Administrative Assistant, Customer Support, Office of Sponsored Projects

Job Posting Title:

Administrative Assistant, Customer Support, Office of Sponsored Projects

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Hiring Department:

Office of Sponsored Projects

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Position Open To:

All Applicants

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Weekly Scheduled Hours:

40

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FLSA Status:

Non-Exempt from FLSA

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Earliest Start Date:

Immediately

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Position Duration:

Expected to Continue

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Location:

AUSTIN, TX

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Job Details:

General Notes

The Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP) serves as the coordinating office for externally funded research and sponsored projects at The University of Texas at Austin. The mission of OSP is to assist faculty and professional research staff in their efforts to secure and ensure proper stewardship of external funding. We do that by assisting research faculty and staff with the following: proposal review, authorization, and submission; award negotiations and acceptance; account management; close-out, reports, audits, collection; professional development and education; export control, and research compliance.
 

UT Austin offers a competitive benefits package that includes:  

• 100% employer-paid basic medical coverage  

• Retirement contributions

• Paid vacation and sick time

• Paid holidays

• Eligible for Hybrid Telework

Please visit our Human Resources (HR) website to learn more about the total benefits offered.

Purpose

The Administrative Assistant, Customer Support would serve as the primary front-line customer service and administrative support resource for the Office of Sponsored Projects (OSP). The position would provide centralized intake, issue tracking, customer assistance, and administrative support to ensure efficient day-to-day operations.

The role would serve as the first point of contact for internal and external inquiries and be responsible for maintaining a high level of customer service, timely response, accurate routing of requests, and effective communication throughout the resolution process.

This role would assume some of the transactional, customer-facing, and operational coordination responsibilities currently performed within OSP Operations, allowing senior staff to focus on governance, process ownership, knowledge management, and strategic operational initiatives. Moreover, this entry-level role would help Operations distinguish transactional operations work from program administration and governance work, creating a more sustainable distribution of responsibilities among the operations team, and a clear pathway from entry-level administrative support to higher-level operations and process management roles.

Responsibilities

Customer Support, Intake & Service Coordination

Serve as the primary intake coordinator for OSP’s enterprise mailbox.

• Monitor and manage OSP's central electronic mailbox. Manage intake from departmental phone lines, email, and other shared communication channels. Receive, review, categorize, and route incoming requests to appropriate teams. Serve as a front-line customer service representative for issues and inquiries.

• Ensure service requests are acknowledged and tracked appropriately. Follow up with requestors as needed regarding status, additional information, or resolution. Escalate urgent or unresolved issues according to established procedures.

• Maintain professionalism and customer service excellence in all interactions. Coordinate communication between customers and operational support teams.

• Assist with service-response improvement initiatives.

Issue Tracking & Operational Reporting

Support operational visibility and accountability through tracking and reporting activities.

• Identify requests requiring escalation or attention from leadership.

• Maintain operational intake system. Monitor status of pending and unresolved requests.

• Track service trends and recurring operational issues. Generate routine reports regarding intake volume, response status, and service requests. 

Employee Onboarding & Offboarding Support

Provide administrative coordination for employee onboarding and offboarding activities.

• Coordinate onboarding and offboarding checklists, account provisioning and deprovisioning activities in partnership with other support teams. Monitor completion of assigned onboarding tasks and follow up as necessary and maintain onboarding and offboarding documentation and reco