Essential Job Duties

The Department Operations Coordinator provides professional business leadership and operational oversight for the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. This position acts as a strategic partner to faculty, academic/research staff and students, navigating complex university policies to support teaching, research, and outreach. The Coordinator is expected to lead process improvements, ensure rigorous financial compliance, and serve as the departmental authority on evolving travel and administrative regulations.

Financial Administration

• Independently track accounts, special funds, and startup/retention allocations to ensure alignment with approved budgets.
• Conduct quarterly reviews, resolve financial discrepancies, and prepare summary reports for the Business Officer and internal stakeholders.
• Assist in the development and tracking of budgets for internal awards, maintaining detailed spreadsheets for resource management.
• Support Business Officer in monitoring startup and retention funds and ensure compliance with university financial and operational policies.
• Review data for accuracy, identify issues, and resolve discrepancies.
• Apply knowledge of accounting structures to guide and approve transactions.

Travel Support

• Serve as the department's liaison on the NC State Travel Manual; interpret complex updates regarding subsistence, excess lodging, and international travel requirements to ensure departmental compliance.
• Develop and deliver travel training sessions for faculty, staff, and graduate students; create "best-practice" guides and checklists to streamline the Travel Authorization (TA) and Reimbursement (TR) process.
• Partner with faculty to manage the unique logistics of long-term field housing, coordinating lease agreements or rental payments to ensure compliance with university spend guidelines and audit requirements.
• Provide assistance with coordination for third-party lodging requests, including Airbnbs for conferences and long-term rentals for field research personnel.
• Oversee the end-to-end travel lifecycle, including pre-travel strategy, booking assistance for non-PCard holders, and the audit of reimbursements for accuracy and policy alignment.
• Act as the liaison between the department and the University Controller; synthesize manual changes into actionable departmental workflows that reduce errors and processing delays.
• Assist Business Officer in the review of Travel Authorizations and Travel Reimbursements.

Procurement Support

• Process vouchers, journals, IDJs, Marketplace orders, and P-card reconciliations with a focus on accounting accuracy.
• Lead the setup of new vendors via PaymentWorks.
• Submit contracts for review and serve as the primary point of contact for procurement workflow inquiries and troubleshooting.

Human Resources & Faculty Support

• Provide dedicated administrative coordination for junior faculty research teams, facilitating the hiring and onboarding logistics for their student researchers and temporary project staff to ensure a smooth integration into the department.
• Serve as a departmental liaison for the student and temporary workforce, assisting with the collection and verification of biweekly time logs to ensure accuracy before final payroll approval.
• Partner with faculty to monitor research appointments; prepare salary distribution requests and labor adjustments to ensure that personnel costs align with grant funding and start-up cycles.
• Develop and maintain department-specific onboarding resources and checklists that help new faculty and their student employees navigate university HR systems and compliance requirements.

Customer Service

• Provide high-level customer service to internal and external stakeholders, resolving inquiries with professional judgment and a solutions-oriented approach.
• Develop and improve administrative workflows that further the university's land-grant mission by reducing barriers for faculty, research staff, and students.

Other Duties as Assigned

• Backstop operations managers for industry-supported programs in the department, and other administrative staff in the department