Staff - UnionJob Category BCGEU Okanagan Support StaffJob Profile BCGEU OK Salaried - Support Services Assistant IIJob Title Senior Departmental Administrative AssistantDepartment UBCO | Administrative Support | Departments of Biology & Chemistry | Irving K. Barber Faculty of ScienceCompensation Range $4,695.00 - $5,385.00 CAD MonthlyPosting End Date April 26, 2026Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.Job End Date August 31, 2026This is a leave replacement for a fixed term duration.At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.Job SummaryThis position will provide faculty and staff related administrative support to the Department Head, Department Manager, Faculty and Staff in the Department of Biology. This includes assisting with the departmental financial processes, assisting in Teaching Assistant allocations and hiring, processing undergraduate student hires. It also includes supporting Faculty in areas such as the Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure process. Assists with the onboarding/offboarding of department members. Provides administrative support with organizing seminars, workshops, conferences, meetings and other events. This position exercises initiative and judgment to assess and respond to issues and to resolve administrative problems, works effectively using database and web-based programs and performs general routine office procedures.Organizational StatusThis position reports to the Department Manager concerning conditions of employments, and University, Faculty and Departmental policies and procedures; and to the Department Head for day-to-day activities related to administrative support. This position interacts with staff, faculty members, other Faculty of Science department members, students, Finance Operations, Human Resources, Facilities Management, Enrollment Services and other faculties and school administration.Work PerformedAssists with the departmental financial process by tracking budget, general ledgers within the Workday program.Leads or assists with organizing seminars, workshops, conferences, guest speakers and other events, including booking facilities, arranging catering, arranging travel, organizing material, expenditures, budget and registration for department events.Schedules, prepares and distributes agendas, documentation and minutes for Department meetings, caucus meetings and various committees. Attends meetings; takes and composes minutes in an accurate and timely manner.Monitor a shared departmental email inbox as the primary communication channel for the role, ensuring continuity of service and availability for team coverage; triage and respond to inquiries from students, the public, and university stakeholders, coordinate distribution of project notices and departmental communications, and support administrative processes including room bookings, document collection, and field trip and safety documentation.Assists with the recruitment of new Faculty, Sessional, Postdoctoral Fellows and Staff, including BCGEU members. Makes travel arrangements, schedules interviews as appropriate; assists with onboarding/offboarding by setting up offices, entering appropriate IT and Facilities requests; liaises with new hires to meet their specific requirements based on roles.Supports Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure (ARPT) by:Organizes and attends ARPT meetings, takes and composes minutes in an accurate and timely manner.Prepares approved copies of confidential dossiers for distribution to the Department SCARPT Committee Members.Maintains related confidential faculty SCARPT files, including Teaching Evaluations (TEQ) norm reports.Provides quality assurance of Faculty member reports (all documents as required by the Dean, Associate Dean) by checking for completeness, signatures and formatting.Assists in Teaching Assistant organization and hiring in accordance with established BCGEU guidelines. This requires creation of adverts, posting positions, meeting with Lab Managers to determine allocations of marking and laboratory demonstration hours for particular courses, as well as handling all details of Teaching Assistant contracts and job offers.Creates and hires Undergraduate Work Study – Work Learn positions.Provides support to student employees with issues pertaining to payroll, Salto access, and other requirements.Processes Instructors and Teaching Assistant’s to Student Evaluation of Teaching (SEOT) for evaluation purposes.Secondary assistant with the Department’s Education Plan duties, including use of the Web Data Collection, laboratory scheduling, back-up to main assistant, for Winter and Summer Sessions.Process awards such as ‘Excellence in Biology’; assists with administration of other student, staff and faculty awards.Coordinates and schedules appointments with department members, University members, students and general public.Performs website reviews and updates requests and changes.Performs other related duties as required, provides vacation and leave backup support for equal administrative positions in the Department of Biology.Consequence of Error/JudgementThis position is expected to perform professionally and make proper and sound decisions. Adherence to details is critical. This position has access to confidential correspondence, student exams, financial records and personal information for staff and faculty. This position has access to sensitive student record information. Errors have a direct impact on student academic records. Poor judgment or errors in processing confidential materials and correspondence could have an adverse effect on the work of the Department Head. Access to this wide range of information requires the employee to exercise judgment in maintaining the confidentiality of the information. A breach of privacy and policy may have financial, legal and reputational implications for the University. Must be able to exercise a great deal of judgment and initiative in dealing with administrative matters where there are no established policies, procedures or guidelines.Supervision ReceivedThis position works under the Department Manager, the Department Head for day-to-day department support tasks, and receives supervision and guidance from the Department Manager with regards to conditions of employment and University, Faculty and Departmental policies and procedures. This position carries out familiar phases of work independently and in accordance with established procedures; however, is expected to be able to take initiative, problem-solve, determine course of action and then follow through independently without supervision.Supervision GivenThe position is not responsible for the supervision of others.QualificationsCompletion of four (4) years post secondary education. Over two (2) years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.Experience in a university setting providing administrative assistance to executives is preferred.Ability to prioritize work, multiple tasks, work under pressure to meet deadlines in a hectic environment.Excellent organizational skills are required.Incumbent must have intermediate proficiency in Microsoft 365.Incumbent must have demonstrated ability to work both independently and within a team environment.Ability to take and transcribe accurate minutes in a fast passed environment.Knowledge of University policies and procedures is an asset.Excellent oral and written communication using clear concise business English is required.Ability to ensure efficient records management procedures and practices required.
