Vice President, Contracts, Grants and Procurement

AIR is seeking a strategic and experienced Vice President, Contracts, Grants and Procurement to lead and evolve our Contracts, Grants, and Procurement (CGP) Team. CGP provides support to program staff throughout the entire award lifecycle, from pre-award operations and negotiations through post-award contract and subcontract compliance, administration and closeout. CGP also provides full procurement support for the organization. In addition to full award lifecycle support, administration and compliance, this role is responsible for driving process improvement and enabling operational excellence in support of AIR’s mission-driven work. This position reports to the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The Vice President will lead a high-performing team, collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, and play a key role in the implementation and optimization of AIR’s enterprise business systems. This role is critical to ensuring the integrity, efficiency, compliance, and strategic alignment of AIR’s contract- and grant-related administration processes and operations as well as vendor management and procurement of materials and services. The Vice President will be focused on managing the lifecycle of AIR’s externally funded contracts and awards from a wide range of sources including federal, state, and local governments as well as private foundations and non-governmental organizations. Compliance requirements include those pertaining to the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Uniform Grant Guidance. This position offers flexibility to be fully remote within the United States (does not include U.S. territories) or to work in a hybrid capacity from AIR’s offices in Crystal City, VA or Chicago, IL with occasional travel required for meetings and training sessions. <h4>About AIR:</h4>Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance to address some of the most pressing challenges in the United States and globally. We generate evidence and apply data-driven solutions that expand opportunities and improve lives for all.<h4>Responsibilities:</h4>Essential job functions include without limitation: Strategic Leadership & Team Development <ul><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing contracts, grants, and procurement team, fostering a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous learning while managing change to align with evolving organizational needs. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Foster a culture within the department and across the organization that encourages experimentation, intelligent risk-taking, and learning from 'smart failures' without fear of retribution. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Mentor and develop staff to approach the negotiation and administration of contracts with the strategic mindset and strong technical knowledge needed to contribute to strong business performance. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Establish and drive team performance and growth, setting clear goals, providing ongoing feedback, and supporting professional development through coaching, training, and succession planning. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Represent AIR in high-level negotiations with clients, partners, and funders, ensuring strategic alignment and effective collaboration across all aspects of contract and grant management. </li></ul>Operational Leadership & Process Optimization<ul><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lead a team of contract and grant negotiators, ensuring full compliance with funder requirements and effectively representing AIR’s capabilities to government, foundation and commercial contracting officers. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Oversee the complete contract and grant lifecycle, implementing scalable, compliant processes that drive efficiency, mitigate risk, and align with AIR’s strategic objectives. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Provide strategic guidance and business leadership, collaborating across teams and optimizing contract management systems to ensure data integrity and long-term effectiveness. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Create a culture of continuous improvement within the team to ensure that processes are actively monitored for effectiveness and adjusted as needed to keep up with changing business needs. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Drive the digital transformation and process optimization of all contracts, grants, and procurement systems, leveraging technologies like AI, machine learning, and advanced data analytics to enhance decision-making and efficiency. </li></ul>Compliance & Risk Management <ul><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Ensure compliance with AIR policies, federal regulations (including FAR and Uniform Guidance), and funder-specific requirements, while supporting external reviews and audits related to contracts and grants. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Monitor and manage risk across the contracts and grants portfolio, including areas such as intellectual property, conflicts of interest, data rights, and audit readiness. </li></ul>Stakeholder Collaboration <ul><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Serve as a senior advisor to AIR leadership, program teams, finance, and business development on contract and grant matters. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Inspire and lead collaboration across internal units (e.g., Business Development, IT, Finance, Legal) to ensure procurement strategies support and enable their innovative initiatives. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to ensure alignment between contract execution and negotiation, maintenance and administration, project delivery and closeout. </li></ul>Funding Acquisition & Contract Administration Oversight <ul><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Lead and oversee the intake, execution, and management of funding agreements, ensuring alignment with AIR’s contract and grant administration processes and organizational standards. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Collaborate with Finance, Business Development, Legal and other internal teams to support accurate data capture, reporting, and compliance related to acquired funding. </li><li style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Provide strategic input on proposal development, risk management and contract dispute resolution to support and strengthen AIR’s operational and business objectives. </li></ul><h4>Qualifications:</h4>Education, Knowledge, and Experience<div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-size: 12px;"><ul><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bachelor’s degree in business, law, or related field; advanced degree preferred. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Minimum of 20years of progressive experience in contracts and grants administration, including at least 5 years in leadership and team management roles. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Extensive knowledge of federal contracting regulations (including the FAR, Uniform Guidance), grants management, and compliance frameworks. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Federal Contract Manager (CFCM)certification is desired. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Proven experience implementing or working with modern procurement and contract management software (ERP, e-sourcing tools) and a track record of automating manual processes. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A proven record of initiating and carrying out productivity or process improvement programs that directly resulted in enhanced capabilities or mission success, not just cost savings. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW106560515 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Deep knowledge of the regulatory landscape and experience interpreting evolving regulations but, as importantly, possessing the ability to navigate and leverage flexibilities within regulations to drive innovation. </li></ul></div>Skills<div class="ListContainerWrapper SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-size: 12px;"><ul><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Adept at managing multiple high-stakes projects simultaneously, ensuring timely delivery, regulatory compliance, and alignment with organizational objectives. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Strong analytical and decision-making capabilities, with a focus on translating data-driven insights into actionable strategies. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Exceptional communicator, skilled at conveying complex contractual, business and regulatory concepts to diverse stakeholders with clarity and influence. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Resilient under pressure, consistently maintaining accuracy, responsiveness, and ethical standards in contract/subcontract administration and grant and vendor management. </li><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Committed to integrity, accountability, and continuous improvement in all aspects of contracts, grants and procurement leadership.</li><li class="Paragraph SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Proficiency in Microsoft 365 tools including OneDrive, SharePoint, Advanced Excel, and Word as well as Adobe Acrobat Pro is required. Experience in leveraging AI tools to drive efficiency and informed decision-making is essential. Experience with Microsoft Dynamics365 is preferred, but not required.  </li></ul></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW219878497 BCX8" style="font-size: 12px;">Disclosures: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the U.S. on a full-time basis. Employment-based visa sponsorship (including H-1B sponsorship) is not available for this position. Depending on project work, qualified candidates may need to meet certain residency requirements. American Institutes for Research is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability. AIR adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo reference and background checks. AIR maintains a drug-free work environment. ACCESSIBILITY NOTICE: If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process due to a physical or mental disability, please send an email to Taliba Boone at tboone@air.orgor call 202.403.5000.Fraudulent Job Scams Warning & Disclaimer: AIR is aware of individuals falsely presenting themselves as AIR representatives. Fraudulent job scams seek to extract sensitive information or money from victims. To protect yourself, please be aware that AIR recruitment will only email you from an “@air.org” domain. Please take extra caution while examining the email address, for example jdoe@air.org is correct and jdoe@aircareers.org is not a legitimate AIR email address. If you are unsure of the legitimacy of a communication you have received, please reach out torecruitment@air.org. If you see a job scam, or lose money to one, report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) atReportFraud.ftc.gov. You can also report it to your state attorney general. Find out more about how to avoid scams atftc.gov/scams.#LI-AS1 #LI-REMOTE</div><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description"><a href="https://www.air.org/build-career-air/benefits">AIR’s Total Rewards Program,</a> is designed to reward our staff competitively and motivate them to achieve our critical mission. This position offers the anticipated annual salary as listed. Salary offers are made based on internal equity within the institution and external equity with competitive markets. Please note this is the annual salary range for candidates that are based in the United States.</div><div class="title">Anticipated Annual Salary Range</div><div class="pay-range">$225,000—$265,000 USD</div></div></div>

Vice President, Contracts, Grants and Procurement

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