Director of Strategic Grants

Stark State College is seeking a highly skilled and motivated Grant Development professional to lead the College’s grant development efforts and support strategic initiatives across the institution. This position plays a vital role in identifying funding opportunities, developing competitive grant proposals, and building partnerships that connect available resources with the College’s strategic priorities and community needs. The successful candidate will oversee grant activities from opportunity identification and proposal development through award implementation, reporting, and compliance, while serving as a key resource to faculty, staff, administrators, and external partners.

Salary Range: $74,747.00 - $97,172.00 annually, commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position is an exempt, 240-day contract.
Location: Main Campus, North Canton.

Who We Are:
The positive energy at Stark State College comes from exceptionally dedicated employees who work hard for students. Success for both our employees and our students is the result.

You’ll Be a Great Fit If:
If you’re a strategic thinker and an exceptional writer who enjoys turning ideas and community needs into compelling opportunities for impact this role is for you. You bring strong research, project management, and relationship-building skills to guide teams through the grant process, from the initial concept to successful proposal submission and beyond. You’re equally comfortable working independently, collaborating across the College, and building relationships with funders and community partners to advance the College’s mission and strategic goals.

Typical Responsibilities Include:

• Develop and manage the College’s annual grant development agenda by researching public and private funding opportunities aligned with institutional and community needs.
• Lead faculty, staff, administrators, and external partners through grant development, including project design, research, writing, editing, budgets, timelines, and required documentation.
• Oversee pre- and post-award activities, working with project managers and principal investigators on implementation, reporting, budget revisions, no-cost extensions, and other grant requirements.
• Prepare and submit grant applications, reports, and related materials while ensuring compliance with funder requirements and College policies.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the College’s grants portfolio, maintaining relationships with funding agencies, consultants, and internal and external partners.
• Maintain accurate grant records, project files, reporting schedules, and grants office procedures while monitoring compliance requirements.
• Lead continuous improvement of grants processes and practices to strengthen efficiency, increase funding opportunities, and advance the College’s strategic goals.
• Supervise the full-time grant writer role and support Foundation and Advancement initiatives and other projects that contribute to the mission and strategic priorities of the College.
  
  

• Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Communication, Technical Writing, English, or a related field.
• At least five years of professional writing experience, including three to five years of grant writing experience.
• Experience with public and private grant development, proposal preparation, grant administration, or a related field.
• Familiarity with community colleges, including their missions, programs, services, administrative structures, and community partnerships preferred.
• Experience with comprehensive planning or related institutional planning processes is a plus.
  
  

In order to improve hiring efficiency, be more responsive, and help us find the best candidates, Stark State has implemented the use of a few recruiting tools, such as Humanly (formerly Qualifi) and Skill Survey. You may hear from us through one of these platforms during the recruitment process.

Humanly (formerly Qualifi) is a cloud-based phone interviewing platform. Think of this like traditional phone interviews, but faster – allowing us to be more responsive to you, the applicant.

Checking candidates’ references for multiple top candidates provides a valuable means of verifying skills and experience represented in resumes and interviews. SkillSurvey Reference®, a cloud-based, data-driven solution allows us to access relevant feedback from references provided by our candidates. The chosen references receive job-specific surveys on at least 26 critical behaviors and skills. These behavioral competencies have been scientifically studied and have been shown to correlate with work outcomes.

Stark State College utilizes E-Verify to ensure compliance with applicable employment eligibility laws. E-Verify is an electronic system used to confirm the employment eligibility of new hires. This process will be conducted in accordance with I-9 verification and will be done promptly upon hire for all incoming employees.

Please note: Candidates selected for employment must either reside in Ohio or be willing to relocate to Ohio.

Should you have any questions regarding your application or our recruiting and hiring process, please reach out to HR@starkstate.edu.