Position Summary:
The Project Assistant is responsible for essential administrative and project support in planning, financial tracking, reporting, business development activity, project management, meeting management, and administrative processing. Working in tandem with the Leadership Team, the incumbent will anticipate needs and deliver on a wide range of requirements that create efficiency for leaders and projects.
This is a dynamic role with exposure to all aspects of our business, that requires an ambitious self-starter with excellent upwards management skills and with aspirations to become a program manager, or specialist in one of our support teams.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
- Leading an exceptional standard of proactive, organized and detail-oriented team and project administrative support, striving to evaluate and systematize our administrative support practices and create a world class standard of excellence in efficient administration on our team.
- Using or learning a full range of key systems (CRM, CoPilot, Financial Management System, Knowledge Management, HR Systems) to interrogate, collect and validate data for regular required team reporting, including Utilization Reports, Revenue Reports, Financial Reports, People and HR Reporting, Pilot Technology Reports, Project Reports and Contracting Reports.
- Automate, draft and prepare responses to routine inquires; work with team to automate correspondence and communication, develop systems of prioritization, work with leadership team to optimize team meeting management, agendas, scheduling and documentation.
- Support project teams as needed with project administration and planning including resource utilization tracking and owning project administrative tasks to be delivered on time and to budget. Supporting the project team with a variety of administrative and logistical tasks as needed, including the development and production of program materials
- Meeting management support, including working with teams to lead team efficiency and strong disciplines in team meeting tracking, preparation, agenda setting, follow up and action tracking, and ensuring these disciplines are always proactively observed and used to drive efficiency and effectiveness.
- Supporting key office priorities and strategic initiatives as they arise, including but not limited to, administrative support on marketing campaigns, technology pilots and outbound business development scheduling, travel planning, administrative processing.
- Represent the team confidently, professionally and thoroughly to ensure operational deliverables meet our needs, including interacting with internal colleagues in other regions and with clients.
- Working closely with our executive directors to anticipate and meet all administrative needs related to their roles, exercising strong upwards management to deliver a world class standard of efficient and effective executive support and gaining exposure and involvement in many aspects of our business, acting as an administrative business partner.
- Support the preparing and shipping of project and method materials, maintaining project items and stock levels. Track and order materials needed in line with policy.
- Provide support with logistics and planning for business travel, client events and team events.
- Act as a point person for financial management of contractor work orders and invoicing.
- Perform other job-related duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Position Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required
- Administrative and Organization Management Skills
- Able to set priorities, organize and manage multiple tasks independently without prompting. Able to engage multiple team members to prompt, track, plan, gather data and get tasks completed effectively. Ability to deliver, enforce and influence higher standards of excellence where necessary.
- Anticipates needs; takes proactive approach to work; manages upwards effectively including regular communication, service orientation and logging/tracking progress to bring decisions and issues for resolution. Continuous improvement mindset which drives continual innovation in administrative efficiency.
- Strong and assertive voluntarism to solve for team needs, find new solutions, garner input and lead effective engagement to improve the team’s efficiency. Professional, supportive, positive and service-oriented demeanor at all times, with strong business acumen to aid prioritization and client/market-centricity.
- Meets deadlines; manages time effectively; accountable for all aspects of the role; sets guidelines and timelines and holds self and others accountable for delivery to achieve excellence. Strong attention to detail; focused on quality, excellence and professional business acumen.
- Data and numeracy oriented. Ability to use or learn multiple administrative, financial and client IT systems to work effectively and to support with data-driven reporting.
- Client Relationship Management
- Ability to establish professional and personal credibility with colleagues, clients, faculty and venders; owns relationships
- Strong interpersonal and communication skills, confident and ability to engage multiple stakeholders to achieve the most optimal outcomes (e.g. deliverables, tasks or reporting)
- Technical Skills
- Project management capability
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Outlook, Excel, Word and PowerPoint
- Able to learn and work in various databases and systems
- Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships.
- Customer orientation mindset, sees self as an enabler
- Critical thinker; can think outside the box, problem solve easily and find creative solutions to challenges.
- Learning mindset with the ability to quickly acclimatize and master tools and new systems
- Agile and resilient, can cope under pressure and multitask effectively
Education and Experience Requirements:
- Degree qualified
- Minimum of 1-year administrative experience in a corporate setting
- Project management experience, ideally holding a PM qualification
- Knowledge of Office 365 or other office software systems, preferably with experience of CRM systems, financial management systems and other operational support systems.
