Senior Administrative and Chair's Assistant

Overview

The Senior Administrative and Chair’s Assistant provides high-level administrative support to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and reports directly to the Operations Manager and the Department Chair. The primary responsibility of this role is to manage the full lifecycle of academic appointments. The position also supports departmental event planning and financial operations and provides backup support to other team members as needed.

1. Works with the Chair on faculty affairs processes for ladder, instructional, secondary, and visiting faculty; including searches, recruitment, appointments, promotions, reappointments, onboarding and terminations ensuring all deadlines are met.
2. Manages and monitors all visa requests to ensure timely processing and compliance.
3. Manages student job postings, hiring, timesheet approvals, and payment processing.
4. Serves as resource for the Chair, faculty and students on Yale processes, policies, procedures, forms, and other activities.
5. Provides support in the areas of event planning and expense processing, as needed.
6. Performs additional functions as assigned.

This is a 30-hour per week position that includes a full benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, as well as paid time off.

Required Skills and Abilities

1. Demonstrated strong customer service skills and the ability to work effectively with faculty, students, and staff while fostering a professional and supportive environment.
2. Strong verbal and written communication skills. Self-motivated with the ability to take initiative, solve problems, and make independent decisions. Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive information with discretion, confidentiality, and diplomacy.
3. Exceptional attention to detail, strong organizational and follow up skills, and a demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and perform effectively in a fast-paced environment.
4. Demonstrated intermediate proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, and Outlook, with the ability to quickly learn and adapt to new software and applications.
5. Demonstrated reliability, punctuality, and consistent attendance, with flexibility to work occasional evenings and weekends as needed.

Preferred Skills and Abilities

1. Fluency in Spanish or/ and Portuguese
2. Experience in a university setting providing direct support to faculty and students
3. Prior experience with Workday and Interfolio
4. Demonstrated experience with expense management, travel arranging, and event planning.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Oversees and coordinates administrative, program, and office activities. Establishes, selects, implements, and coordinates office procedures and systems. Serves as principal source of information to students, staff, and faculty on policies, procedures, programs, and office activities.
2. Oversees, instructs, and coordinates activities of support staff. Oversees the preparation of materials for grants, contracts and budgets. Monitors expenditures and reconciles financial statements.
3. Provides editorial support for a journal/publication. Proofreads and edits material for grammatical and factual accuracy. Tracks copy through various editing and production stages. Communicates with authors, printers, and others concerned with published work.
4. Determines administrative, facility, and equipment needs for symposia, lectures, seminars, and conferences. Assembles and arranges for necessary items. Determines sources of data. Compiles, synthesizes and manipulates data. Summarizes findings and writes reports or portions of reports.
5. Gets visitors. Answers and screens telephone calls. Assesses nature of business. Responds to requests for information and provides assistance. Screens and responds to mail.
6. Formats, keyboard, proofread, and edits correspondence, reports, manuscripts, grants, and other material. Assembles attachments and corresponding material. Reviews outgoing material for completeness, dates, and signatures. Composes substantive correspondence and written material.
7. Coordinates travel arrangements. Schedules and coordinates meetings and appointments. Orders and maintains inventory of supplies. Takes minutes or dictation. Performs additional functions incidental to office activities.

Required Education and Experience

Six years of related work experience, four of them in the same job family at the next lower level, and high school level education; or four years of related work experience and an Associate's degree; or little or no work experience and a Bachelor's degree in a related field; or an equivalent combination of experience and education.