Administrative Assistant

Role overview

This position supports administrative coordination across multiple departments in a fast-moving environment. The role centers on keeping schedules organized, tracking action items and deadlines, handling meeting and travel logistics, and providing dependable day-to-day project support to leaders and research staff.

Key stakeholders include three Department Heads, Advisors, Economists, and Research Associates. The ideal candidate will bring strong organization, polished communication, the ability to juggle multiple priorities, and excellent time management.

Administrative support responsibilities

• Provide coordinated administrative assistance across three departments with different priorities, workloads, and stakeholder needs.
• Manage complex calendars and meeting arrangements while resolving scheduling conflicts in advance.
• Monitor tasks, deadlines, and deliverables using spreadsheets or other tracking systems.
• Draft, assemble, and organize meeting packets, agendas, and follow-up action points.
• Act as a main contact for administrative questions and information sharing.
• Support leadership travel planning, travel expense tracking, and submission coordination.
• Handle discretionary and nondiscretionary travel logistics as part of project support.
• Assist with strategic projects, special initiatives, and leadership communication support.
• Look for workflow improvements that can make executive-level operations more efficient.
• Keep an eye on workload volume and raise concerns when conflicts or timeline risks appear.
• Support onboarding and offboarding activities, along with other administrative project tasks as needed.
• Work with other Research Executive Assistants on shared office support needs such as mail handling and phone coverage.
• Prepare visitor requests and access-related requests for drug screening, fingerprinting, and ID cards.
• Contribute to project teams covering conference and event management, visiting professors, and PhD recruiting, including data, tables, and charts used for tracking and reporting.
• Coordinate meetings and events, which may include webcasts, conferences, special events, luncheons, receptions, and conference room reservations.
• Provide general administrative support and step in with backup assistance for other team members when needed.
• Perform additional ad hoc assignments, duties, and projects as required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree, or 3 to 5 years of equivalent experience in administrative or office support.
• Solid working knowledge of operating policies and procedures, including time and labor, travel reimbursement, purchasing, disbursing, and document retention.
• Comfort working in a team environment where priorities can shift quickly.
• Strong organizational ability and multitasking capability.
• Clear interpersonal communication skills and a customer-service mindset.
• Hands-on experience with scheduling tools and basic reporting.
• Sound judgment and discretion when dealing with confidential or sensitive information.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision.
• Proficiency with MS 365 tools, including Excel, Word, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Teams, as well as Event Management tools, WebEx, and Zoom.

Additional information

This is an onsite contract role based in the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Compensation is not specified in the source information.