Business and Financial Action Officer: R&D Programs

Core Responsibilities

• Act as a chief-of-staff–style partner to senior executives, managing day-to-day operations, follow-ups, and priority execution
• Maintain and actively manage executive calendars, meeting agendas, decision logs, and action-item tracking
• Prepare executives for meetings by coordinating briefings, financial summaries, approvals, and background materials
• Track and manage financial actions, including budget requests, funding documents, justifications, and approval packages
• Ensure all required documentation is completed, routed, approved, and archived to enable timely next steps
• Serve as the coordination hub between leadership, finance, contracting, legal, program teams, and external stakeholders
• Monitor deadlines, dependencies, and deliverables to ensure schedules are met and risks are surfaced early
• Develop and maintain dashboards, trackers, and reports that provide clear visibility into financial status, actions, and decisions
• Support compliance with federal regulations, internal controls, and organizational policies
• Anticipate executive needs, resolve bottlenecks, and proactively drive issues to closure
• Operate with minimal guidance while balancing multiple priorities in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, accounting, public administration, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience supporting senior leaders or executives in a government, consulting, or R&D environment
• Experience working within or alongside federal agencies, research organizations, or large regulated programs
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex schedules, approvals, documentation, and cross-functional coordination
• Strong experience handling financial data, budgets, funding documents, or resource tracking
• Familiarity with federal financial processes, internal controls, and compliance requirements
• Exceptional organizational skills with a proven ability to track actions through completion
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for briefing executives and coordinating stakeholders
• High level of discretion and professionalism when handling sensitive information
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust; U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency required
• Experience with ARPA-style organizations (e.g., ARPA-H, DARPA, ARPA-E, IARPA)
• Experience functioning in a Chief of Staff, Executive Operations, Program Operations, or Action Officer role
• Familiarity with Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (PPBE) or similar decision-making frameworks
• Experience supporting science, technology, or healthcare innovation programs
• Ability to synthesize complex information into clear, executive-ready products
• Strong problem-solving instincts and comfort operating in ambiguous environments