development for a wide variety of scientific topics related to population health through a range of potential funding mechanisms including competitive grants, contracts, and work for hire. The Senior Proposal Development Officer possesses a commanding knowledge of IHME’s interdisciplinary quantitative science to assess, evaluate, and contribute to the pursuance of strategic funding opportunities for proposal development. The Senior Proposal Development Officer must have a central understanding of the critical research objectives of IHME in order to translate complex scientific information into written proposals . This role sits on IHME’s Organizational Development and Training Team, in order to maximize the alignment between the individual’s work and the role that proposal development plays in the growth of the organization, its research streams, and in faculty development.

Traditional pre-award and post-award functions for grants administration are housed on IHME’s administrative team. This position is contingent upon project funding availability.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Research Learning
Maintain a commanding knowledge of the intellectual material and key analytic concepts that relate to the interdisciplinary quantitative science behind proposal ideas in order to clearly and concisely write about their scientific relevance, impact, objectives and key intellectual contributions. Stay up to date on IHME’s new and advancing research topics that span the fields of epidemiology, biostatistics, survey methodology, health economics, health system performance, demography, social determinants, computational algorithms, and others.
Maintain familiarity with and contribute suggestions for expanding IHME’s institutional partners, including academic research institutions, think tanks, clinical facilities, governmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations. Must demonstrate cultural competency and an ability to collaborate and work with a wide range of project team members.
Maintain familiarity and expand landscape of potential funding organizations including private foundations, individual philanthropists, government and inter-governmental agencies.
Direct Proposal Development Coordinator(s) and Proposal Development Officer(s) in performing literature reviews, background searches, collect and interpret data and information, read and understand complex scientific material, support proposal development, and to develop funder insights. Perform this work oneself, as needed.

Proposal Development
Quality control of proposal packages and alignment with IHME values of DEI, mission and 10-year vision.
Write high-quality interdisciplinary proposals for funding in conjunction with faculty, staff and project managers, including research descriptions, management plans, letters of intent, briefs, acknowledgments, presentations, and other communications.
Strategically frame research, training, engagement and dissemination activities at IHME in order to engage with potential donors and create opportunities for resource growth. Create summaries of key competencies, briefings, presentations, and related materials that distill the scientific content in ways that are understandable to a range of audiences in order to engage them in the content.
Translate complex scientific concepts and data into easily comprehensible language targeted to the reviewing audience.
Demonstrate command of central research objectives and related activities at IHME in order to strategically identify, assess, and recommend potential funding opportunities.
Recommend funding sources and specific proposals to IHME’s senior leadership for final authorization to pursue them following regular reviews of open funding opportunities at a range of donors to identify matches with IHME’s funding needs. Participate directly in scoping for resource allocation and the flow of activities when identifying and developing proposals, working directly with IHME senior leadership, faculty, and the leadership of functional and research teams when doing so.
Assist Chief Strategy and Operations Officer with drafting strategic planning objectives for expanded research activities that align with IHME’s plan of work, including assessing how potential opportunities connect with research goals, identifying appropriate institutional partners, and helping to develop coherent plans of work.

Project Management
Work with IHME’s Administrative team to identify and execute improved systems for communication and coordination on proposal and project tasks, to help further streamline and track IHME's growing number of proposals and smooth their transition into funded projects.
Maintain clear and transparent systems for setting and enforcing proposal deadlines. Manage content creation, review, and revision. Lead process improvement efforts within the team and broader Institute to ensure efficient and effective proposal prospecting and development.
Maintain familiarity with a range of funding mechanisms including competitive grants, contracts, and work for hire. Work with financial stewards to advise on how to fit the constraints of said mechanism with donor guidelines and parameters.
Develop and manage relationships with external partners who could collaborate in proposal development, such as partnering research institutions, government actors, foundations, and other potential research and engagement partners.
Serve as central resource for team to triage, delegate and direct proposal requests upon intake.

General
Advise faculty researchers, and operations staff on preparation of grant and contract proposals.
Provide constructive critique to faculty and other research team members suitable to strengthen proposal content. Recommend improvements in writing/editing policies, processes, and tools.
When needed, create and manage development of formats, templates, and general guidelines for grants management and workflow procedures. Maintain a library of materials needed during the grant writing process.
Take on other responsibilities as needed to assist the overall mission of IHME and in particular the objectives of the Organizational Development and Training Team.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
PhD plus a minimum of 2 years' experience in research and/or preparing and managing competitive proposals in higher education, research settings, or public/private organizations with a proven record of accomplishment in securing institutional funding from foundation, corporate and/or government sources OR a master’s degree and 4 years of relevant experience.
Demonstrated ability to communicate technical content in a clear, cogent, and concise manner.
Ability to understand highly complex scientific material and translate this information clearly to a general audience.
Ability to successfully seek grant opportunities and target funding streams consistent with institutional mission and priorities.
Strong organizational and record keeping skills.
Outstanding intellectual capability, problem solving abilities, and ability to learn complex content quickly and apply it to grant seeking and development.
Must possess excellent interpersonal, verbal and writing skills and the ability to develop positive relationships with external constituents as well as IHME colleagues.
Ability to work in a fast-paced and collaborative environment to manage multiple priorities while coordinating resources needed to meet deadlines. Weekend or evening hours may be required in order to meet these deadlines.
Supervise Proposal Development Coordinator and Officer positions on the team. Support team development and strengthening by creating and implementing systems and opportunities to promote effective communication, skills development, and navigation of organizational complexities among all team members with attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Other duties as assigned.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Working knowledge of global health and development issues is optimal.
Strong understanding of IHME’s global public goods and analytical
approaches

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
Appointment to this position is contingent upon obtaining satisfactory results from a criminal background check.
Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the U.S.; work schedule required to overlap 50% of IHME office hours, between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Pacific Time.
Weekend and evening work sometimes required.

Application Process: The application process may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.