Administrative Coordinator

Administrative Coordinator

This position is in the Building Simulation and Design Group (BS&DG) within PNNL's Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings Division (EI&BD). BS&DG conducts modeling and analysis to evaluate the impacts of building energy policies, codes, and standards; develops tools and workflows to support building research and decision making; and helps accelerate adoption of energy-efficient technologies. The group maintains core research capabilities in building energy simulation, building energy policy analysis, and tool development for building applications.

BS&DG is seeking an Administrative Coordinator to provide administrative support to a geographically distributed team of approximately 50 engineers, scientists, and project managers. This full-time position reports to the BS&D Group Leader and serves as the group administrator. In addition to supporting BS&DG, this position will provide limited on-site support to the PNNL-Portland office, in coordination with the office administrator. The preferred candidate would need to be on-site at least 4 days a week.

You are a self-starting, well-organized administrative professional who multi-tasks effectively and independently organize and prioritizes your work. You team well with your administrative peers, management, staff, and office operations partners, and you leverage those partnerships to support effective group operations and positive communications.

You will proactively partner with the BS&D Group Leader, anticipate administrative needs, and maintain familiarity with group activities, deadlines, schedules, and recurring business processes to provide timely and effective support. You are responsive to staff requests and demonstrate strong follow-through.

You use excellent written and verbal communication skills, attention to detail, and versatile interpersonal skills to foster effective working relationships within the BS&D group, across the Laboratory, and with candidates, visitors, sponsors, and other external contacts. You maintain a high degree of confidentiality, discretion, professionalism, and good judgment.

Key responsibilities include:

• Stay abreast of the Group Leader's schedule and calendar, coordinate meetings, and help track cyclical activities, due dates, action items, and administrative follow-up related to group operations and staff changes.
• Support group calendars, recurring meetings, and communication forums, including group meetings and other group events.
• Support group members, including staff on the main campus and in other locations, with business travel requests, travel booking, travel expense reporting, training requirement tracking, document routing, and other administrative activities using PNNL business systems.
• Purchase office supplies and group equipment using PCard and B2B systems, support purchase request tracking, and coordinate with requesters, vendors, finance, procurement, and other internal contacts to help ensure requests are completed accurately and timely.
• Support hiring activities by coordinating candidate interviews, travel arrangements, interview agendas, logistics, and related communications to help ensure a strong first impression of PNNL.
• Assist with onboarding of new staff, including ordering computer equipment, supporting office setup, scheduling networking meetings, helping new staff connect with group resources, and coordinating administrative onboarding actions in a timely manner.
• Serve as a resource to staff by providing guidance on routine PNNL administrative policies, procedures, and business processes, making appropriate referrals when needed.
• Coordinate group and limited PNNL-Portland office support needs, including space, equipment, access, badging, visitor support, service request coordination, office logistics, local meetings or events, and other activities coordinated with facilities, security, office operations, the senior PNNL-Portland Office administrator, and other appropriate PNNL contacts.
• Maintain and organize group information, including group rosters, shared files, templates, administrative records, and group communication materials such as SharePoint or website updates, using established procedures.
• Compose, edit, proofread, and format correspondence, documents, meeting materials, and other written communications with a high level of accuracy.
• Collect signatures, route documents and requests for approval, and track administrative actions through completion, including receipt of goods, payment, reimbursement, access actions, or other closeout steps.
• Prioritize and organize daily work, follow through on commitments, identify administrative issues or process gaps, and recommend practical improvements for the group or related office workflows.
• Support organizational events and occasional travel to other PNNL locations or group events, expected approximately four times per year.

Minimum Qualifications:

• High school diploma/GED and 6 years of relevant experience in an administrative environment -OR-
• AA degree or higher and 4 years of relevant experience in an administrative environment
• Experience in planning meetings and coordinating travel

Preferred Qualifications:

• Working knowledge of departmental and company administrative policies, procedures, practices, and business systems.
• Demonstrate experience providing administrative support to a manager, group leader, team, or geographically distributed organization.
• Experience coordinating calendars, schedules, meetings, agendas, action items, and logistics for staff or team meetings.
• Experience coordinating domestic business travel, visitor logistics, candidate travel, and travel expense reporting.
• Experience processing a high volume of standard forms and administrative requests, such as awards, purchase requisitions, expense reimbursements, approvals, document routing, and related tracking through completion.
• Proficient use of Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience preparing, proofreading, editing, and formatting correspondence, documents, agendas, presentations, or other administrative materials.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, track deadlines, and deliver high-quality work in a timely manner.
• Demonstrated ability to take initiative, work independently within established procedures, follow through on commitments, and escalate questions or issues appropriately.
• Ability to handle sensitive or confidential information with discretion, professionalism, and sound judgment.
• Demonstrated customer-service orientation and ability to interact professionally with staff, managers, candidates, visitors, sponsors, vendors, internal service providers, and office operations partners.