Senior Administrative and Chair’s Assistant, French

Overview

The Senior Administrative and Chair’s Assistant supports the Chair and the Department of French and reports to the Operations Manager. The position serves as the primary point of contact for the department and provides comprehensive administrative and financial support to faculty, students, and staff.

Working closely with the Chair, this role manages the full lifecycle of academic appointments, including tracking deadlines, gathering required documentation, coordinating faculty meetings, and ensuring all actions are completed in a timely manner. The position also monitors the Chair’s priorities and advises on next steps and applicable procedures.

In addition, the role oversees financial transactions for faculty, students, and staff; coordinates a high volume of departmental events; and tracks student internal funding to ensure accurate administration and compliance with university policies.

1. Leads departmental event planning and execution, including budgeting, advertising, logistics, travel arrangements (domestic and international), lodging, catering, AV and space reservations. On rare occasions, evening and weekend hours are required related to department events.
2. Processes all financial transactions for faculty and students, including supplier setup, Pcard charges, invoices, expense reimbursements, supplier invoice requests, cash sales, and purchase orders.
3. 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. Reviews related information for accuracy and compliance and coordinates the secure distribution of documentation to committee members as needed. Responds to, screens, and triages requests and resolves or triages questions from applicants, committee members, and other stakeholders.
4. Manages and monitors all visa requests to ensure timely processing and compliance.
5. Manages student job postings, hiring, timesheet approvals, and payment processing.
6. Serves as resource for the Chair, faculty and students on Yale processes, policies, procedures, forms, and other activities.
7. Responds to requests for information and provides assistance.
8. Schedules and coordinates meetings and appointments.
9. Assists in department website maintenance.
10. Screens and responds to mail. Formats and edits correspondence and other materials. Reviews outgoing material for completeness, dates, and signatures.
11. Orders and maintains departmental supplies. Assists with ongoing maintenance of the department website.
12. Performs additional functions as needed.

The hybrid schedule is currently 4 days in office and 1 day remote which may be changed temporarily or permanently based on business needs and/or university guidance.

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 French
2. Prior experience processing financial transactions and coordinating events.
3. Experience in a university setting providing direct support to faculty and students including management of the full academic appointment lifecycle.
4. Prior experience with Workday and Interfolio.

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. GREets 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.