Office Administrator

Administrative Specialist

Brown and Caldwell (BC) has an exciting opportunity for a full-time Administrative Specialist to support the organizational and operational needs of our Chicago office. This role is ideal for an organized, resourceful professional with strong administrative, office management, and customer service experience who enjoys supporting employees, clients, vendors, and visitors in a professional and welcoming environment. The successful candidate will help keep office operations running smoothly, support a hybrid workforce across in-person, virtual, and multi-office settings, and contribute to a collaborative team culture that values learning, growth, and excellent service.

The Office Administrator role is responsible for performing general technical and administrative support tasks and completing routine assignments. This role may support key areas such as health and safety, fleet, lab, conference facilities, and office management. In addition, this role plays a pivotal part in onboarding/offboarding employees, organizational planning, supporting digital services, change management initiatives, and fostering organizational culture.

Responsibilities

• Office Management. Partner with the Chicago Market Leader to support effective office operations, local engagement, and a well-organized workplace environment, with a strong focus on coordinating office meetings and events that foster connection and collaboration.
• Responsibilities include:
• Communicate with property management on office concerns and issues to resolve in a timely manner.
• Maintain conference room equipment – working closely with the internal IT services to troubleshoot technology issues and concerns.
• Maintain common areas to create a professional and inviting space.
• Maintain organization of the office space, from coordinating green recycling to ensuring office supplies are stocked and readily available.
• Collaborate and coordinate with the internal facilities team for building management concerns, support move coordination activities.
• Partner and collaborate with local operations leader as needed re: employee/office communications, and any other office related issues or concerns.
• Administrative Support. Provide day-to-day administrative assistance to staff and support routine office services, with particular attention to the building's specialized security requirements and guest access procedures.
• Responsibilities include:
• Manage office visitors (welcoming clients, vendors, guests, and staff).
• Maintain office supply inventories.
• Coordinate mail, courier services, and FedEx shipments.
• Maintain common area upkeep and provide a welcome experience for staff.
• Arrange travel and support with expense report reconciliation as needed for senior staff.
• Prepare written communications such as office-wide emails, office MS Teams posts.
• Assist with assignments of a confidential nature for functional groups and managers; virtually support other nearby Brown and Caldwell (BC) offices as needed; understand, implement, and adhere to corporate policies related to finance, cost control, project delivery, safety, and quality assurance.
• Troubleshoot and coordinate with BC's helpdesk to solve technology issues with conference rooms, hotel stations, OpenPath, and employee concerns in regard to BC's technology.
• Maintain office directory pages on the BC Pipeline.
• Submit sponsorship and membership requests through designated process.
• Assist with project archive requests and pull appropriate files from offsite archiving companies.
• Submit local office vendor invoices with correct vendor and GL codes to AP for timely processing.
• May maintain fleet vehicles to comply with BC standards for routine car upkeep (oil, tire rotation, new tires). Submit mileage logs as required monthly.
• Assist with scheduling and coordinating of vendor (technical) lunch and learn activities.
• Correspondence/Client Deliverables. Provide comprehensive document support and review for reports, letters, marketing materials, scopes of work, design specifications, and other client deliverables.
• Responsibilities may include:
• Coordinate and assist with formatting of reports, letters, technical memoranda marketing materials, Scopes of Work and Design Specifications including text, tables, spreadsheets, graphics, and other diverse content.
• Onboard/Offboard Employees. Work with supervisors and office personnel (local and regional) to develop onboarding plans and conduct new hire orientations.
• Responsibilities include:
• Support supervisors with tailored new employee onboarding plans.
• Support first day new employee orientations and troubleshooting with new digital services equipment
• Draft new employee announcements.
• Assist with new employee photo.
• Assist with timesheet, Health and safety orientation, and other specific onboarding orientations.
• Work closely with the Supervisor, Human Resources, and Digital Services teams to ensure a smooth and positive offboarding experience for employees. while recognizing and appreciating their contributions during their tenure at BC.
• Health & Safety: Lead and collaborate with local and national health and safety team on orientations, H&S training assignments, annual emergency action plan, annual fire/evacuation drills, employee ergonomic assistance, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) orders, incident reporting, and other health and safety related items.
• Responsibilities could include:
• Assist with maintaining and updating the office emergency action plan, including supporting the coordination of at least one (1) annual emergency drill following current H&S Program guidance and expectations.
• Assist employees with annual ergonomic evaluations and help procure needed equipment following current company's Ergonomic Program guidance and expectations.
• Maintain and keep an inventory of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies per current company guidance and expectations. This includes supporting employees with maintaining their own PPE kit/supplies as well as any field first-aid kits as current.
• Assist with incident management following current Incident Management Program guidance and expectations which may include, escalation of event to operational leader and company H&S team, supporting initial detail reporting, participating and/or leading event investigation as well as supporting identified and/or implementation of related corrective and preventative actions. Assist local operations leader and employees in participating in company work observation and project auditing programs following current respective program guidance and expectations.
• Support employee exam scheduling following current company Medical Surveillance Program guidance and expectations.
• May conduct Air Purifying Respirator (APR) fit-testing for employees following current company Respiratory Protection Program guidance and expectations.
• Support and participate in company Safety Week activities and other routine company health and safety communication distribution.
• Assist employee's with maintaining H&S compliance training.
• Participate in company H&S program routine calls, anticipated to occur at least monthly.
• Conduct monthly office inspections following current H&S program guidance and expectations.
• Conduct new hire health and safety orientations and support supervisors with assigning initial H&S training in the company's current Learning Management System (LMS) following current company and H&S Training program guidance and expectations.
• Coordinate local in-person H&S training classes that may include but not be limited to first-aid/CPR/AED, Permit-Required Confined Space Entry, and other health and safety related trainings as needed or requested.
• Marketing: Provide marketing and proposal support by editing, formatting, compiling, printing, and delivering client-facing materials. Coordinate contributor content, organize proposal components, ensure consistent style and presentation, and support final production of polished, on-time deliverables. Assist with local conferences, client events, and other marketing activities as needed.

Mentorship

• May provide mentorship, guidance, support, and knowledge-sharing to help less experienced team members develop their skills and grow within their roles.

Skills and Competencies

• Ability to carry out general administrative and technical support tasks.
• Skilled in basic IT support.
• Some organizational and planning skills.
• Skilled in MS Office suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams) knowledge of Adobe PDF or Bluebeam and proficiency with Internet applications.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for effective relationship building and fostering collaboration with a variety of business partners.
• Ability to rapidly acquire new skills and understand role responsibilities.
• Capability to efficiently manage tasks while working in collaborative environments, contributing effectively to team goals and fostering a cooperative and productive atmosphere.
• Demonstrates a strong aptitude for quickly mastering new software applications and documenting procedures, ensuring alignment with BC's evolving programs and guidelines to maintain up-to-date and compliant operations (i.e., CoPilot, Adobe/Bluebeam/SpecLink).

Experience

• Typically, a minimum of 2 years of experience in a similar role or industry.