Program Administrator - Smith Lab

Overview

The Program Administrator manages day-to-day administrative and operational functions for a Gene and CAR T Cell Therapy Pre-Clinical/Translational Lab and DFCI's Antibody Discovery Center, coordinating complex scheduling, communications, meeting preparation, documentation, timelines, and reporting aligned with Program priorities. The role serves as a key liaison for the Faculty Center Director/Principal Investigator (PI), acting as a primary point of contact for communications to/from the PI (email, calls, internal messaging) and using sound judgment to route, prioritize, and follow through on requests. This position communicates professionally with a wide range of stakeholders (e.g., faculty, trainees, staff, donors, external institutions, speakers, and vendors) and drafts, edits, and formats correspondence and meeting materials on behalf of the PI. While many responsibilities are task-based, success depends on anticipating needs, prioritizing intelligently, and maintaining continuity and organizational memory across multiple parallel workflows by tracking decisions, action items, and deliverables through completion. The role requires a highly organized, proactive, and emotionally intelligent approach, balancing calendar realities, institutional processes, and relationship dynamics across a fast-paced, matrixed environment.

Under moderate supervision, the Program Administrator I provides operational and administrative support to the program. The Program Administrator I coordinates programs to ensure that implementation and prescribed activities are carried out following specified objectives. The Program Administrator I serves as program liaison for the department, community advisors, partners, and stakeholders. This role supports the preparation of program reports by gathering and organizing data. For all of these, the work still requires the application of well-established techniques, procedures, or standards.

Located in Boston and the surrounding communities, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in life changing breakthroughs in cancer research and patient care. We are united in our mission of conquering cancer, HIV/AIDS, and related diseases. We strive to create an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment where we provide compassionate and comprehensive care to patients of all backgrounds, and design programs to promote public health particularly among high-risk and underserved populations. We conduct groundbreaking research that advances treatment, we educate tomorrow's physician/researchers, and we work with amazing partners, including other Harvard Medical School-affiliated hospitals.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Provides operational and administrative support in the development and implementation of program functions.
• Staffs program meetings including preparing agendas, generating minutes, following up on action items and supporting related program initiatives and projects.
• May be responsible for maintaining program databases, collecting, and analyzing data, and preparing reports to track program progress and outcome.
• Serves as a central point of contact between staff, other departments, and/or external constituencies on day-to-day programmatic, operational, and administrative matters.
• Assists with planning and execution of seminars, meetings, and special projects.
• Triage inquiries and provide general problem resolution related to program with appropriate level of urgency.
• Maintains and manages processes associated with varied programs, projects, and events.
• Prepares documents such as correspondence, reports, presentations, packets.
• May be responsible for promoting the program through various channels such as social media, email newsletters or community outreach efforts.
• Keeps all members of the team up to date with relevant program information.
• May monitor budget, track expenditures/transactions, and handle financial administration projects as it pertains to the program.
• May work on special assignments and projects as needed.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Proficient knowledge of computer applications including Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, Zoom, Adobe.
• Knowledge of trends, issues, and accepted practices relevant to the position.
• Excellent attention to detail skills.
• Exceptional customer service skills and the ability to interact professionally with peers, leadership, and external contacts.
• Must possess the ability to problem solve with minimal guidance, maintain confidentiality, and pay attention to detail.
• Excellent ability to organize, prioritize and follow-through.
• Ability to apply independently a wide variety of policies/ procedures where specified guidelines may not exist.

Minimum Job Qualifications

• High School Diploma required. Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• 3 years of experience working in a medical or scientific research setting or comparable technology-oriented business environment required.

License/Certification/Registration Required: None

Supervisory Responsibilities: No

Patient Contact: None

At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, we work every day to create an innovative, caring, and inclusive environment where every patient, family, and staff member feels they belong. As relentless as we are in our mission to reduce the burden of cancer for all, we are committed to having faculty and staff who offer multifaceted experiences. Cancer knows no boundaries and when it comes to hiring the most dedicated and compassionate professionals, neither do we. If working in this kind of organization inspires you, we encourage you to apply.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is an equal opportunity employer and affirms the right of every qualified applicant to receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, national origin, sexual orientation, genetic information, disability, age, ancestry, military service, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.

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Pay Transparency Statement

The hiring range is based on market pay structures, with individual salaries determined by factors such as business needs, market conditions, internal equity, and based on the candidate’s relevant experience, skills and qualifications.

For union positions, the pay range is determined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

$60,330.00 - $74,915.00