Assistant Director / Senior Assistant Director, Gap Funding Initiative Planning & Implementation

A*STAR's Innovation & Enterprise (I&E) Group helps companies turn research into business results.

As part of Singapore's lead public sector R&D agency, we work with local and global businesses to accelerate innovation, scale growth, and strengthen competitiveness in high-value sectors.

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• Partnerships with industry, investors, and researchers to co-develop solutions for real business challenges.
• Licensing and commercialisation of breakthrough technologies and intellectual property into market-ready products and services.
• Venture building that nurtures deep-tech start-ups from early concepts to global growth.

Through I&E, companies gain access to cutting-edge technologies, world-class research talent, and trusted pathways to market—helping them innovate with confidence, compete globally, and create long-term value.

Job Description

The Assistant Director / Senior Assistant Director, Gap Funding Initiative Operations will support the planning, implementation and ongoing governance of Gap Funding under a sectorised operating model. The role will help strengthen grants governance, oversight, assurance, compliance and sector-level performance management across Gap projects.

The role will involve both planning and hands-on implementation, including supporting transition activities, coordinating across stakeholders, tracking project and funding utilisation, and contributing to dashboards, reporting, controls and process improvements within the team.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Gap Funding Planning and Implementation

• Support the planning and implementation of Gap Funding activities under the sectorised operating model.
• Coordinate transition activities for Gap projects, including alignment with sector-specific OICs and tracking of implementation milestones.
• Support onboarding of sector AA teams to new policies, control processes and governance requirements.
• Contribute to the design and refinement of implementation protocols, working tools and process guidance.

2. Governance, Compliance and Assurance

• Support the re-design and implementation of grants governance frameworks and sector-execution protocols.
• Perform compliance monitoring and assurance checks across Gap Funding processes and project records.
• Support audits, SOP updates and Level 1 and 2 advisory relating to Gap Funding governance and controls.
• Maintain proper documentation, issue logs and action trackers to support transparency and audit readiness.

3. Funding, Project Tracking and Performance Dashboards

• Support FI budget and allocation control, cashflow monitoring and disbursement tracking for Gap projects.
• Track project progress, funding utilisation, KPIs and deliverables across the Gap Funding portfolio.
• Support development, deployment and ongoing update of sector-level performance and utilisation dashboards.
• Prepare management updates, reporting inputs and analysis to support oversight of Gap project performance and resource utilisation.

4. Systems, Risk and Stakeholder Coordination

• Support transition and use of systems such as iGrants and A*PS for Gap project tracking and reporting.
• Contribute to compliance tracking system setup for relevant Gap Funding processes.
• Coordinate with sector teams, project owners, finance, governance and other stakeholders to resolve operational issues and support implementation follow-through.

5. Team Contribution and Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to team planning, implementation reviews and workload management for Gap Funding operations.
• Identify process gaps, implementation risks and opportunities to improve governance, monitoring and reporting effectiveness.
• Provide guidance to colleagues and stakeholders on assigned work areas while remaining hands-on in delivery.

Requirements:

Qualifications

• Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Engineering, Science or a related discipline.

Experience & Skills

• Preferably 3 to 5 years of relevant experience in grants management, programme operations, governance, compliance, finance operations, project management, public sector administration or research administration.
• Experience in planning and implementing operational frameworks, controls, dashboards or reporting processes across multiple stakeholders, with the ability to guide implementation and drive follow-through.
• Good understanding of grants administration, budget tracking, disbursement monitoring, compliance assurance and audit support.
• Strong analytical and organisational skills, with the ability to translate operational requirements into practical implementation plans and trackers.
• Comfortable working with data, dashboards, project records and enterprise systems used for project and funding tracking.
• Able to coordinate across sector teams, finance, governance and project stakeholders to drive follow-through on implementation matters.
• Good written and verbal communication skills, including ability to prepare concise management updates, SOP inputs, reporting notes and stakeholder communications.

Preferred Attributes

• Structured, analytical and comfortable operating in both planning and implementation modes.
• Able to exercise judgement, manage ambiguity and propose practical solutions in a transition environment.
• Hands-on and collaborative, with the ability to contribute directly while providing guidance on assigned work areas.
• Strong sense of ownership, follow-through and accountability for implementation outcomes.
• Able to handle sensitive project, funding and governance information responsibly.