Senior Administrative Assistant (1733)

Summary/Objective

This position serves as principle assistant to the Department Chair and facilitates all facets of departmental operations while ensuring customer and stakeholder service. The specific nature of this position’s role within the department is to provide administrative, analytical, reporting, and customer service support to the chair, as well as facilitating the work of the program directors, faculty, staff, and advisory board members while ensuring a professional and collaborative workplace environment for all. This involves assisting with and facilitating such functions as: budgeting, course scheduling, curriculum changes, adjunct faculty hiring, travel reimbursements and budget reports, office moves, communications with faculty and external customers and stakeholders, meetings and events, and providing furniture, equipment, and software to faculty.

Essential Functions

1. Budgeting & Purchasing: Handles all processes related to budgeted expenses to ensure that the chair is able to adequately oversee and project departmental revenues and expenditures in a timely manner. Receives, updates, facilitates, synthesizes, analyzes, monitors, and reviews with the chair the department’s annual budget (FY), monthly budget, and end of fiscal year budget. In consultation with the chair, requests approval from the Associate Dean for Budget, Administration and Planning all major purchases (e.g., Xerox machines, office furniture, speaker phones). Purchases small equipment and small furniture in consultation with the chair. Reminds chair, program directors, and faculty members of all fiscal deadlines and works with them to schedule payments or submission of reimbursements (e.g., travel reimbursements). Processes all departmental reimbursements, including maintaining records of travel expenses/reimbursements for each faculty member in an efficient and customer-friendly manner to ensure prompt payment.

2. Curriculum Development Support: In consultation with the chair and program directors, provides administrative support for all departmental curriculum and scheduling needs and procedures. This includes submitting all forms for scheduling and course changes. Negotiates among Chair’s Assistants in SPA and the Registrar’s Office regarding allotments and room space in consultation with the program directors and chair. The Assistant to the Chair works with other chair’s assistants in dealing with course cross-listings or other related issues. All these efforts are approved by the chair. In performing these tasks, the assistant to the chair will notify the program directors and chair of the substance and status of all materials involved and forwarded.

3. Scheduling, Event Planning, and Stakeholder Relations: Organize monthly department meetings for faculty and staff as well as smaller meetings when needed. Arrange appointments and meetings for the chair of the department and maintain his or her schedule. Organize the annual DPAP Awards Night event, research seminar series, and other departmental events and activities. Arrange schedules for external visitors and ensure they feel welcome. Working with chair and program directors, handles and facilitates all departmental relationships and contacts with external DPAP customers, stakeholders, and constituencies. This includes: maintaining and arranging effective and customer-focused processes for working with others in SPA (e.g., chair’s assistants in other departments, staff in the Dean’s Office, and in the Key and MSOD programs) and ensuring that the assistant to the chair and his/her subordinates provide a welcoming and professional attitude to all external DPAP inquiries, guests, and visitors.

Essential Functions (continued)

4. Analysis and Report Writing: Working with program directors and chair, collects the data required for NASPAA Annual Reports and site visits. This includes developing and maintaining systems for data needed for these reports including working with executive staff to have all data analyses ready in a timely and useable format. Working with the chair, handles all production of final reports. Also keeps track of faculty loads, sabbaticals, and other deployments using spreadsheets for reports to the chair. Affords other administrative reports as needed and requested by the chair in timely and effective formats.

5. Faculty/Staff Recruitment and Development Support: Handles all administrative aspects of faculty recruitment, staffing the work of the recruitment chairs, program directors, the Dean’s faculty coordinator, and the chair. Responsible for ad placement, compiling excel sheet of candidate’s information, and arranging candidate visits to campus. Ensure compilation of AA data sheet, and appropriate sign offs. Processes the travel reimbursements for all candidates and ensures prompt payments. Handles moving expense and house hunting reimbursements. Upon arrival of new faculty, reviews AU faculty activity procedures, including all conference travel requirements and reimbursement processes, fiscal year dates and deadlines, and steps to take when traveling abroad. Working with program directors, handles all administrative work for MPA/MPP adjunct and temporary faculty hiring. Informs program directors of HR requirements and university orientation dates.

6. Supervision: Hire, train, onboard and manage the Administrative Assistant. This includes coaching, providing feedback, managing performance and providing opportunities for professional development

Work Environment

• This position reports directly to the Department Chair and assists the chair and departmental program directors in all facets of, and interaction with, the Associate Deans and their staff members in the School of Public Affairs, as well as other internal and external DPAP customers and stakeholders
• This position supervises DPAP’s Administrative Assistant and two work study students, and ensures efficient, effective, professional, and customer-focused support for the department as a whole and its relationships within and outside SPA

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work

• Full time
• Non-exempt
• Specialist A

Required Education and Experience

• This position requires bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education, training, or experience
• Candidate should be comfortable with accounting and tracking budgets, skilled in Windows, Microsoft Word and Excel, and Outlook applications, task- and detail-oriented, able to manage multiple tasks and customer-focused

Additional Eligibility Qualifications

• Hiring offers for this position are contingent on successful completion of a background check

Benefits

• Click here to learn about American University's unique benefit options.

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