Job Description

Executive Assistant to the Dean of Education

Primary Purpose: The Executive Assistant (EA) provides a broad range of high-level administrative, organizational, communication, planning, and problem-solving assistance and support to the Dean of the College of Education. The role requires high level functioning in balancing complex, strategic, confidential, and competing priorities which enable the Dean to be responsive and effective in fulfilling their role. In this position, you would be responsible for the strategic management of associated logistics, including receiving, triaging, and scheduling multiple requests and opportunities as appropriate to meet the demands of a challenging, diverse and high-volume office. You would act as both the first point of contact responding or directing a wide range of internal and external key stakeholders, partners, and donors; as well as being a key manager of the internal strategic operation of the office. You would ensure that all administrative functions, correspondence, and operations of the office are managed in a timely and effective manner appropriately representing the Office of the Dean, College of Education.

Nature of Work: Reporting to the Dean, the Executive Assistant requires a comprehensive understanding of the College of Education\'s strategic directions to align work priorities and assist with the effective implementation of the College Plan in a complex, academic and research environment. This position works in a high-volume office setting with multiple and competing demands and strict deadlines (occasional medium to high level of stress). Multi-tasking is the norm, and flexibility, discretion, diplomacy, and foresight is required. Superior professionalism and integrity is required. You would work with a team, and often takes on a leadership capacity. Considerable discretion and integrity is required. This position is privy to and routinely works with sensitive and confidential information, thus confidentiality and sensitivity is consistently required. The environment is continuously changing with shifting priorities and frequent interruptions. The position requires some discretionary decision making, superior judgement and analysis, and requires the management of a wide variety of duties within established policies, guidelines and procedures with minimal supervision. The position is responsible for ensuring day-to-day work is completed accurately, and information provided to others is correct. Impact of error is high. The incumbent must have the ability to manage pressure while managing competing interests toward satisfactory outcomes. Establishing and maintaining the level of professional relationships that support exceptional collaboration and problem solving is essential for success in this position.

Typical Duties or Accountabilities:

• Provide timely, accurate and pro-active administrative support for all assigned duties such as: reception; scheduling calendars; arranging meetings; distribution of agendas and minutes and ensuring all appropriate parties have required material prior to meetings; responding to telephone, electronic, and in-person inquiries; data entry, reconciling monthly financial reports, managing office filing systems; preparing briefing notes; and effectively executing other assigned units of work.
• Contribute to the positive changes in the culture of the College; acting as the face of the College.
• Strategically coordinate, and support, and assist in the analysis and improvement of Collegial Processes in the college.
• Effectively analyze, create, and prepare a variety of documents, reports, presentations and packages for the Dean as required in an accurate and timely manner.
• Strategically manage assigned workload of the incumbent and the Dean, establishing standards that provide a balance between meeting and office/work time, reflect realistic priorities in terms of who and when to schedule, and allow sufficient flexibility for shifts in response to the fast paced and fast changing agendas.
• Provide administrative support to committees as assigned and arrange travel and track expenses as required.
• Ensure the timely and judicious articulation of those issues about which the Dean needs to be aware, and/or which the Dean can alone address or refer.
• Effectively represent the Dean in all contacts, ensuring the right tone and interest are projected, dealing with issues and concerns, solving or appropriately referring problems related to office functioning as they arise and maintaining appropriate confidentiality of information and materials.
• Provide support for communications triage to direct requests and queries appropriately; ensure the Dean\'s office staff are aware of and deal with requests that only they can handle; and track and follow-up requests to ensure timely responses are provided and issues are resolved.
• Assist the Dean with the analysis, creation, coordination and communication of reports, projects and actions within the College\'s strategic plan.
• Provide effective, accurate and confidential administrative support to the Dean including drafting routine to complex carefully researched foundational and planning documents, reports, proposals, correspondence, and other operational and strategic documentation.
• Establish and maintain collaborative interactions with the Dean, the Leadership Team, the faculty and staff in the college, other Deans and senior administrators, faculty and staff in colleges and units across campus and external stakeholders including government and school divisions.
• Operate as the primary conduit with senior administrators external to the College including the President\'s, Provost\'s and Vice-Provost\'s Offices and other College Deans.
• Prepare strategic communications and documents on behalf of the Dean and leadership team.
• Work closely with the Dean to prepare speaking notes, presentations and other required communication materials.
• Involvement with and leadership in College strategic planning sessions/workshops/town halls, meetings, and retreats.
• Effectively develop and manage assigned special projects including planning, research, analysis, budget development, coordinating, implementation, on-going evaluation and making recommendations for improvements on a variety of projects.
• Provide appropriate, timely and judicious identification and articulation of issues or emerging political, environmental, or other matters that the Dean needs to be aware of.
• Other duties as assigned.

Education: An undergraduate degree in business, office administration or a related field. A post-secondary certificate in office administration or a related field may be considered.

Experience: A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience providing administrative, communication and project management support to senior administrative leadership, preferably in a university environment. A broad and clear understanding of the University of Saskatchewan strategic directions, research, scholarly and collegial processes as well as financial processes, policies and procedures are essential.

Skills: Demonstrated ability to work effectively and discreetly with confidential and sensitive information is essential; ability to make discretionary decisions while exercising superior levels of tact, diplomacy and professionalism; effective and exemplary interpersonal and communication skills (both oral and written) resulting in the ability to develop and maintain positive and professional working relationships with a wide variety of individuals including senior administrators, staff, faculty and external stakeholders; high attention to detail, proactive, proficient organizational skills with demonstrated ability to deal effectively with multiple, possibly conflicting, priorities that originate from a variety of sources to meet deadlines; ability to work independently, collaboratively and effectively in a team environment; demonstrated proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, electronic calendaring systems and University systems including UniFi; financial management skills. The incumbent must possess high standards of professional integrity, customer ethic, and cultural awareness.

Department: College of Education
Status: Permanent
Employment Group: Exempt
Full Time Equivalent (FTE): 1.0
Salary: The salary range, based on 1.0 FTE, is $51,000.00 - 89,760.00 per annum. The starting salary will be commensurate with education and experience.
Salary Phase/Band: Salary Band 2
Posted Date: 8/14/2023
Closing Date: 9/15/2023 at 6:00 pm CST
Number of Openings: 1
Work Location: May be eligible for hybrid work under the terms of USask\'s Alternative Workspace Guidelines

The successful applicant will be required to provide the following current verification(s) where \'Yes\' is indicated below. Further information is available at:

Criminal Record Check: Not Applicable
Driver\'s License and Abstract Check: Not Applicable
Education/Credential Verification: Not Applicable
Vulnerable Sector Check: Not Applicable The University is committed to employment equity, diversity, and inclusion, and are proud to support career opportunities for Indigenous peoples to reflect the community we serve. We are dedicated to recruiting individuals who will enrich our work and learning environments. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given priority. We are committed to providing accommodations to those with a disability or medical necessity. If you require an accommodation to participate in the recruitment process, please notify us and we will work together on the accommodation request. We continue to grow our partnerships with Indigenous communities across the province, nationally, and internationally and value the unique perspective that Indigenous employees provide to strengthen these relationships. Verification of Indigenous Membership/Citizenship at the University of Saskatchewan is led and determined by the and Standing Committee in accordance with the processes developed to enact the policy. Successful candidates that assert Indigenous membership/citizenship will be asked to complete the verification process of Indigenous membership/citizenship with documentation. The University of Saskatchewan\'s main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the M\xc3\xa9tis. We pay our respects to the First Nations and M\xc3\xa9tis ancestors of this place and reaffirm our relationship with one another. Together, we are uplifting Indigenization to a place of prominence at the University of Saskatchewan.

University of Saskatchewan