Administrative Assistant, Cornell Tech (NYC) at Cornell University in New York City (Cornell Tech)

Job description

• In the Administrative Assistant role you will join a high functioning team of administrative assistants who support the faculty and staff of the Cornell Tech campus. The administrative team provides flexible and efficient support to ensure smooth delivery of campus administrative operations.

Responsibilities

• Responsibilities are varied and may include: scheduling meetings; planning, organizing, and providing day-of-event support for activities such as conferences, seminars, symposiums; maintaining and updating applicable website content; assisting with travel arrangements; maintaining files, photocopying, scanning, and filing documents; preparing and processing reimbursements for faculty, staff and visitors; processing department billings and other requisitions; typing and editing correspondence, coursework, presentations, and proposals; preparing basic reports and filling out forms for sponsored programs submissions; tracking office supply inventory and ordering supplies; responding to routine and non-routine inquiries and coordinating activities.
• (20%) Plan, organize, schedule, and coordinate faculty and staff activities including seminars, symposia, and workshops. Activities may be all day or multi-day involving outside participants. Faculty include senior faculty with research groups comprising of doctoral students, post-doctoral associates, and other researchers.
• Support to staff include directors who are leading teams supporting critical key functions at the Cornell Tech campus. Liaison with outside vendors where appropriate. Independently compile background materials for meetings. Coordinate and/or provide support regarding travel arrangements for speakers, faculty, staff or participants.
• Provide schedule of visit, travel details, agenda, and reimbursement procedures. Schedule meetings between speakers and various tech campus faculty and staff.
• Coordinate day-of event logistics - set up conference space; obtain, set-up and clean-up refreshments; copy and distribute agendas and program materials; produce name tags; manage on-site registration; provide post-event clean up. Set up AV and other telecommunications equipment as needed including Zoom or webex.
• Troubleshoot equipment for presentation and assist the speaker(s).
• (20%)​ Prepare, process, and track requisitions and reimbursements. Develop spreadsheets, reports and other monitoring mechanisms and report to faculty/ staff on a regular basis. Compile basic statistics and metrics when applicable. Work with financial team to resolve billing problems and reconcile account statements. Advise faculty, and staff on billing procedures and policies. Develop systems and databases to streamline billing processes. Understand accounting policies and procedures as they pertain to internal department billings. Develop and suggest changes to office policies and procedures. Provide input to operational manuals and knowledge guides.
• (20%) Provide administrative assistance for staff and faculty of Cornell Tech campus.
• Perform general office operations, including monitoring and ordering office supplies via eShop and Procurement Card; respond to routine and non-routine inquiries and coordinates follow up with individuals internal and external to the organization; schedule meetings; answer phones and greet visitors; provide information/reference literature on Tech campus, department policies and answer questions.
• Keep assigned areas organized; identify maintenance/ AV/ or space issues and communicate with appropriate admin team member, submit ticket, and assist with resolution; communicate with other admin support staff to ensure smooth running of daily office operations; participate in campus meetings.
• Provide back-up admin support and phone coverage as needed for other admin support staff. Provide training to other admin support if needed and coordinate with others as needed to ensure that work load is completed timely. Manage, coordinate, and execute travel arrangements including travel, accommodations, meal planning, reimbursements, etc.
• Many arrangements may be complicated requiring lengthy trips or multiple stops and/or for a group of people travelling together. Work with administrative team including other administrative support, directors, managers, faculty, and other staff to develop annual organizational deadlines for activities and meetings.
• (10%) Create, transcribe, and maintain spreadsheets, documents and correspondence as needed. Use independent judgment and initiative to compose and develop reports, presentations, and other documents. Type, draft, and edit technical proposals, manuscripts, reports, research papers and scientific reports. Compile and generate data for reports. Maintain efficient and well-organized file system. Create, maintain and manipulate databases containing confidential information. Create and maintain useful contacts for faculty and staff including background info and interactions. Maintain / update office web pages. Coordinate collection of materials, graphical design and printing of department newsletter and other department publications. Reprint copies of office brochures and maintain brochure racks /bulletin boards.
• (10%) Assist with research proposal submission in coordination with the Sponsored Research team which may include: reviewing requirements; synthesizing and disseminating requirements to collaborators and others involved in the application submission; typing, formatting, preparation of CV and current & pending support materials; sending out requests for background information, tracking responses, and obtaining collaborator's supporting materials; preparing basic budget forms; preparing of Form 10; coordinating proposal submission materials with organizational finance team and the Office of Sponsored Programs.
• (15%) Prepare and assist with research material. Maintain current publication lists for faculty supported. Design and maintain filing and record systems for faculty supported. Maintain faculty calendars. Schedule appointments for faculty. Provide instructional support as requested by faculty - course materials, grade tracking, and course website maintenance. Prepare materials for presentation at workshops and seminars including transparencies and slide originals.
• (5%) Other position-related responsibilities. Participate in projects or other duties as assigned with occasional work responsibility falling above or below current classification. Completion of any university required compliance trainings.

Requirements

• Successful candidates will need to have and display the following competencies as part of this role:
• Communicates Effectively - Is effective in a variety of communication settings: one-on-one, small and large groups, or among diverse styles and position levels; Attentively listens to others; Provides timely and helpful information to others across the organization.
• Ensures Accountability - Follows through on commitments and makes sure others do the same; Acts with a clear sense of ownership; Takes personal responsibility for decisions.
• Customer Focus - Gains insight into customer needs; Identifies opportunities that benefit the customer; Builds and delivers solutions that meet customer expectations; Establishes and maintains effective customer relationships.
• Nimble Learning - Learns quickly when facing new situations; Experiments to find new solutions; Takes on the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; Extracts lessons learned from mistakes.
• Collaborates - Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives; Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas; Partners with others to get work done; Gains trust and support of others.
• ​
• Associate degree with 2-4 years office experience or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills with an attention to detail.
• Ability to work both independently and with a team, establishing and accomplishing priorities, coordinating projects and handling multiple tasks simultaneously often with frequent interruptions in a high-volume fast-paced environment.
• Exemplary organizational skills with a keen sense of detail and ability to exercise sound judgment are required. High degree of initiative and creative problem-solving abilities are also necessary in this role.
• Ability to handle highly sensitive and confidential information with tact and discretion.
• Must maintain respectful, positive working relationships with all co-workers and the general public, and use good judgment in recognizing scope of authority. Must represent department in professional, mature manner, and positive, welcoming demeanor are critical. Strong customer service orientation.
• Proficiency in Word, Excel and Outlook is essential. The individual in this position must be able to use a variety of software applications to accomplish tasks, including database management, spreadsheets, presentation, calendaring, and web applications.
• Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members.
• Bachelor’s degree and/or more years of relevant work experience.
• Proven success in administrative support within academic or similar environment.
• Proficiency in Word, Excel, and Outlook essential.

Skills

Required

• Verbal and written communication
• Attention to detail
• Organizational skills
• Sound judgment
• Initiative
• Creative problem-solving
• Customer service orientation
• Proficiency in Word, Excel, Outlook
• Database management
• Spreadsheets
• Presentation software
• Calendaring

Preferred

• Proficiency in Word, Excel, and Outlook

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, generous time-off, and great benefits …More on Cornell Benefits
• Starting salary range: $29.25 to $32.32
• Non-Union Positions
• Noted pay ranges reflect the potential pay opportunity for each job profile. The hiring rate of pay for the successful candidate will be determined considering the following criteria:
• Prior relevant work or industry experience
• Education level to the extent education is relevant to the position
• Unique applicable skills
• Academic Discipline
• To learn more about Cornell’s non-union staff job titles and pay ranges, see Career Navigator.
• Union Positions
• The hiring rate of pay for the successful candidate will be determined in accordance with the rates in the respective collective bargaining agreement. To learn more about Cornell’s union wages, see Union Pay Rates.