Administrative Aide

Michigan Technological University•Houghton, MI

About The Position

The Administrative Aide in Michigan Technological University's Sponsored Programs Office is often the first point of contact for faculty, staff, students, visitors, and representatives of external sponsors and partner organizations. The role supports proposal submissions, award processing, and subaward management for externally funded projects, assists customers, and manages a range of administrative tasks. The position also provides clerical support to the Office of Innovation and Commercialization and calendar and travel support to senior research leaders. Functional supervision may be exercised over student assistants.

Requirements

High school diploma or equivalent.
Two years of office or clerical experience.
Two years of experience using personal computers and basic software packages.
Experience using advanced features of word processing and spreadsheet applications.
Superior interpersonal, customer service, oral communication, and written communication skills.
Ability to work, communicate, and interact with a diverse customer base.
Knowledge of proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Ability to work accurately, precisely, and with attention to detail.
Ability to work as a team member and contribute to the smooth operation of a service environment.
Ability to independently organize and prioritize assignments, take initiative to solve problems, and meet deadlines in a complex, high-volume work environment.
Sound judgment when handling highly confidential information.
Ability to learn and use new computer software.
Flexibility and ability to work under short deadlines and frequent, multiple interruptions.
Commitment to contributing to a safe work environment.

Nice To Haves

Experience using Google applications.
Ability to track and monitor expenditures and financial information.
Demonstrated success in, or potential future contributions to, working with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and viewpoints.

Responsibilities

Provide professional, friendly, and courteous customer service to internal and external customers.
Receive correspondence by email, telephone, and mail; review it and determine appropriate routing and action.
Receive, review, manage, and respond to communications through departmental email lists.
Independently respond to routine and non-routine inquiries using established policies, procedures, and practices.
Prioritize and coordinate the processing of awards and post-award modifications.
Retrieve award documents from databases and websites.
Disseminate proposal and award documents to faculty and staff.
Coordinate reporting processes for externally sponsored projects.
Support subaward processes, including single audit review, debarment checks, invoice review, subaward reporting, and closeout.
Enter agreement data into the Cayuse electronic research administration system.
Lead departmental payroll functions, including processing EPAFs and managing time entry through Experience.
Support budget management by independently reviewing and maintaining expenditure and projection information.
Provide clerical support for the Office of Innovation and Commercialization.
Provide calendar and travel support to the Sr. Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Associate Vice President for Research, Sponsored Programs.
Order and maintain departmental supplies and inventory.
Use word processing, spreadsheet, and email software to compose and edit correspondence, forms, reports, procedures, and budgets.
Learn about and apply continuous improvement strategies in everyday work and actively engage in University continuous improvement initiatives.
Apply safety-related knowledge, skills, and practices to everyday work.
May exercise functional supervision over student assistants.