Administrative Coordinator

City of Durham; Durham (NC); On-site; USD 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

City of Durham is seeking an Executive Assistant to the Chief Human Resources Officer. The role coordinates the CHRO’s calendar, manages meeting requests and travel, and prepares confidential memos and reports for the City Manager’s Office.

You will support budget prep and act as liaison across departments in a fast-moving environment. On-site position with standard hours, occasional meetings with City Council, and a focus on confidentiality, accuracy, and professional communication.

Qualifications

• Associate’s degree in business or related field.
• Three years of advanced administrative support experience.
• Experience in local government or public sector is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Manage CHRO calendar, meeting requests, travel and expenses.
• Prepare, proofread and route correspondence, memos, agendas and reports.
• Coordinate HR leadership meetings including agendas, minutes and action items.
• Serve as first point of contact for CHRO and route calls/visitors.
• Handle confidential personnel material with discretion.
• Assist with department budget preparation and monitoring.

Skills

Calendar management

Executive support

Communication

Customer service

Document prep

Research & analysis

Confidential handling

Office software

Budget awareness

Meeting coordination

Workflow organization

Data entry

Proofreading

Records management

Notetaking

Procurement

Oracle familiarity

Education

Associate’s degree in business or related field

Three years of advanced administrative support experience

Tools

Microsoft 365

Oracle HCM (or similar)

Job description

Work. Serve. Thrive. With the City of Durham

Advance in your career while making a real difference in the community you serve.

Hiring Range: $64,507 - $100,066

Hours: Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (40 hours per week; Occasional early morning or evening hours for City Council and leadership meetings; This position works on-site).

The Human Resources Department serves about 2,800 employees across 26 City departments. Its seven teams are Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Employee Relations, Compensation & Classification, Benefits, HRIS, and HR Connect. The department is modernizing its operations, including the move to Oracle HCM and a citywide compensation and classification study.

This position is the executive assistant to the Chief Human Resources Officer and coordinates administrative operations for the Human Resources Department. It is the fourth level in a four-level Administrative Support Series. The work is complex, confidential and fast moving: managing the CHRO's calendar, meeting requests, travel and expenses; preparing, proofreading and routing correspondence, memos, agenda items, presentations and reports for the City Manager's Office, City Council and department directors; coordinating HR leadership team meetings, including agendas, materials, minutes and action item tracking; serving as the first point of contact for the CHRO and routing calls and visitors; handling confidential personnel material with discretion; processing fiscal, procurement, payroll, timekeeping and personnel transactions in Oracle; assisting with department budget preparation and monitoring; serving as department liaison to the City Manager's Office, City Clerk and City Attorney's Office; and coordinating logistics for department meetings and events. Work is performed under the general direction of the Chief Human Resources Officer and is reviewed through observation of results obtained. Writing skills will be assessed.

Position devoted to providing clerical and/or office support activities for city functions and staff. Incumbents assigned to this class perform complex and advanced administrative support for the City's top executives; perform paraprofessional management analysis work; or supervise an administrative support unit of non-exempt employees. Decision-making involves the coordination of transactions and processes at the highest level of standard operating tasks, including providing direction to lower-level staff in the execution of operational tasks and review and verification of work.

An incumbent is responsible for budget coordination; basic analysis; logistical support for politically sensitive and high-visibility programs; basic research, compiling data and formulating preliminary recommendations; creating reports; coordinating workflow; and developing, proposing and implementing operational policies and procedures. Work involves outreach and collaboration with all levels of the organization as well as outside agencies, citizens and elected officials.

• Coordinates department fiscal activities that may include budget development and budget administration; compiles data and performs basic analyses; and coordinates contract processing/administration and/or procurement activities.
• Conducts basic research, maintains statistics, performs basic analysis and/or statistical calculations and formulates preliminary recommendations.
• As assigned, serves as a lead worker, assigning work and monitoring work completion or serves as a supervisor including conducting performance evaluations, coordinating training, and implementing hiring, discipline and termination procedures.
• Provides logistical support for politically sensitive and high-visibility programs and events, including programs and events involving the city council; serves as escalation point for resolving customer services issues/inquiries; ensures follow up communication and quality assurance.
• Gathers and compiles data; extracts information from data systems; drafts reports from others notes or own research; prepares documents, reports, presentations, confidential correspondence and policy/procedure manuals.
• Serves as lead user for specialized databases and software systems; participates in database and/or software testing; coordinates workflow and implements improvements to processes.
• Provides general administrative support to the city’s top executives including receiving and processing calls, visitors and correspondence; calendaring; records management; customer service; mail processing; quality assurance and follow-up.
• Performs other duties of a similar nature and level as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE OF:

• Practices and methods of coaching, leading and/or supervising the work of others (based on assignment).
• Techniques and methods for organizing, prioritizing, assigning and monitoring work (based on assignment) and monitoring schedules and activity deadlines. Basic principles and methods of qualitative and quantitative research.
• Basic principles and applications of critical thinking and analysis.
• Standard practices, methods and materials of assigned work.
• Basic social media communications.
• Basic principles and practices of budgeting, procurement, finance, business/data systems and human resources. Organizational structure and operating functions for both liaising and serving as an escalation point for complaint resolution.
• Meeting support, including preparing agendas and taking minutes.
• Business math concepts.
• Filing and record‑keeping principles.
• Techniques and methods for organizing and prioritizing work.
• Occupational hazards and applicable safety principles and practices.
• Uses and properties of supplies and equipment.
• Applicable operating procedures, codes, regulations (based on assignment).
• Customer service principles.
• Specialized equipment relevant to area of assignment.
• Modern office technology.

SKILL IN:

• Training, coaching and supervising staff (based on assignment).
• Providing direction to others in order to meet standards.
• Organizing and coordinating work flow, office and/or event logistics.
• Coordinating staff and/or facility calendars and scheduling events and meetings.
• Handling politically sensitive and/or high‑profile customer service issues/inquiries with tact and diplomacy.
• Performing basic research and analysis.
• Providing attention to detail in assignments.
• Proofreading and error correction.
• Exercising confidentiality.
• Accessing business systems or databases to enter, monitor and retrieve data.
• Business math computations.
• Preparing reports, presentations, and documents from established information or by following a standard format.
• Maintaining and updating data and documentation.
• Operating assigned tools and equipment.
• Organizing and maintaining records and files.
• Maintaining confidential information.
• Interpreting and applying applicable operating procedures and standards (based on assignment).
• Providing customer service.
• Utilizing a computer and relevant software applications.
• Utilizing communication and interpersonal skills as applied to interaction with coworkers, supervisors, the general public and others to sufficiently exchange or convey information and to receive work direction.

• Associate’s degree in business or related field.
• Three (3) years of advanced administrative support experience.

• Some assignments may prefer a North Carolina Public Notary registration.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams).
• Five or more years supporting an executive at the director level or above.
• Experience in local government or another public sector setting.
• Experience handling confidential human resources or personnel information.
• Oracle Cloud (HCM or ERP) or comparable enterprise system experience.
• Experience preparing agenda items, memos and presentations for a governing board or executive leadership.