Career management for Research Administrators

The following information will need to be provided to the Provost Area Management Center and the Medicine and Nursing Management Center (SoM and SoN) for salary review and approval:

• Resume for candidate*
• Calculation of education and experience
• Certifications held
• Proposed tier (Grants and Contracts Administrator only)
• Internal equity (employee name, job title, tier, education, experience, certifications, current salaries, and other incumbents within the same classification)
• Desired salary

*Resume should include the following information:

• Complete list of all positions held by the employee
• Each position's start and end date (including month and year)
• Part-time positions should be identified
• Information on the duties and responsibilities for each of the positions
• All education should be listed (including the month and year it was completed)

• Access a sample PDF resume in the "Related Resources" section of this page

Relevant Education Guidelines

• Employees should receive credit for relevant education above the minimum qualifications. For the exempt grants and contracts job classifications; Masters = additional 2 years of experience credit, Doctorate = additional 3 years of experience credit.
• Employees may receive credit for international education and experience; education should be validated by a professional organization that evaluates educational credentials from other countries (example: Education International, Inc.). This experience & education should be reviewed on an individual basis.

Relevant Experience Guidelines

• Experience must be in a paid position (no experience credit will be provided for volunteer work or internships that are part of a degree program)*
• Experience in a part-time position should be pro-rated based on FTE
• Experience in a position that is only partially focused on grants and contracts (40%-75% of the role) should be given 50% of the credit outlined below
• Experience should be counted in years and months
• To make sure the dates do not overlap, SuccessFactors requires the applicant to indicate the month and year for the experience
• If someone has a partial month credit because you have provided partial credit, round up. Ex. 5 years and 2.5 months = 5 years 3 months. The rounding should take place once the total relevant experience has been calculated.

* With prior approval from the management centers, work experience credit may be recognized for certain unpaid relevant experience such as Teach for America and Peace Corps.

Direct Experience

• Prior professional experience that is the same or very similar to the responsibilities outlined in the Duke job description

Examples of Direct Experience

Indirect Experience

• Prior professional experience that is directly relevant to the responsibilities outlined in the Duke job description. Responsibilities support research but are not necessarily referenced in the Duke job descriptions for research administration

Examples of Indirect Experience

Guidelines also apply to central department classifications: Associate Director, Research Administration, Research Administration Manager & Research Administrator

Examples:

• Lawyers: if practicing law related to contracts, regulatory, compliance, it may be appropriate to provide full credit
• Librarians: if practicing as a Research Librarian, it may be appropriate to provide full credit
• If performing clinical research, IRB, regulatory, compliance work, it may be appropriate to provide full credit
• Research: if conducting research and also submitting grants for their research, it may be appropriate to provide partial credit.

• Employees must maintain the certification and training requirements for their job classification and tier.
• New hires to Duke can be hired into the Associate, Advanced, or Senior tiers. New hires cannot be hired into the Team Leader tier. New hires have 12 months to complete RAA and an additional 6 months to complete AGM (if required for their tier).  If the requirements are not met, the employee may receive a pay and tier reduction.
• Failure to meet/maintain the RAA requirement will be addressed through the performance review process.
• If an employee does not maintain the certifications for the Advanced, Senior, and Team Lead tiers, the tier will be reduced and the employee’s salary will typically be reduced.
• A typical pay increase for a tier promotion is 5%. If an increase of greater than 5% is warranted due to equity and other factors, approval is required by the management center. An increase may be less than 5% due to internal equity.
• The need for a Team Lead is determined by the Business Manager. It may not be needed in every unit. Generally, there is no more than 1 lead/unit.
• The Lead role reflects an individual’s advanced competencies as well as responsibilities for mentoring and developing staff.
• The Lead may or may not carry the same responsibilities as a full supervisor.
• The pay increase for a Lead applies only for the period the individual serves in the Lead capacity and is removed if s/he transfers or steps down from the Lead role.

• During both the annual performance review and mid-year performance review, the manager should discuss the certification and training requirements for the position and the tiers with each incumbent as part of their individual development plan.
• In late July/early August, Rewards and Recognition (R&R) will provide the management centers with a tier advancement template that will include the Grants and Contracts Administrators and their current tiers.
• In order to be eligible for tier advancement, the Grants and Contracts Administrator must meet the training requirements by June 30th.
• By mid-September, managers will submit requests for tier advancement to the Dean’s offices in the University and the SoM Management Center for further review.
• If approved, the working title changes and increases for tier advancement will typically be effective October 1 (processed via rate and schedule change form).
• If employees no longer meet the requirements of the tier, their tier will be reduced and it may impact their salary.

       *A timeline will be provided by the management centers with specific dates

* An increase may be less than 5% due to internal equity. If an increase of greater than 5% is warranted due to equity and other factors, approval is required by the management center. Rev 10/1/2018