Project Coordinator

ARA Brand; Alexandria (VA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)

Competitive benefits

Job summary

Applied Research Associates, Inc. seeks a Project Coordinator to provide administrative and coordination support across multiple projects and PMs.

The role requires organizing meetings, maintaining schedules, and ensuring up-to-date records and communications with customers, subcontractors, and internal teams. The position involves on-site work at ARA and customer locations to support meetings and activities.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of relevant administrative, project coordination, program support, or related experience, or a bachelor's degree with 2–4 years of relevant experience.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to work independently across multiple projects and teams.
• Ability to regularly work on-site and travel locally to customer sites, project locations, and company facilities as needed.
• Ability to obtain or maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Provide administrative and project coordination support to multiple Program/Project Managers and project teams.
• Coordinate meetings, prepare agendas/minutes, and track action items through completion.
• Maintain project schedules, calendars, files, records, and SharePoint repositories.
• Assist with preparing project reports, presentations, dashboards, and customer deliverables.
• Track milestones, deliverables, and deadlines and follow up with stakeholders.
• Coordinate travel, training, meeting logistics, visitor access, and other project activities.
• Support procurement and administrative activities, including purchase requests, invoices, expenses, and vendor coordination.
• Collaborate with Facilities, IT, Security, Contracts, Finance, and HR to support project needs.
• Participate in on-site meetings, planning sessions, site activities, and customer/vendor engagements.
• Support onboarding, project communications, and confidentiality of sensitive information.

Skills

Organization

Time management

Communication

Detail oriented

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree

High school diploma

Tools

Microsoft Project

Smartsheet

Planner

Power BI

SharePoint

Microsoft Office

Job description

The Strategic Operations, Analysis and Research Sector of Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) is seeking a Project Coordinator to provide administrative and project coordination support to multiple projects and Program/Project Managers. This role is ideal for a highly organized, proactive professional who enjoys keeping projects moving, solving problems, and working across teams. The Project Coordinator helps keep projects organized, on schedule, and well documented while supporting communication across project teams, customers, subcontractors, and internal departments.

This position requires regular on-site work at ARA and customer locations in the surrounding area to support meetings, project activities, and timely coordination with project teams and stakeholders.

Essential Functions:

• Provide administrative and project coordination support to multiple Program/Project Managers and project teams.
• Coordinate meetings, prepare agendas and minutes, and track action items through completion.
• Maintain project schedules, calendars, files, records, contact information, and SharePoint repositories.
• Assist with preparing project reports, presentations, dashboards, briefings, and customer deliverables.
• Track project milestones, deliverables, and deadlines and follow up with stakeholders as needed.
• Coordinate travel, training, meeting logistics, visitor access, and other project activities.
• Support procurement and administrative activities, including purchase requests, invoices, expenses, and vendor coordination.
• Work with internal teams such as Facilities, IT, Security, Contracts, Finance, and HR to support project needs.
• Participate in on-site meetings, planning sessions, site activities, and customer or vendor engagements as required.
• Support onboarding, project communications, and other coordination activities while maintaining confidentiality of sensitive information.

Required Qualifications:

• High school diploma or equivalent with 8-10 years of relevant administrative, project coordination, program support, or related experience; or bachelor's degree with 2-4 years of relevant experience.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and SharePoint.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to work independently across multiple projects and teams.
• Ability to regularly work on-site and travel locally to customer sites, project locations, and company facilities as needed.
• Ability to obtain or maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience supporting engineering, facilities, infrastructure, construction, government, or other technical projects.
• Familiarity with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Planner, Power BI, or similar applications.
• Experience supporting cross-functional teams in a matrix organization.
• Experience in a Department of Defense or government contracting environment.
• Familiarity with document control, records management, or project lifecycle processes.

Desired Competencies:

• Proactive, resourceful, and adaptable in a dynamic project environment.
• Strong follow-through and ability to communicate effectively with project teams and stakeholders.
• Strong customer service mindset and ability to build productive working relationships.
• Ability to anticipate project needs, manage competing priorities, and resolve issues with minimal supervision.
• Sound professional judgment and discretion when handling sensitive information.

Compensation & Benefits:

Pay Ranges: From $80,000.00 - $110,000.00 per year based on years of experience, degree and any special skills and knowledge that they may bring to the position. ARA offers competitive benefits that address our employees' needs now and in the future. Learn more about each of our benefits at https://www.ara.com/benefits/

COMPANY INFORMATION:

Applied Research Associates, Inc. is an employee-owned international research and engineering company recognized for providing technically superior solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences. The company, founded in Albuquerque, NM, in 1979, currently employs over 2000 professionals. ARA offices throughout the United States and Canada provide a broad range of technical expertise in defense technologies, civil technologies, computer software and simulation, systems analysis, environmental technologies, and testing and measurement. The corporation also provides sophisticated technical products for environmental site characterization, pavement analysis, and robotics. At ARA, employees are our greatest assets. The corporation realizes that employee ownership fosters greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and customer satisfaction levels. ARA gives its employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take more active roles as owners. The culture is challenging; innovation and experimentation are the norm. Employees are eligible for contributions which not only add to the company's success, but also their own through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The motto, "Engineering and Science for Fun and Profit" sums up the ARA experience. For additional information and an opportunity to join this unique workplace, please visit our website at www.ara.com