Senior Officer, Administrative Support

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Job Type:

Employee

Duration in Months (for fixed-term jobs):

36

Job Family:

Administrative Support

# of Open Positions:

1

Faculty/Service - Department:

Research Management Services

Campus:

Main Campus

Union Affiliation:

SSUO

Date Posted (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/11/25

Applications must be received BEFORE (YYYY/MM/DD):

2025/12/05

Hours per week:

35

Salary Grade:

SSUO Grade 08

Salary Range:

$64, $81,935.00About Research Management Services:

The Research Management Services (RMS) supports researchers throughout the entire research lifecycle, from securing funding to managing projects and evaluating performance. The team provides pre- and post-award support, negotiates research contracts, ensures compliance, and manages internal funding opportunities.

It also leads strategic initiatives such as Knowledge Mobilization, oversees the Research Chairs Programs, and administers the eAwards system. By offering expert advice and data-driven insights, RMS plays a key role in strengthening research capacity and fostering excellence across the institution.

Position purpose:

Reporting to the Assistant Vice-President, Research Services, the Senior Officer, Administrative Support, plan and coordinate activities related to the administration of financial, human, physical and material resources of the sector in order to provide support and advice to managers and to ensure that the policies and procedures are well understood and properly implemented.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Administrative Support: Provides administrative support through proactive calendar and email management, meeting coordination (scheduling, agendas, logistics, minutes), and oversight of departmental communications to ensure priorities are addressed efficiently. Monitors all generic inbox inquiries to determine the nature and urgency of the inquiry, seeks clarification when needed in order to ensure the delivery of high-quality services and to provide an accurate response in a timely manner.

• Administrative Writing: Drafts and revises documents using templates and coordinates the translation of administrative correspondence on behalf of senior management. Creates and maintains templates for outbound official communication from Research Management Services, in compliance with uOttawa's regulations and with a view to protect the service's image. Attends meetings to take notes and prepare minutes to follow up on decisions made. Prepares presentations, brochures, publications and other related documents to support the Assistant Vice-President, Research Services. Prepares requests for approval by senior management and committees.

• Financial and budget: Coordinate the ongoing financial transactions and all activities and processes related to the administration of internally and/or externally funded budgets of the sector to maintain financial integrity and transparency and to ensure compliance with established policies. Perform all research and analysis necessary to provide recommendations to managers and/or researchers on the effective preparation of budgets, budget projections and shortfalls to maximize revenue and contain expenditure.

• Payroll: Prepare requests for remuneration, and required documentation for the generation of contracts, and administer remuneration for casual and term employees to ensure compliance with established policies and to minimize the possibility of a negative impact on the affected employee, such as an interruption in pay. Verify payroll reports for accuracy and liaise with Payroll Services to reconcile any inconsistencies.

• Human resources: Act as resource person for the sector with regards to inquiries related to classification, staffing, total compensation, and leave and performance evaluation to interpret collective agreements and policies, explain procedures, and facilitate processes. Share management tools to strengthen employee engagement within the sector with the objective of maximizing productivity and minimizing turnover. May act as 2nd level approver for leave requests to ensure compliance with current policies. Coordinate the process for the Work Study program (from posting to cost recovery) to support operational needs of the sector. Onboarding

• Physical resources: Manage the physical resources to ensure the most efficient use of space for the sector. To this end, receive, analyze and treat new requests, coordinate room setup and signage, and ensure that accessibility standards are met at all times. Maintain accurate records of key holders and related security access information for staff of the sector to ensure confidentiality of the records. Act as Health and Safety representative for the sector, to ensure proper communication of health and safety-related policies and practices and monitor compliance in order to minimize risk to students and staff.

• Material resources: Act as resource person for the sector with regards to inquiries on procurement policies, procedures and suppliers to ensure proper interpretation and compliance. Manage material resources of the sector to ensure that there is equipment available to meet operational needs. To this end, purchase goods and services, and create services contracts, on purchase order or on credit card, in compliance with all relevant policies.

• Reporting: Prepare various moderately complex reports, on a scheduled as well as ad-hoc basis, on financial transactions, accounts, payroll, budget projections, and human resources-related data for the sector to provide recommendations to managers and to support long term resources planning.

What you will bring

• Advanced knowledge of administration, accounting, financial and human resources principles normally acquired through postsecondary studies in a related discipline or an equivalent combination of education and work experience

• Minimum 3 years of demonstrated experience in a similar role

• Knowledge of computer systems and software including financial systems, spreadsheets, databases, Internet and e-mail

• Experience in interpreting, explaining and applying policies and regulations

• Experience working in a unionized environment and in interpreting collective agreements

• Experience in preparing reports

• Ability to produce high quality work under pressure while meeting strict deadlines

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills

• Strong organizational skills

• High level of discretion

• Bilingualism – French and English (spoken and written)

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Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa: 

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realize an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from qualified Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click here to find out more.

If this is a front-line position with responsibilities to interact with students, selected candidates must be rated at the Low Advanced proficiency level or higher for both oral comprehension and reading comprehension in their second official language. The rating is determined by a proficiency test designed by the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.

Prior to May 1, 2022, the University required all students, faculty, staff, and visitors (including contractors) to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as defined in Policy 129 – Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy was suspended effective May 1, 2022 but may be reinstated at any point in the future depending on public health guidelines and the recommendations of experts.

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