The University of Southern California (USC), founded in 1880, is located in the heart of downtown L.A. and is the largest private employer in the City of Los Angeles. As an employee of USC, you will be a part of a world-class research university and a member of the “Trojan Family,” which is comprised of the faculty, students and staff that make the university a great place to work.
The USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is seeking a Project Specialist - Administrative in the Sociology Department. The largest and oldest of the USC schools, USC Dornsife functions as the academic core of the university, offering courses and advancing knowledge across the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.
The Department of Sociology is a vibrant intellectual community with three undergraduate majors (Sociology, Health and Human Sciences, and NGOs and Social Change) and two PhD programs (Sociology and the multidisciplinary Population, Health, and Place). Many affiliated research centers are led by our faculty.
Our faculty are experts in many fields, and we produce research for scholarly, policy, and public audiences. Our location in Los Angeles means that issues like immigration, inequality, homelessness, politics, and climate change inform our research and teaching. We also look across the U.S. and around the world to investigate global trends and issues.
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We are looking for a qualified & dependable Project Specialist- Administrative Assistant to join as a part-time, grant funded position for the next 4 years. They will be responsible for a broad range of duties related to organizing, executing, and monitoring the implementation and ongoing operations of a complex research project on monetary sanctions. They will fulfill key administrative duties needed to run the Captive Money Lab, a social science research lab run by faculty from USC Sociology in collaboration with faculty at North Carolina State University and Syracuse University.Responsibilities:
- Schedule, organize, and prepare meeting agenda for full team, PI, and research assistant meetings.
- Schedule meetings with outside organizations and contacts.
- First contact for legislative, advocacy, and media requests, must respond to a variety of inquiries promptly and respectfully, customer service and interpersonal skills essential.
- Keep minutes in all relevant project meetings.
- Develop timelines and take guidance from PIs to develop budgets and scopes of work.
- Track progress across project teams to ensure study milestones are met, including maintaining deliverable timelines & ensuring expedient and on-time completion of tasks.
- Track budget expenditures.
- Organize study data including legislative, archival, and interview data.
- Upload content to Captive Money Lab website and coordinate with website developer to maintain up-to-date and accurate site.
- Coordinate travel for data collection and team meetings.
- Coordinate onboarding of new research and administrative staff (as needed).
- Ensures confidentiality when dealing with sensitive information, such as study data, interview respondents, faculty or staff personnel information.
- Exercise independent judgement and decision-making, attention to detail, prioritize competing demands and work independently and efficiently across a growing research team.
- Professionalism, maturity, and experience are expected.
List of preferred qualifications:
- Project management or administration for academic and/or research projects.
- Combined customer service, secretarial, and administrative experience in a research or university environment.
Experience with social science research projects is not a requirement for the position. We are open to a wide variety of substantive research backgrounds and relevant project management experience.
Hourly range: The hourly rate range for this position is $29.17-$30.00. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate’s work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, as well as external market and organizational considerations.
Performs other related duties as assigned or requested. The university reserves the right to add or change duties at any time.
Required Documents and Additional Information:
- Resume and cover letter required (may be uploaded as one file). Please do not submit your application without these documents.
- Job openings are posted for a minimum of (5) five business days. This job may be removed from posting boards and filled any time after the minimum posting period has ended, so please apply on the same business day if interested.
- USC has excellent benefits, including health benefits for staff and their family with access to the renowned university medical network; eligibility for retirement plans with employer contributions after six months of employment; tuition benefits for staff and their family; free Professional Development classes; central Los Angeles location with easy access to commuter trains, buses and free tram pick up services; discounts to sporting and other campus events.
- This position is hybrid and will include both remote & on-campus duties/tasks.
The University of Southern California is an Equal Opportunity Employer that Values Diversity.
Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree Additional Education Requirements Combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education Minimum Experience: 2 years Minimum Skills: Directly related project or administrative experience. Preferred Education: Master's degree Preferred Experience: 3 years
