Administrative Director

General Summary:

The Administrative Director of the Biology Department works closely with the Department Chair to manage the overall operation of the Biology Department, from day-to-day operations to high-level and long-range planning. The Director oversees all organizational, financial, personnel, and academic operations and is directly responsible for financial, budgetary, and personnel matters. The incumbent oversees staff who are responsible for purchasing, course scheduling, course assignments of instructors and graduate students, and other aspects of Department operation. In consultation with the Chair, the Director engages in budgetary, personnel, operations, and Departmental space planning. The incumbent provides overall administrative support to the Chair, faculty, staff, and other personnel, and provides post-award grant support for all sponsored projects. The Director is the first point of contact for the Department and represents the Department on committees that require knowledge of fiscal and personnel procedures and mechanisms.

Examples of Duties:

Personnel Management:

• Supervise Staff who are responsible for purchasing, academic scheduling, graduate teaching assignments, hiring, payroll, event planning, and many other tasks.
• Manage all aspects of the employee life cycle, including performance management for all direct reports, establishing goals, providing feedback, conducting performance evaluations, managing equity reviews, writing job descriptions, monitoring staff training in development programs, conducting annual evaluation of at least four Departmental staff members, and taking corrective action as needed.
• Collaborate with Dean’s office and HR to manage the recruitment, hiring, onboarding, promotion, teaching buy-outs, and termination processes for all Departmental employees, including faculty, staff, and student employees.
• Manage additional compensation, overtime, and comp time.
• Coordinate with the Dean’s office and Global Programs regarding immigration issues.
  
  

Budget Management:

• Manage Departmental budgets and subsidiary accounts, including General Operating Fund, startup accounts, Research Trust Funds (RTF), endowments and gift accounts, service accounts, and grant accounts.
• Post-Award Grant Support: Support the Departmental Research Administrator (DRA) assigned to the College with post-award grant activities. This will include journal entries, providing budget updates to faculty, assisting faculty with reviewing and managing ongoing budgets, hiring, procurement, travel arrangements, reimbursements, vendor set-ups related to grants, and effort certification.
• Provide direction for fiscal matters and make spending recommendations to Chair to meet Departmental needs, including utilization of RTF and endowment accounts.
• Prepare annual budgets that project future needs.
• Oversee all Departmental purchasing and accounting, including issuing disbursement vouchers, making journal entries, and overseeing reconciliation of Departmental bank card transactions.
  
  

Department Operations:

• In consultation with the Chair, develop and implement Departmental office policies, delegate responsibilities to staff, and arrange logistics of office operations.
• Records: Oversee archives of Department records in compliance with university records retention policy. Maintain OneDrive files.
• Oversee staff schedule and timekeeping.
• Provide support to faculty and others for travel booking, authorization, and reimbursements.
• Provide all operational needs for departmental personnel (i.e. access, office space, office equipment, email, phone, etc).
• Act as point of contact for all Graduate TA/RA appointments and work with Office of Graduate Studies to resolve any issues.
• Coordinate all logistical aspects of personnel searches.
• General administrative support: Provide overall administrative support to tenure-track (TT) faculty (at least 28), NTT faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, administrative staff, technical staff for teaching labs, and greenhouse manager.
• Establish documentation process for office and administrative procedures.
• Space: Responsible for maintaining inventory of administrative rooms and spaces within the Department, including offices, labs, and conference spaces.
• Special projects and events: Coordinate Departmental projects and events, such as conferences, symposia, and award events.
  
  

Planning: Meet regularly with Department Chair to discuss short-term Departmental needs; engage in longer-term, high-level strategic planning regarding general Departmental operations, administration, and structure; participate in space and facilities planning and planning for space renovation.

Website: Provide website support including original writing, editing, and updating copy.

Administrative web applications. Utilize University web applications for purchasing, effort certification, finance, HR, records, travel and expense reimbursement, and student record management.

Department Representation:

• Act as Biology Department liaison on committees requiring knowledge of fiscal and personnel procedures and mechanisms.
• Function as first contact for public inquiries to the Department.
• Function as first contact for personnel problems.
• Departmental Imaging Core Facility: Act as point of contact for Departmental Core with ORSP.
  
  

Generation of reports: Support the Chair in collecting and synthesizing Departmental information and drafting summary reports, including annual Departmental reports and budgetary summaries.

Perform Other Duties As Assigned.

Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in accounting, Finance, Business Administration or a closely related field
• Professional experience in organizational management
• Experience with and understanding of fiscal management (preferably in an institution of higher education
• Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and to deal concurrently with numerous projects with competing deadlines.
  
  

Application Instructions:

Please apply online with your resume, cover letter and list of three professional references.

Review of candidates will begin following the application closing date.

Only Internal candidates in the Professional Staff Bargaining Unit will be considered during the first 10 business days of the posting. All other candidates will be considered after that period.

Salary Ranges for the appropriate Pay Grade can be found at the following link:

Grade: 33

Salary Ranges

This is an exempt union position.

All official salary offers must be approved by Human Resources.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.

Departments: None