Grant Consultant (Contract) — Federal R&D Funding for Health AI / Med-Tech Learning

Focus: SBIR/STTR, NIH, DoD/OTA technology-development funding for an AI-driven medical learning platform About Us We are a woman-owned, award-winning medical technology company with roots in continuing medical education and a platform built on conversational AI for healthcare. We're now focused on growing and diversifying our AI-driven medical learning and training offerings, and we're engaging a grant consultant to fund that expansion with non-dilutive federal R&D dollars. A current priority isclinician and caregiver training and education, alongside other chronic-disease and clinical-decision-support applications. The goal is to build and run a grant pipeline, not just write one proposal, but find the right opportunities across SBIR/STTR and DoD channels and win them. Note: As a woman-owned small business, we may qualify for set-asides and socioeconomic considerations in certain solicitations. The Role As our grant consultant, you will own two functions: 1. Identify — proactively source grant opportunities that fit our mission, capabilities, and track record, and assess which are genuinely winnable. 2. Respond — develop, write, and submit competitive proposals, and coordinate the submission process end to end (including grant-writing submission calls with our project managers and, where applicable, agency program officers). Responsibilities • Build and maintain a funding pipeline using sources such as Grants.gov, SAM.gov, SBIR.gov, the NIH Guide, NSF, and DoD/consortium channels (e.g., MTEC, DSIP). • Screen opportunities for eligibility and fit; recommend go / no-go with a clear rationale. • Lead proposal development: technical narrative, specific aims/objectives, work plan, milestones, timelines, and the commercialization plan reviewers weigh heavily on SBIR/STTR. • Develop budgets and budget justifications in coordination with finance/leadership. • Run submission calls with project managers to gather technical input and keep the proposal on schedule. • Manage compliance and on-time submission through the relevant portals • (e.g., Grants.gov Workspace, • eRA Commons/ASSIST for NIH, • SAM.gov registration, DSIP for DoD, and consortium portals for OTA solicitations). • Maintain a library of prior submissions and reviewer comments, and apply lessons to future proposals. • Support post-award reporting and follow-on / Phase II funding. Target Funders You Should Know We want a consultant who can route to the right program and frame our work for it, not just chase a specific solicitation number. Primary — NIH SBIR/STTR: • NIA (Alzheimer's / dementia), our highest-fit entry; AD/ADRD funding supports clinician- and caregiver-facing training and education platforms, with elevated award ceilings. • Other institutes by application area (e.g., chronic disease, cardiometabolic, mental health). • The STTR path adds an academic research-institution partner, which can strengthen credibility and address PI-eligibility needs. We only have academic partners in certain areas (neurology, cardiometabolic, hematology) • NIMHD — worth pursuing only where a genuine health-disparities angle exists (serving underserved populations); smaller, more targeted pool. Primary — DoD / Defense Health Agency: • Medical training and AI-enabled clinical tools, funded via topic-based solicitations and Other Transaction Agreements (e.g., through consortia like MTEC). Secondary: • AHRQ digital healthcare — AI clinical decision support and quality/safety; strong mission fit but academic-leaning, so likely paired with a clinical/research partner. • NSF SBIR/STTR — AI is named scope, but NSF won't fund work already proven feasible, so our maturity may work against us, but we do have new products we want to develop that are patient facing; cheap to test via Project Pitch. Our work sits at the intersection of conversational AI and medical learning/training. We need someone who can frame that for each funder, readiness and training for DoD, clinical impact for NIH, disparities for NIMHD where genuine. Qualifications Required • Demonstrable record of winning competitive federal R&D grants, please share your win rate and total dollars won, broken out by agency. • SBIR/STTR experience, with a working understanding of how the commercialization plan, specific aims, and Phase I / Phase II structure are evaluated. • Strong technical-proposal writing and budget-development skills. • Hands-on experience with federal submission systems (Grants.gov, SAM.gov; eRA Commons/ASSIST a plus). • Ability to manage multiple deadlines and translate input from technical and scientific staff into reviewer-ready narrative. Strong pluses • Wins at NIH SBIR (especially NIA / AD/ADRD), DoD, or NSF specifically. • Experience with DoD / OTA / consortium funding (e.g., MTEC), which works differently from standard grant submissions. • Experience writing for AI / machine-learning projects and ideally learning / training / simulation technology. • IP and commercialization fluency, able to write a credible commercialization plan and IP strategy section, and to handle SBIR/STTR data-rights and award-marking requirements correctly. • Familiarity leveraging woman-owned small business status in federal proposals. • Awareness of the regulatory landscape for health software (e.g., SaMD / FDA), enough to position proposals credibly. Engagement & Terms This is an independent contractor engagement, not a salaried position. Compensation models we'll consider: • Hourly • Flat fee per proposal • Monthly retainer You will operate as a 1099 contractor, responsible for your own taxes and insurance, and will work remotely. Note for candidates: To Apply Please send: 1. Your resume / capabilities statement. 2. Two sample funded proposals you wrote or led (redacted is fine). 3. Your win rate and total grant dollars won, ideally broken out by agency. 4. Two or three client/employer references we can contact. Bonus: a short note on how you'd approach building a federal R&D funding pipeline for an AI medical-learning company in your first 60-120 days.