Career Center

Position Summary

We are looking for an Executive Secretary II for Michigan State University’s Plant Resilience Institute (PRI), who will support the PRI Director and Associate Director to manage the planning and administrative operation of the institute. The vision of PRI is to conduct cutting-edge plant resilience research in a lively, collaborative environment where impactful learning, discovery, and opportunity draw in and retain diverse talent and leadership. Our mission is to enhance plant resilience to environmental challenges including extremes in weather and to become a “Center of Excellence” for foundational and translational plant research aimed at stabilizing the productivity and quality of food and energy crops against climate fluctuations and uncertainties. The PRI includes scientists and students from diverse career stages and disciplines across several departments and colleges at MSU, with expertise in model, non-model, and crop plants, drought and heat adaptation, plant-microbe, plant-soil, and plant-insect interactions, genomics, and bioinformatics. We value professionalism, collegiality, and respect in a collaborative environment to facilitate resilience-related convergence research with rigorous and high ethical standards. We are strongly committed to promoting diversity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging, which is detailed here. The Executive Secretary II will play a crucial role in the successful operation of the institute.

Characteristics Duties and Responsibilities:

• Event planning and coordination (30%)
• Travel assistance (20%)
• Calendar and schedule management (10%)
• Administrative file maintenance of grant portfolios and documents (20%)
• Unit liaison between faulty, administrators, and staff (20%)

Communication/Interpersonal Relationships:

Interacts with: 

• University Administrators and Professionals to schedule appointments and meetings and relay messages
• Faculty and Staff to obtain advice, discuss their needs, and review new information
• Students and other trainees to provide information and get feedback
• Public to answer questions and route telephone calls and email inquiries
• Office and Departmental Staff to provide assistance for projects and to exchange information as the liaison for the Director and Associate Director
• Representatives of University Departments to exchange information and arrange meetings and special events
• Travel and Expense system (currently Concur)  to make travel arrangements and process reimbursements for the Director and Associate Director

Unit Specific Education/Experience/Skills

Knowledge normally acquired through a high school education with course work in word processing, typing, shorthand, and grammar; five to eight years of related and progressively more responsible or expansive work experience in maintaining account ledgers, word processing, editing, composing correspondence, taking dictation, spreadsheet, database, desktop publishing, and/or presentation software; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Desired Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills

• Strong work accountability and time management skills

• Attention to detail and highly organized

• Knowledge equivalent to that which normally would acquired by completing a four-year college degree program in a related field 

• One to three years of related and progressively more responsible or expansive work experience in office procedures and administration, or in performing responsibilities related to the operations

• Experience with word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Required Application Materials

Cover letter

Resume

Contact information for 3 references

Work Hours

STANDARD 8-5

Website

https://plantresilience.msu.edu/

Remote Work Statement

MSU strives to provide a flexible work environment and this position has been designated as remote-friendly. Remote-friendly means some or all of the duties can be performed remotely as mutually agreed upon.

Bidding eligibility ends on 9/19/2023 at 11:55 PM

About Michigan State University

Spartans work every day to advance the common good in uncommon ways.Together, we tackle some of the world?s toughest problems to find solutions that make life better?from alternative energy to better food safety to breakthrough medical and environmental applications achieved through rare isotope research.We teach. We explore and we discover. We collaborate and lead. We innovate, inspire, and empower. We achieve our potential and create circumstances that help our students and others achieve theirs.We're good at it, and we've been at it for more than 150 years.The nation?s pioneer land-grant university, MSU began as a bold experiment that democratized higher education and helped bring science and innovation into everyday life. The revolutionary concept became a model for the nation.Today, MSU is one of the top research universities in the world?on one of the biggest, greenest campuses in the nation. Home to nationally ranked and recognized academic, residential college, and service-learning programs, we?re a diverse community of dedicated students and scholars, athletes and artists, scientists and leaders.In ways both practical and profound, we work to create a stronger, more sustainable, and more hopeful future for all.

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