Faculty/Grants Assistant - Princeton University

Provides full administrative support to several heavily-research active senior faculty members, along with their lab group members, combined. The assistant will also support a large DOE EFRC center grant. The assistant manages all administrative, teaching, financial, and sponsored research tasks for the faculty and research group members including scheduling, travel planning, providing course support and liaising with students, processing expenses, ordering lab equipment and supplies, tracking lab purchase orders, providing heavy and frequent assistance with grants management activities, and preparing timely spending projections.

The assistant plans for, organizes, and reconciles heavy travel and speaking schedules, including the creation of detailed itineraries; manages calendars, mail, e-mail inboxes and frequent phone calls; organizes weekly and annual meetings and events/conferences; updates faculty websites; proofreads, edits and organizes research progress reports, letters of recommendation, proposals, faculty research publications, technical articles, abstracts, manuscripts, book chapters, and editorial reviews; processes reimbursements and travel vouchers for faculty, research staff and visitors; orders equipment and supplies and tracks purchases for research labs; and assists faculty members with teaching duties by managing course information in various systems, photocopying course materials, and arranging meetings between students and faculty.

The assistant's significant grants management oversight includes careful analysis and attention to detail. Responsibilities include overseeing the effective management of several millions of dollars in grants and unrestricted accounts; creating, preparing and entering in electronic grants management systems all non-scientific data for grant applications; in coordination with grants managers, assisting with the creation of budgets and budget justifications; collaborating with internal and external Principal Investigators and co-PIs to ensure that proposal guidelines are followed and materials are submitted in a timely manner; and managing and projecting for spending on federal and corporate sponsored grants as well as unrestricted accounts in research funding.

This position will also support the department's central business office with routine administrative tasks.

This is a limited term position, for 36 months, and may be renewed based on performance and funding.

Grants Management: Must understand and review sponsor guidelines for all applicable Funding Opportunity Announcements. Manages and reviews spending on federal, corporate, and foundation sponsored grants, as well as unrestricted accounts, with several million in research funding. Notifies department's business staff of any deficits. Frequently assists with grant proposal and budget preparation, coordinates sponsored research and other grant submissions for faculty members and lab groups, including creating, preparing and entering all non-scientific data for grant applications and uploading via electronic grants systems, including the Current/Pending/Other Support and Biosketch materials. Collaborates with internal and external Principal Investigators and co-PIs to ensure that proposal guidelines are followed and materials are submitted in a timely manner. Manages and projects for spending on federal and corporate sponsored grants as well as unrestricted accounts in research funding. Proofreads, edits, organizes and submits faculty research progress reports, as well as proposals for research staff and graduate fellowships. Ushers subaward processes for the DOE EFRC grant.

Financial Management: Uses University's Information Warehouse and other systems to monitor lab equipment and supply purchases made by researchers and students in several faculty research groups; tracks spending and helps to determine remaining budget available for travel, supplies, and equipment; monitors balances of sponsored research projects; monitors anticipated award funding; provides projections on sponsored projects and discretionary funds to advise faculty and business office colleagues on spending patterns and allocations based on current spending, remaining budget, and anticipated award funding. Frequently orders equipment and supplies for PIs' research labs.

General Administrative Duties: Drafts and edits correspondence, letters of reference, proposals, faculty research publications (including entries into SciENcv and ORCHID), technical articles, abstracts, manuscripts, book chapters, and editorial reviews; manages several calendars, mail, e-mail inboxes and frequent phone calls; organizes weekly and annual meetings and events/conferences. Plans and organizes frequent travel and speaking schedules. Creates detailed travel itineraries that include all trip logistics. Processes reimbursements and travel vouchers for faculty, research staff and visitors; orders equipment and supplies and tracks purchases for research labs. Assists faculty members with teaching duties by managing course information in various systems, photocopying course materials, and arranging meetings between students and faculty. Arranges meetings and events to connect DOE EFRC collaborators.

Business Office Administrative Support: Administer central iLab functions, including updating the center’s home pages and updating rates, approving charges, and maintaining shell configurations. Handle shop rate updates, reconciliations, and bookings for department core facilities. Manages Labor Accounting updates for postdoctoral researcher and technical staff populations. Processes PRIME cost transfer journals. Reviews and approves concur expense entries.

REQUIRED: Familiarity with basic accounting principles. Must possess excellent organizational skills, the ability to work independently with a high level of accuracy and energy, manage multiple priorities simultaneously, and exercise discretion in obtaining and providing factual and confidential information. Must be comfortable with taking initiative. Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbal) are essential, with the ability to interact effectively with all levels of the University. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, attention to detail and the ability to meet firm deadlines. Intermediate level proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint.

Associates or other two-year degree required, Bachelor's degree preferred. In exceptional cases, four years of relevant experience may be considered in place of the education requirement.

PREFERRED: Familiarity with Princeton University system applications, such as PRIME, Information Warehouse, PeopleSoft Financials, and Concur. Knowledge of Princeton University's ERA grants management system and other federal agency grants submission systems. Familiarity with Canvas and PhotoShop. Ability to monitor and update web pages.

Associates or other two-year degree required, Bachelor's degree preferred. In exceptional cases, four years of relevant experience may be considered in place of the education requirement.

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