Research Program Specialist

Position Description

The Schaeffer Institute is seeking a Research Program Specialist to provide high-level administrative leadership for the USC Mann Department of Pharmaceutical & Health Economics, and to take on new programmatic support for the Institute leadership team and its growing modeling research program. Working with established and up-and-coming scholars, the Research Program Specialist will develop and spearhead new procedures and processes to support an in-demand research team and their work with sophisticated data and modeling tools developed at the Institute.

The Research Program Specialist will assist in program development and ensure that deadlines and milestones are met. The position will report to the Schaeffer Institute Director of Operations (in coordination with respective departmental leadership), who will help oversee the portfolio of work and ensure a collaborative and creative work environment across teams. The right candidate will contribute ideas, identify opportunities, and help shape priorities to ensure leadership and program success.

This position offers a unique opportunity in the substantive work of a policy research center and an important academic department. The right candidate will have administrative expertise, high attention to detail, and enthusiasm for supporting a robust research agenda, faculty activities, and student engagement.

The Schaeffer Institute serves a varied group of internal and external constituents—including students, academics, executives, philanthropists, and leading policymakers and staffers—across the political spectrum. Demonstrated experience working with leading faculty and scholars to support research goals is a plus.

• Coordinate administrative functions for the modeling research program and other research initiatives as directed by Schaeffer leadership, including acting as a point of contact, responding to requests and inquiries, and managing program content.
• Assist program leadership and key stakeholders with anaylsis, research, and presentations.
• Manage program deadlines; coordinating and tracking grants, projects, and timelines to ensure deliverables and milestones are met.
• Support reporting and proposal development, including budget tracking, grant submissions, and compliance processes.
• Coordinate and contribute to research studies, proposals, and grant-related research activities.
• Contribute to administrative leadership team meetings and support to Schaeffer academic and policy programming as time allows.

• Oversee Department Chair’s administrative duties by managing calendars, coordinating meetings, preparing course materials, and assisting with day-to-day departmental operations for leading faculty.
• Organize departmental events, including conferences, seminars, special events and faculty meetings by managing logistics, vendor communications, facilities, catering, guest accommodations, and event execution.
• Collaborate with the USC Mann communications department to maintain and update the department website, ensuring accurate content, multimedia displays, and compliance with program policies.
• Execute two full-cycle faculty recruitment searches by arranging candidate travel, accommodations, campus itineraries, interview schedules, and job talks; contributing to the successful hiring of two junior faculty members.
• Lead academic program services and activities including course scheduling, student recruitment initiatives, student summer programs, graduate program’s brown bag series, prospective student visit days, and new student orientation.
• Support graduate students’ academic progress by coordinating dissertation defenses, including scheduling, room reservations, logistics,…