Department Administrator

About the role

The Department Administrator provides confidential, senior-level administrative and operational support to the Director and department leadership while coordinating the day-to-day administrative, financial, and operational functions of the department. The position exercises a high degree of initiative, discretion, sound judgment, and organizational skill, and serves as a central point of coordination for departmental operations, projects, communications, and administrative services.

Responsibilities

• Executive and Administrative Support
  • Provide confidential administrative support to the Director, managers, departmental leadership, and departmental teams.
  • Coordinate and maintain the Director’s calendar, meeting requests, task lists, travel arrangements, and correspondence.
  • Coordinate departmental meetings by scheduling attendees, preparing agendas and meeting materials, recording and distributing meeting minutes, and following up on action items.
  • Monitor institutional communications, identify initiatives requiring departmental participation, and coordinate appropriate administrative follow-up.
  • Arrange travel, accommodations, campus visits, webinars, conferences, guest speakers, and other departmental events.
  • Coordinate departmental registrations, bookings, and administrative logistics for conferences, workshops, training sessions, and other departmental activities.
• Financial Administration
  • Track, monitor, and assist with departmental budgets and expenditures, and prepare financial reports to support planning and decision-making.
  • Create, submit, review, and track purchase requisitions, invoices, contracts, expense claims, honoraria, memberships, subscriptions, registrations, and other financial transactions.
  • Reconcile Procurement Card (P-Card) statements and liaise with Finance regarding payments, purchasing issues, account allocations, and financial inquiries.
  • Monitor contract renewal dates and notify appropriate department personnel of upcoming renewals.
• Human Resources Administration
  • Support recruitment activities by initiating job postings, coordinating interview logistics, preparing documentation, and assisting with onboarding processes.
  • Coordinate HR-related administrative activities and act as a liaison with Human Resources on behalf of the department.
  • Monitor and track mandatory training, probationary periods, performance review schedules, and other employee-related administrative requirements.
• Project and Operational Coordination
  • Coordinate administrative activities for departmental projects and strategic initiatives by maintaining project schedules, documentation, records, communications, and status reporting.
  • Administer the Integrated Development Fund (IDF) by maintaining project records, monitoring project activities, coordinating communications with programs, instructional designers, subject matter experts, and development teams, and preparing project reports as required.
• Operations and Information Management
  • Coordinate the acquisition of office supplies, equipment, furniture, software, technology licenses, subscriptions, and other departmental resources.
  • Maintain inventory records for departmental equipment, technology assets, software licenses, furniture, and office supplies.
  • Coordinate office space requirements and workspace assignments.
  • Maintain departmental SharePoint sites, shared drives, electronic document repositories, procedures, forms, templates, manuals, and other operational documentation.
  • Monitor departmental email inboxes and ensure inquiries are directed appropriately.
  • Prepare, organize, proofread, format, maintain, and coordinate publication of departmental documents, records, reports, correspondence, and communications for internal and external audiences.
• Data Management and Reporting
  • Compile, analyze, and report departmental operational and performance data to support planning, decision-making, and departmental reporting.
  • Develop surveys, collect and analyze results, and prepare summary reports.
  • Maintain departmental dashboards, performance metrics, databases, and reporting systems.
  • Coordinate updates to departmental websites in collaboration with appropriate technical resources.
• Collaboration, Compliance, and Continuous Improvement
  • Serve as the primary administrative liaison between the department, other institutional departments, and the AVP’s office.
  • Facilitate administrative coordination across multiple teams, campuses, and external organizations.
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external stakeholders to support departmental operations.
  • Support departmental compliance with institutional policies, procedures, collective agreements, and applicable legislation by maintaining accurate administrative records, monitoring processes, and identifying issues requiring leadership attention.
  • Review, recommend, and continuously improve departmental administrative procedures, templates, documentation, and workflows to enhance operational effectiveness, consistency, and service quality.
• Other Duties
  • Perform other related duties as assigned in support of departmental operations.

Requirements

• Diploma in business administration, or related field (i.e.: Accounting or Finance) and/or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Minimum Three (3) years recent and relevant experience providing administrative support.
• Training and experience at an intermediate level in the use of software packages (i.e. Microsoft Office suite).
• Training and experience in the taking and transcribing of minutes.
• Excellent communication, both written and oral, interpersonal and organizational skills with the ability to organize, prioritize and handle multiple tasks and changing priorities within given time constraints with flexibility, good judgment and accuracy.
• Ability to work effectively and cooperatively with staff, students and the general public.
• Demonstrate initiative and ability to complete tasks with minimal direction/supervision and demonstrated competence in supervision of support staff.
• Ability to manage complex budgets, interpretation and reporting.
• Ability to manage confidential/sensitive information.
• Demonstrates valuing diversity.