Employer: Stanford University
Location: Stanford, CA, United States
Category: Administration
Job function: Administrative Services Administrator
Workplace type: Hybrid
Contract type: Regular
Grade: H
Posted: 2026-07-24
This position has been deemed critical by the School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Office and is exempt from the hiring freeze.
Work Arrangement: Hybrid work schedule (at least 3 days per week on-site). May require working flexible hours, including occasional nights and weekends.
Budgeted Salary: The budgeted base salary range for this position is $115,000 to $128,000 per annum.
The School of Humanities and Sciences (H&S) is the foundation of a liberal arts education at Stanford. The school encompasses 24 departments and 25 interdisciplinary programs. H&S is home to fundamental and applied research, where free, open, and critical inquiry is pursued across disciplines. As the university's largest school, H&S serves as the foundation of a Stanford undergraduate education no matter which discipline students pursue as a major. Graduate students work alongside world-renowned faculty to pursue and shape foundational research that leads to breakthroughs and discoveries that shed new light on the past, influence the present, and shape the future. Together, faculty and students in H&S engage in inspirational teaching, learning, and research every day.
Department/Program Description:
The Stanford Institute for Research in the Social Sciences (IRiSS) facilitates cutting-edge interdisciplinary collaborations, helps to train the next generation of social science scholars, and incubates medium- to long-term research initiatives addressing critical social challenges. We support social science research at Stanford by expanding access to untapped sources of and powerful computing tools and promoting innovation in both quantitative and qualitative research methods. In this dynamics and exciting time for the social sciences, IRiSS helps Stanford faculty and graduate students produce groundbreaking findings that continue to advance the frontiers of our knowledge of the social world.
Brief Position Summary
IRiSS seeks an Administrative Director to join our team and oversee all administrative activities at the Institute, including finance, research administration, human resources, events, and facilities. In addition to supervising these functions for the Institute, the Administrative Director plays a critical role in overseeing the administrative functions of the Institute's research centers, including the Center on Poverty and Inequality, the Immigration Policy Lab, the Center for Affective Science, the Stanford Institute for Excellence in Survey Research, the Center for Global Ethnography, and the Center for American Democracy. Financial responsibilities include independently performing and managing moderately complex financial functions related to budgeting and forecasting, and providing training and guidance as needed. This may require specific knowledge and skills in the broad application of internal financial systems and policies as well as an understanding of external regulations. The Administrative Director will directly supervise two or more staff within IRiSS, and provide guidance and mentoring as needed to administrative staff in IRiSS research centers.
The Administrative Director will work under general supervision of the Executive Director. Our ideal Administrative Director will be capable of seeing the big picture without losing sight of details and will have a track record of communicating effectively with a range of different audiences. The Administrative Director will demonstrate a commitment to continuously improving our internal systems and processes while contributing to a team-based and service-oriented culture at the Institute. A strong on-site presence is essential to foster community, visibility, and direct engagement with faculty, students, post-baccalaureate researchers, and other stakeholders in IRiSS. Finally, the ideal Administrative Director will be motivated to learn new and unfamiliar business topics, policies, and procedures on an ongoing basis to ensure that IRiSS is a good citizen of the School and University, and an excellent partner to our affiliates and fellow units across campus.
This is a 100% FTE, continuing position. For consideration, please include a resume and cover letter.
Preferred Qualifications
Additional highly preferred qualifications for this position include:
- Demonstrated proficiency with Stanford systems, including Oracle Business Intelligence and GFS.
- Experience managing the entire HR life cycle for employees, from recruiting and hiring to termination and offboarding.
- Experience organizing and hosting typical academic events like conferences, workshops, panel discussions, etc.
- Familiarity with basic communications tools like Drupal or Wordpress-based websites, MailChimp and other kinds of mailing lists, Qualtrics, PowerPoint or Google Slides, Canva or InDesign, major social media platforms, basic audio/video editing
- Familiarity with the policies and procedures associated with research administration at Stanford.
- Proficiency with cloud-based collaboration, especially using Google Workspace products, running hybrid meetings via Zoom, etc.
- Familiarity with one or more social science disciplines.
Core Duties:
- Independently implement, administer and evaluate day-to-day activities of the unit, function or program by identifying and executing tasks and objectives, making recommendations that impact policies and programs, and assigning resources to achieve the goals of the program.
- Collect and analyze data, create reports, review and explain trends; formulate and evaluate alternative solutions and/or recommendations to achieve the goals of the program or function.
- Analyze and interpret policies; develop, revise and implement procedures for program or function.
- Represent the program or function as the key contact and subject matter expert within the department, unit or school. Commit resources and provide information and/or training. May also represent the program or function to external/internal stakeholders and constituencies.
- Organize and/or participate in outreach activities that may include developing communications and training, planning/promoting events and/or conferences.
- May participate in development of budgets, monitor, and approve expenditures. May perform limited forecasting and provide recommendations that determine the budget.
- May direct staff to perform various tasks and assignments. May also supervise staff.
Minimum Education and Experience
Bachelor's degree and three years of relevant experience, or combination of education and relevant experience.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Demonstrated ability to prioritize own work and multi-task.
- Demonstrated excellent organizational skills.
- Demonstrated ability to take initiative and ownership of projects.
- Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
- Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment in making decisions.
- Demonstrated experience working independently and as part of a team.
- Relevant subject matter knowledge.
- Ability to direct the work of others, for jobs requiring supervision.