We are seeking a Sr. Administrative Manager for a full-time position in University Student Services (USS) that manages the operational, administrative, and financial activities of USS’s diverse portfolio of contracts and vendor relationships. The position is the primary liaison in facilitating effective communication between the division’s departmental senior leadership, finance, and the University Procurement office. This position reports to the Director of Operations and Administration within the University Student Services Division Business Office.

This position requires exceptional communication skills and will build and maintain effective internal and external relationships with JHU. It works closely with departmental leaders, who provide services directly and indirectly to students, USS staff, and their supporting finance partners. This role requires a continuous quality and business process improvement approach to provide oversight and recommendations to obtain operational, administrative, and financial efficiencies.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Administration & Operational Management

• Establish and maintain timely and effective communication with senior leadership throughout USS to exchange information required to coordinate contract, purchasing, and vendor needs.
• Develop and maintain a sound management structure, operating policies, and procedures to support USS vendor needs.
• Serve as primary liaison to University Procurement for USS’s contract portfolio.
• Maintain USS’s contract database utilizing Procurement’s contract lifecycle system, including key performance indicators, terms, dates, savings, and increases of the existing external contracts and leases for the departments within USS.
• Leverage business process improvement tools and knowledge to provide administrative guidance to department leaders in evaluating their needs against existing contracts and vendor relationships to reduce costs and optimize utilization.
• Proactively explore opportunities to consolidate and standardize purchases and vendors utilizing JHU’s Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) to achieve cost savings and operational efficiencies. Make recommendations as appropriate.
• Exercise independent judgment and apply knowledge of administrative operating policies to support the successful development and implementation of USS operations.
• Engage with outside vendors to communicate and build relationships.
• Assist departments in exploring and developing RFPs for contractual agreements, including operational evaluation criteria, potential efficiencies, and cost savings.
• Partner with USS departments to assist with administrative oversight of contractual agreements, emphasizing terms and metrics to ensure operations are within targets to achieve financial goals. Act as liaison between operations and finance to ensure accountability.

Financial Management

• Partner with USS finance and departments to ensure vendors are onboarded into JHU’s accounting process and invoices are properly received and paid on time.
• Monitor and provide finance and departmental leaders insight into variances, trends, and risks. Responsible for consultation and escalation to departmental leaders when needed.
• Ensure contractual amounts are included and forecasted within departmental budgets.
• Analyze and assess the financial viability of existing contracts and agreements.

Analysis & Reporting

• Maintain ongoing updates and communications, including regular auditing, status reporting to departmental leadership, and reconciliation with finance.
• Conduct ongoing spending and performance data analysis against internal and external performance metrics.
• Identify risks and issues and suggest alternatives that lead to the best solution.
• Create, prioritize, and recommend contract modifications, changes, consolidations, etc., based on volume discounts, reducing overall spending and increasing efficiency.
• Research trends and best practices, benchmark pricing for services and supplies, and compare with peer institutions for supplies and services within USS.

Special Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Must possess and demonstrate critical thinking skills; have strong problem-solving and process improvement skills with knowledge of fact-finding and analysis methods to develop concrete action plans to solve complex problems.
• Ability to take initiative, set priorities, exercise judgment with full accountability, and work independently and with a team/division with various student engagement responsibilities.
• Possess strong negotiation skills and communicate effectively at all organizational levels.
• Proficiency with financial databases, spreadsheets, and systems.
• Ability to form close and effective partnerships and interact professionally, including appropriate confidentiality with JHU departmental staff, administration, and vendors.
• Ability to analyze and present data clearly and concisely.
• Be of high curiosity, integrity, strong influencing power, and the highest ethical standards.
• Ability to work flexibly on several tasks simultaneously, meet concurrent deadlines, and prioritize multiple responsibilities.

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Accounting or other related field.
• Five years progressively responsible professional-level administrative or financial experience related to monetary or non-monetary resources of a department, center or unit.
• Master's degree in a related field may substitute for required experience and additional experience may substitute for education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.

• Master’s Degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Operational Management, or a related field.
• Business process improvement methodology knowledge and experience.
• Administrative and operational experiences in university or non-profit settings.
• Experience with SAP, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint applications.

Classified Title: Sr. Administrative Manager 
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PE  
Starting Salary Range: $73,300 - $128,300 Annually (Commensurate with experience) 
Employee group: Full Time 
Schedule: M-F 8a-5p 
Exempt Status: Exempt 
Location: Hybrid/Homewood Campus 
Department name: ​​​​​​​Student Services Finance & Administratio  
Personnel area: University Student Services