Project & Operations Specialist

This is a hybrid position based out of the CIFAR office located in the MaRs Discovery building. Staff are required to be in the office three days a week, ensuring a balance of in-person collaboration and flexibility.

This posting is for a newly created position.

The Next Leap Starts Here. At CIFAR, we don’t just solve complex challenges; we imagine new possibilities for humanity. We are a global catalyst for breakthroughs, mobilizing the world’s most brilliant minds to tackle the questions that define our future. Founded in Canada and connected to the world, CIFAR is a not-for-profit research organization that provides the platform for high-risk, high-reward research.

When you join CIFAR, you aren’t just taking a job: you are joining a community dedicated to the long-term benefit of people and the planet.

For more information, please visit our website.

Reporting to the Head, Research Strategy & Operations, the Project & Operations Specialist plays an important role in supporting the day-to-day operations of CIFAR's Research Department. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys variety, thrives in a collaborative environment, and is motivated by improving how work gets done.

In this role, you’ll bring structure and momentum to departmental and cross-departmental projects, setting up workbacks, tracking milestones, and helping keep people accountable so priorities stay on track. You’ll also contribute to identifying and building practical process improvements, including workflow automations and AI-enabled solutions, that help free up time across the department and improve responsiveness to our research community. As part of a varied mandate, you’ll administer CIFAR's Catalyst Grants program, coordinating cycles from application intake through assessment and reporting.

If you're someone who enjoys finding practical ways to improve workflows, keeping multiple projects organized, and working with a variety of people across an organization, we'd love to hear from you.

In this role, you will:

• Coordinate and track a variety of departmental projects, helping to keep priorities organized, timelines on track, and stakeholders informed across multiple concurrent initiatives.
• Support departmental planning, budgeting, and performance management processes by preparing materials, coordinating inputs, and tracking actions, decisions, and deliverables.
• Identify opportunities to improve processes and reduce manual work through automation, AI-enabled tools, and better use of operational systems, while supporting the implementation of approved improvements.
• Administer and support key operational platforms, including grant management and project management systems, ensuring they are well maintained and effectively used across the department.
• Develop and maintain project documentation, operational procedures, templates, and shared resources that promote consistency and efficiency.
• Coordinate the day-to-day administration of CIFAR's Catalyst Grants program, supporting the annual grant cycle from application through reporting while ensuring accurate records, communications, and grant administration.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the Research Department and partner teams, including Finance and IT, to support departmental operations, meetings, events, and cross-functional initiatives.
• Build strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders while providing responsive, high-quality operational support.

You are an organized and proactive operations professional who enjoys building better ways to do things, whether that’s setting up a clean project tracker, automating a manual process or documenting a workflow so that it runs consistently with or without your involvement. You combine strong attention to detail with a technical mindset, and you’re motivated by finding more efficient ways to get things done.

You bring:

• A bachelor's degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 3–5 years of experience in project coordination, research administration, operations, grants administration, business operations, or a related…