Administrative Assistant II

Current Employees

Log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.

This position provides operational and administrative support for the Kaçar laboratory, with immediate responsibility for maintaining continuity on NASA ICAR MUSE and related laboratory operations. The Kaçar laboratory’s area of research includes origins of life, astrobiology, early life and evolution, systems and synthetic biology, and molecular paleo biology.

• Coordinating administrative, budgetary, and communication needs across a high-volume research laboratory.
• Supporting pre-award grant preparation, proposal timelines, document routing, and submission coordination.
• Supporting post-award grant management, including budget tracking, award documentation, purchasing, expense reconciliation, and reporting.
• Serving as the administrative point of contact for NASA ICAR MUSE and other multi-institutional research teams, including scheduling, meeting logistics, communications, and follow-up on action items.
• Coordinating scheduling, recruitment, hiring, payroll, onboarding, offboarding, travel, purchasing, and reimbursements for lab members and project participants.
• Providing direct PI support to project milestones, deadlines, budget oversight, and compliance-related administrative processes.
• Sends, receives, copies, and distributes communications to the appropriate entities according to established policies and procedures under general supervision.
• Schedules logistics and secures resources for meetings, conferences, travel, and work unit operations.
• Maintains established methods and organizational systems directed at the maintenance of electronic/physical records related to work operations according to established policies and procedures.
• Serves as a first point of contact for individuals and groups, provides basic organizational information via phone, in person and through other communication mediums, and routes more complex inquiries to the appropriate entities.
• Collects, analyzes, and prepares various communication materials from established sources utilizing technology mediums.
• Employment may require a criminal background check. Probationary period may be required.

• Organizational and time-management skills that include problem-solving, multi-tasking, prioritizing, and meeting deadlines.
• Knowledge of pre- and post-award grant scientific management, preferably with experience in large federal grants.
• Experience communicating and coordinating operational team logistics across teams or institutions.
• Prior experience with personnel administration support such as recruitment, hiring, onboarding, offboarding, travel, purchasing and reimbursements, and records management.

• Knowledge of grant submission platforms, such as federal proposal submission systems.
• Prior experience working in a laboratory or research environment.
• Prior experience with administrative systems commonly used in higher education (e.g., Workday, Concur, purchasing card reconciliation, financial/travel platforms, etc.).

H.S. Diploma preferred minimum.

The minimum pay for this position is $22/hour. Final salary will depend on experience and qualifications. Employees can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and paid time off; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits.

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), Department of Bacteriology, Kaçar Laboratory.

Normal hours are 7:45am – 4:30pm, Monday through Friday.

Microbial Sciences Building, 1550 Linden Drive, Madison, WI.

This position is full or part-time, 50%-100%.

College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), HR Manager, Erin Cook k
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS), HR Generalist, Veronica Pierce rce

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals. The University of Wisconsin‑Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies.