Staff - Union
Job Category
CUPE 2950
Job Profile
CUPE 2950 Salaried - Administrative Support 2 (Gr3)
Job Title
Administrative Assistant
Department
Birth Place Lab – Administration | Department of Family Practice | Faculty of Medicine
Compensation Range
$4,208.00 - $4,316.00 CAD Monthly
Posting End Date
February 17, 2025
Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.
Job End Date
Mar 2, 2026
NOTE: This is a part-time (0.8 FTE), salaried position for a term of 1 year, with possibility of extension. The posted salary will be pro-rated according to the FTE.
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 Summary
The Administrative Assistant (AA) provides administrative and communications support for a lab that specializes in community-centred, health services research and knowledge translation to advance equity, quality, and respect in perinatal services. This position provides administrative and operations support to the Lead Investigator and Operations Manager of the Birth Place Lab (BPL). The AA will be responsible for supporting a range of activities related to research projects in the area of reproductive health and justice. The Administrative Assistant will support communications and collaborations with community partners, trainees, and research partners and other external communications for BPL. The AA will organize meetings related to the main project and sub-projects, take minutes at meetings, and prepare and send pre and post meeting communications.
Organizational Status
The Birth Place Lab (BPL) facilitates transdisciplinary, community-based, participatory action research aimed at improving access to high quality perinatal services, from preconception to early parenting. The BPL supports multi-national, multi-stakeholder teams as they collaborate on quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods provincial, national, and international research projects, and hosts trainees from midwifery, medicine, public health, and other disciplines. The BPL internal team includes the PI, Research Associates, Operations and Administrative Manager, Research and Communications staff. The BPL also includes doctoral/postdoctoral students, work-learn and FLEX students. All team members liaise with Co-Is, external partners, and community partners who co-lead projects.
The BPL currently holds several grants that support measurement, research and knowledge translation on person-centered and respectful perinatal care for families, especially those from historically marginalized populations. These novel research projects are poised to inform health policy, system and service leaders about pragmatic, community-responsive models of increasing access and accountability for rights-based, high quality health services. Current research studies are funded by various Tri-Council agencies and foundations, and are institutionally supported through the Division of Midwifery, Department of Family Practice, Faculty of Medicine, the Women's Health Research Institute at BC Women's Hospital, and Child and Family Research Institute. The core research team is located in Vancouver, though transdisciplinary research and community partners are spread across North America, Europe, Africa, India, the UK, South America, and Oceania.
Work Performed
Administration
Facilitates the flow of information and communications activities for the BPL. Acts as on-the-ground administrative hub and first point of contact. Finds day-to-day solutions to administrative problems, responsive to the diverse needs and priorities of research and community partners.
- Implements systems and strategies for streamlining administrative and communications processes, to increase accuracy and efficiency.
- Oversees and improves archival management and digitized file storage.
- Coordinates MedIT software and systems upgrades, trouble shoots remote access and videoconferencing issues, as well as day-to-day computer issues for staff.
- Supports Operations Manager with equipment, space and access management. Manages telephones, keys, business cards and Plant Ops work orders for UBC offices.
- Provides executive support to the PI maintaining the highest degree of confidentiality and professionalism, coordinates calendar, and arranges travel for PI for BPL and research-related presentations and meetings.
- Coordinates BPL meetings including arranging dates, booking rooms, preparing meeting materials, monitoring member participation, taking and distributing minutes where applicable.
- Supports logistics and coordinates special events such as knowledge mobilization events, Visiting Scholar or Researchers, community and partner events. Includes liaising with stakeholder representatives, venue and caterers. Supports Operations Manager to coordinate registration, promotion, event details and financial payment and reconciliation, travel and accommodations.
- Monitors and maintains BPL project email accounts.
- Manages and updates contacts for research collaborators, trainees, and early career scholars, including teams that use the measures and outputs of the BPL.
Finance
Supports Admin & Op Manager with communications related to budget and finance administration, and drafting of BPL contracts and licensure agreements.
- Reconciles Workday for PI’s expenditures.
- Provides data and spreadsheets for financial and variance reporting and helps figure out discrepancies.
- Year-end reconciliation: Supports Operations Manager to review all worktags and adjust transactions as needed, transfer and reallocate funds and expenses among worktags, and do yearly accruals.
- Prepares admin-related invoices, POs, JVs, Elder payments, clinical faculty payments, deposits cheques, sets up and gives instructions to contractors on how to submit invoices, codes invoices, tracks finance projects, and other day-to-day accounting.
- Tracks the progress of financial requisitions and responds to inquiries regarding their status as required. Maintains online copies of requisitions, updates expense-tracking spreadsheet, and reconciles accounts.
- Maintains accurate financial records in compliance with UBC policies and procedures.
Consequence of Error/Judgement
Errors in the Administrative Assistant work could hold serious consequences for the timeliness and quality of the research project and overall BPL outputs.
Supervision Received
The Administrative Assistant will report directly to the BPL PI and Operations and Administration Manager. The incumbent will be provided with orientation and annual reviews.
Supervision Given
N/A
Minimum Qualifications
High School graduation, plus one year of related training, plus two years of related experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
- Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion
Preferred Qualifications
- Completion of a relevant technical program or a university degree in a relevant discipline, preferred.
- Experience working in a University research unit is an asset.
- Experience working with racialized communities, Indigenous Nations, and/or populations underrepresented in health research and knowledge translation. Demonstrated interest and experience in improving quality of pregnancy and birth care an asset.
- Demonstrated high attention to detail, excellent organizational skills (ability to set priorities and deal with multiple tasks).
- Demonstrated excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, and within a team environment, to meet deadlines.
- Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite.
- Commitment to respectful communication, collaboration, and principles of equity and inclusion. Familiarity with UBC Research Ethics, grant administration, OCAP principles, and the Inclusion Action Plan an asset.
