Administrative Operations Manager III - Sarver Heart Center

The Administrative Operations Manager III serves as the senior administrative leader for the Sarver Heart Center. This individual is responsible for the strategic, financial, and operational oversight of research, clinical, and academic activities totaling over $100M in funding and assets. The role encompasses budget management, personnel oversight, research development, and infrastructure projects. This position requires a highly experienced professional capable of independently directing complex initiatives across multiple units and serving as a key liaison with institutional leadership, faculty, and external partners.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; retirement plans; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

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Strategic Financial Oversight and Resource Management:

•  Oversee and monitor the progress of strategic initiatives to ensure alignment with institutional priorities and SHC strategic growth.
• Collaborates with center leadership to develop and implement short and long term operational goals.
• Leads resource planning opportunities for the center’s growth and sustainability.
• Ensure smooth operations across Sarver by coordinating with College and Campus partners as appropriate for clients, facilities, and HR.
• Track milestones to ensure deliverables are met, advancing the objectives of the center.
• Manages all financial resources of the Center and is directly responsible for fiscal results.  Responsible for managing the Sarver Cardiovascular Institute Business Plan and financial commitments.  Prepares and maintains the Center's all funds budgets.  Gathers information and input for the preparation and management of operating and capital budgets.  
• Budgets, tracks and reports revenue and expenses associated with academic, research, development, and service center/core facility endeavors.  Meets monthly with Center Director, PIs, and Clinical Trial Manager to review finances.  
• Manage annual expenditures exceeding $20M; Identifies budget variances and initiates corrective action; Approves procurement, and other related financial transactions for the Center.   Is the P-Card Liaison for the Center.
• Oversee all Center financial commitments, including grants, contracts, gift funds ($5M+), and a $54M institutional commitment package with matching fund tracking.
  
• Prepare and maintain the Center’s all-funds budget and financial projections, and regularly report to leadership.
• Supervise financial operations of eight specialized core research units (Clinical Trials, Imaging, Microscopy & Histology, Metabolic & Proteomics, Drug Discovery, Bioinformatics, Human iPSC, and more).
• Responsible for compiling and submitting data for special reports including Academic Program Reviews (APR), Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT), All Funds budget (AFB), as well as association surveys (HERD) and response requests.

Research, Education, and Faculty Development:

• Partner with CMM and DOM leadership to support the recruitment and onboarding of physician-scientists, research scientists, and clinical investigators, including commitment packages, and coordination of research lab moves, proformas, status changes, UPRTs, strategy documents, etc. for clinical faculty hires..
• Oversee management of multimillion-dollar research portfolios across investigators, including grants, contracts, and financial management.
• Design and implement initiatives such as student/postdoc research awards, drug development programs, and summer scholarships.
• Monitors trends with regard to research and education. Based on those trends, develops and makes recommendations to the Center Director. 
• Monitors regulatory compliance with VPR office (human subjects, animal subjects, risk management, conflict of interest, cost sharing, laboratory chemical safety, HIPAA, intellectual property, etc.).

Infrastructure, Operations & Space Management:

• Serve as space and building manager for 201E (36,400 NSF).
• Lead and manage research lab renovation projects totaling $20M.
• Supervise all day-to-day operations, including staffing models for the Center and Clinical Trials Unit.
• Act as key liaison for Facilities and Planning teams during capital projects.

Program Leadership and Event Management:

• Direct planning and execution of the Annual International Cardiovascular Research Symposium, including vendor contracts and event budgeting.
• Collaborate with institutional leadership to align Sarver Heart Center programs with strategic clinical and academic goals.

Human Resources and Compliance Leadership: 

• Direct and coordinate HR functions, staff recruitment, organizational planning, and performance evaluation for Center employees.
• Ensure compliance with university, sponsor, and regulatory agency policies across all units.
• Represent the Center in College- and University-level business, operations, and compliance meetings.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)

• In-depth knowledge of accounting practices, procedures and generally accepted accounting principles.
• Excellent organization and time management skills.
• Ability to take initiative and be self-motivated.
• Ability to multi-task projects and daily assignments.
• Ability to communicate effectively, both written and verbal.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent advanced learning attained through professional level experience required.
• Minimum of 7 years of related work experience, including 3 years of managerial experience, or equivalent combination of education and work experience.

• UofA experience.
• Experience in academic medicine administration.
• Grants, contracts, sponsored projects, and/or research management experience.
• Pre-award experience.
• Experience with IRB regulations.