Back to jobs
New

Vice President, Contracts, Grants and Procurement

US-Remote | US-VA-Arlington | US-NC-Chapel Hill | US-IL-Chicago | US-CA-Sacramento | US-TX-Austin

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. 

About AIR:

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.

Responsibilities:

Essential job functions include without limitation: 

Strategic Leadership & Team Development 

  • 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. 
  • 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. 
  • 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. 
  • Establish and drive team performance and growth, setting clear goals, providing ongoing feedback, and supporting professional development through coaching, training, and succession planning. 
  • 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. 

Operational Leadership & Process Optimization

  • 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. 
  • Oversee the complete contract and grant lifecycle, implementing scalable, compliant processes that drive efficiency, mitigate risk, and align with AIR’s strategic objectives. 
  • Provide strategic guidance and business leadership, collaborating across teams and optimizing contract management systems to ensure data integrity and long-term effectiveness. 
  • 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.
  • 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. 

Compliance & Risk Management 

  • 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. 
  • Monitor and manage risk across the contracts and grants portfolio, including areas such as intellectual property, conflicts of interest, data rights, and audit readiness. 

Stakeholder Collaboration 

  • Serve as a senior advisor to AIR leadership, program teams, finance, and business development on contract and grant matters. 
  • Inspire and lead collaboration across internal units (e.g., Business Development, IT, Finance, Legal) to ensure procurement strategies support and enable their innovative initiatives. 
  • Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to ensure alignment between contract execution and negotiation, maintenance and administration, project delivery and closeout. 

Funding Acquisition & Contract Administration Oversight 

  • Lead and oversee the intake, execution, and management of funding agreements, ensuring alignment with AIR’s contract and grant administration processes and organizational standards. 
  • Collaborate with Finance, Business Development, Legal and other internal teams to support accurate data capture, reporting, and compliance related to acquired funding. 
  • Provide strategic input on proposal development, risk management and contract dispute resolution to support and strengthen AIR’s operational and business objectives. 

Qualifications:

Education, Knowledge, and Experience

  • Bachelor’s degree in business, law, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
  • Minimum of 20years of progressive experience in contracts and grants administration, including at least 5 years in leadership and team management roles.
  • Extensive knowledge of federal contracting regulations (including the FAR, Uniform Guidance), grants management, and compliance frameworks.
  • Federal Contract Manager (CFCM)certification is desired.
  • Proven experience implementing or working with modern procurement and contract management software (ERP, e-sourcing tools) and a track record of automating manual processes.
  • 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.
  • 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. 

Skills

  • Adept at managing multiple high-stakes projects simultaneously, ensuring timely delivery, regulatory compliance, and alignment with organizational objectives.
  • Strong analytical and decision-making capabilities, with a focus on translating data-driven insights into actionable strategies.
  • Exceptional communicator, skilled at conveying complex contractual, business and regulatory concepts to diverse stakeholders with clarity and influence.
  • Resilient under pressure, consistently maintaining accuracy, responsiveness, and ethical standards in contract/subcontract administration and grant and vendor management.
  • Committed to integrity, accountability, and continuous improvement in all aspects of contracts, grants and procurement leadership.
  • 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.  

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

AIR’s Total Rewards Program, 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.

Anticipated Annual Salary Range

$225,000 - $265,000 USD

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at American Institutes for Research? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...

NOTE: Selecting “no” will not eliminate you from consideration for a job. Message and data rates may apply, depending on your mobile phone service plan. At any time, you can get more help by replying HELP to these texts, or you can opt out completely by replying STOP.  

View AIR's SMS/Text Terms of Service and Text/SMS Message Privacy Policy.

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

GDPR Notice: When you apply to a job on this site, the personal data contained in your application will be collected by the Controller, American Institutes for Research (“AIR”), which is located at 1400 Crystal Drive, 10th Floor, Arlington, VA 22202 USA and can be contacted by emailing Taliba Boone, Senior Recruitment Operations Specialist. AIR’s recruitment-related activities include scheduling and conducting interviews for applicants, evaluating and assessing results thereof, and such other tasks as are otherwise needed in the recruitment and hiring processes.  Such processing is legally permissible under Art. 6(1)(f) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by AIR, which are the solicitation, evaluation, and selection of applicants for employment.

Your personal data will be shared with Greenhouse Software, Inc., a cloud services provider located in the United States of America and engaged by AIR to help manage its recruitment and hiring process on AIR’s behalf. Accordingly, if you are located outside of the United States, your personal data will be transferred to the United States once you submit it through this site.

Your personal data will be retained by AIR as long as AIR determines it is necessary to evaluate your application for employment and to meet the legal requirements with respect to AIR’s hiring processes. Under the GDPR, you have the right to request access to your personal data, to request that your personal data be rectified or erased, and to request that processing of your personal data be restricted. You also have the right to data portability. In addition, you may lodge a complaint with an EU supervisory authority.

Select...
Select...
Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in American Institutes for Research’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.