Finance and Research Grants Manager

Short Description

The Laboratory for Intelligent Global Health and Humanitarian Technologies (LiGHT) at EPFL is seeking a Finance and Research Grants Manager to build, oversee, and professionalize all fundraising, financial, and grant management activities across the lab.

This role offers an opportunity to design and lead a sustainable global health funding pipeline that directly enables high-impact, real-world research and implementation. The successful candidate will establish and operate the financial backbone of a rapidly growing, internationally active research laboratory, supporting major AI-for-health initiatives, multinational clinical trials, and long-term partnerships with global health organizations and ministries of health.

Mission

The Laboratory for Intelligent Global Health and Humanitarian Response Technologies (LiGHT) is an impact-driven research group creating novel AI tools specifically adapted to limited-resource and volatile global health settings and bringing them to scaled, locally owned implementation.

It is based at the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL) – In the top 10 computer science institutions globally, EPFL is a deeply international hub for technical excellence in AI

Our mission is to develop safe, scalable, and context-aware digital health tools. We work with international NGOs such as WHO, MSF, ICRC, and national ministries of health to design, create, validate and deploy trustworthy AI in real-world healthcare systems—especially in settings where clinical resources are limited and stakes are high. LiGHT's funding sources include Swiss National Grants, EU Horizon, The Gates Foundation and philanthropic funding.

We are seeking a senior Finance and Research Grants Manager to serve as the financial backbone of LiGHT. This role is central to the lab's ability to operate responsibly, compliantly, and at scale.

The successful candidate will oversee the full financial lifecycle of LiGHT's activities, from grant budgeting and forecasting, to active financial tracking and monitoring, institutional reporting, and donor compliance, across a portfolio of international research grants, clinical trials, and service agreements.

This role requires experience, autonomy, and the ability to anticipate and communicate risks, deadlines, and constraints. This is a hands-on role. As LiGHT's sole dedicated finance and grants professional, the successful candidate will combine operational execution and carries end-to-end responsibility for financial oversight and integrity across the lab's portfolio, within EPFL's institutional framework.

Main duties and responsibilities

Grant budgeting and forecasting

Develop grant and contract budgets in close collaboration with scientific and technical teams, ensuring proposals are realistic, compliant, and aligned with program objectives. Maintain forward-looking financial forecasts to support planning, staffing, and risk management.

Active financial management

Oversee day-to-day financial management of grants and contracts, including budget execution, expenditure tracking, and variance analysis. Monitor performance against approved budgets and timelines, proactively identifying risks and recommending corrective actions.

Institutional and internal reporting

Prepare accurate, timely financial reports for lab leadership and host institutions, ensuring consistency across project-level tracking and institutional accounting systems. Provide clear financial analyses to support decision-making by non-financial stakeholders. Work fluently with EPFL SAP and related systems, ensuring compliance with EPFL policies, audit requirements, and documentation standards, and coordinating with central services as needed.

Donor reporting and compliance

Ensure financial compliance with donor regulations and contractual obligations. Lead donor financial reporting, maintain audit-ready documentation, and serve as the primary financial contact for donors, auditors, and funding agencies.

Portfolio oversight

Manage financial oversight across a diverse portfolio of research grants, clinical studies, and service or consultancy agreements, ensuring coherence, risk management, and compliance across parallel funding streams.

Financial governance and internal controls

Establish and maintain internal financial controls, procedures, and documentation standards to ensure transparency, accountability, and audit readiness, contributing to the development of financial policies suited to a growing, grant-funded organization.

Cross-functional coordination and capacity building

Act as a trusted financial partner to scientific, technical, and operations teams, translating program plans into financially executable activities. Build financial awareness and good grant management practices through guidance, training, and clear communication, and provide structured financial updates to leadership and project teams.

Profile

• Advanced experience in research finance, grants management, or financial control in an academic or research-intensive environment.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, multi-year research grants, ideally including EU-funded projects.
• Strong command of budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting for externally funded research.
• High level of comfort working with institutional financial systems (experience with SAP strongly preferred).
• Excellent organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple reporting timelines and funding streams simultaneously.
• Ability to work autonomously, anticipate needs, and operate as a trusted financial advisor to leadership.
• Excellent written and spoken English; French proficiency

We offer

• The opportunity to shape real-world deployments with international organizations and teams
• Close collaboration with extraordinary researchers
• Travel opportunities, community, and impact at global scale
• Competitive salary and benefits, commensurate with experience

What We Value

At LiGHT, we work with care and rigor. We value curiosity, collaboration, principled innovation, and design that serves. Our tools are used in the real world—so they must be beautiful, robust, and intuitive under pressure. You'll be joining a team that thrives on meaningful challenge, creativity, and a shared mission.

Informations

Contract Start Date : 01/02/2026

Activity Rate : 50.00

Contract Type: CDD

Duration: 1 year, renewable

Reference: 2017