Administrative Specialist

Administrative Specialist

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree preferred, or equivalent work experience
• At least 4 years of experience in high-level administrative support
• Experience coordinating travel, handling complex calendars for various high-level personnel, scheduling and hosting events and handling confidential information is necessary
• Previous work in a research or academic setting is preferred
• Knowledge of ecological and evolutionary biology is a plus

Responsibilities

• File, create and respond to routine correspondence about the Life Sciences (LS) program.
• Prepare expense reports and manage invoices, including honoraria, via Concur for internal staff as well as external vendors (consultants, reviewers, visitors, etc.).
• Schedule and provide support during team meetings; take and distribute meeting minutes.
• Take proactive responsibility for the coordination of the division’s activities within and outside of the Simons Foundation; effectively manage and maintain LS leadership and general LS calendars, schedule appointments.
• Manage the division’s presence on the foundation’s intranet including consistent updating of LS meeting and events.
• Coordinate small review meetings and workshops including polling for availability, collecting meeting materials, coordinating Simons Foundation/Flatiron Institute leadership calendars and managing workshop participants and panelists through the life of the event.
• Assist with large annual meetings and annual Life Sciences advisory board meetings as needed.
• Assist Executive Vice President with budgeting and special projects, as needed.
• Manage the Life Sciences webpages on simonsfoundation.org, in coordination with the digital communications team.
• Foster and build good working relationships, both internally and externally. The Administrative Specialist must be able to work well with a variety of people.
• Serve as liaison or main point of contact between staff and division visitors and guests, coordinating meetings and special events.
• Contribute to LS communications through the creation of presentation slides, drafting of memos and invitations, and editing.
• Provides direct support to the President when the executive assistant to the President is unavailable or out of the office, which includes: Manage all aspects of the President’s calendar and correspondence. Acts as a first point of contact, including screening telephone calls, fielding inquiries and requests and responding to or referring on as appropriate. Greets guests and visitors of the Office of the President, escorting them to the President’s office. Provide guests with support, including registering their arrival at the office, providing coffee and/or lunch, reserving rooms, booking meetings, ordering car service, and setting up Zoom calls in the President’s office. Fosters and builds good working relationships and strong networks with a variety of people both externally and internally within the foundation.
• Perform any other duties or tasks as assigned or required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with project management is a plus
• Previous work in a research or academic setting is preferred
• Knowledge of ecological and evolutionary biology is a plus
• Familiarity with Cvent event management software, or similar is a plus