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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Corporate Project Assistant

💰 $45,000 - $70,000

OperationsProject ManagementCorporate

🎯 Role Definition

The Corporate Project Assistant provides administrative and operational project support to ensure timely delivery of corporate initiatives. Reporting to Project Managers or PMO Leads, this role manages project documentation, coordinates cross-functional activities, tracks schedules and budgets, and acts as a reliable point of contact for stakeholders. Ideal candidates are organized, proactive, technically capable with common project tools, and skilled at communicating project status, risks, and next steps.

Primary keywords: Corporate Project Assistant, project coordination, project administration, PMO support, stakeholder management, project tracking.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Administrative Assistant supporting corporate teams
  • Project Coordinator (junior) or Program Assistant
  • Executive Assistant with project exposure

Advancement To:

  • Project Coordinator / Senior Project Coordinator
  • Project Manager (after PM training/certification)
  • PMO Analyst or Program Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Business Analyst (entry-level analyst roles)
  • Operations Coordinator or Process Improvement Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Serve as the central administrative support for assigned corporate projects by maintaining up-to-date project plans, consolidated action item trackers, and master schedule views to ensure all deliverables and milestones are visible and on track.
  • Coordinate cross-functional meetings, workshops and steering committees: prepare agendas, distribute pre-reads, book rooms or virtual conferencing, capture detailed minutes, and follow up on action items with assigned owners to closure.
  • Produce clear, polished project status reports and executive summaries on a weekly/biweekly cadence, consolidating updates across workstreams, highlighting risks and mitigation plans, and optimizing visuals for leadership review.
  • Maintain the project document repository (SharePoint/Google Drive/Document Management System), enforce version control, naming conventions, and ensure all team members have access to current artifacts and historical records.
  • Track and reconcile project budgets and expenditures by processing purchase requests, expense reports, and invoices, liaising with Finance/AP to escalate anomalies and support month-end or milestone financial close activities.
  • Onboard vendors, contractors and new team members by coordinating background checks, obtaining access badges, facilitating orientation sessions, and ensuring compliance with contract terms and corporate policies.
  • Monitor project KPIs, milestones and dependencies in project management tools (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Asana) and escalate schedule slippages, resourcing gaps, and critical path impacts to Project Managers.
  • Maintain and update risk and issue logs, draft risk mitigation recommendations, and coordinate follow-up to ensure issues are resolved and lessons learned are captured for future projects.
  • Coordinate procurement and purchasing activities for project-related goods and services: prepare RFIs/RFPs, collect quotes, manage PO requests, and track delivery and acceptance criteria.
  • Support change control processes by documenting change requests, coordinating impact assessments, capturing approvals, and updating baseline schedules and budgets accordingly.
  • Prepare materials and coordinate logistics for project reviews, audits, and compliance checks; gather required evidence and respond to auditor and stakeholder queries in a timely manner.
  • Create polished presentations and stakeholder-ready deck updates that translate technical progress into business impact, enabling efficient decision-making by sponsors and executive leadership.
  • Administer resource allocation spreadsheets and short-term schedules, coordinate resource requests with functional managers, and provide visibility into upcoming resource constraints or bench time.
  • Facilitate cross-team communication by managing distribution lists, communication calendars, and stakeholder newsletters; ensure consistent, timely messaging during key milestones and changes.
  • Collect, validate and perform basic analysis on project data (timesheets, budget burn, progress metrics) to produce dashboards or visualizations for project leads using Excel, Power BI, or Google Data Studio.
  • Support testing and rollout activities by coordinating test plans, user acceptance test (UAT) schedules, compiling test results, and tracking defect remediation status with IT or vendor teams.
  • Implement and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), templates, checklists and repeatable processes to increase project delivery consistency and reduce administrative overhead.
  • Manage travel and logistics for project-related travel, offsite meetings and team retreats including booking travel, arranging accommodations, submitting itineraries, and reconciling travel expenses with policy compliance.
  • Assist in the preparation and review of contracts, NDAs and statement-of-work documents in coordination with Legal and Procurement, ensuring all project documentation meets corporate standards.
  • Provide day-to-day operational support such as calendar management for project leads, prioritization of inboxes, screening requests, and ensuring rapid response to high-priority stakeholder inquiries.
  • Act as a liaison between technical and non-technical stakeholders to translate business requirements into administrative tasks, clarify deliverable expectations, and ensure alignment across teams.
  • Coordinate project closeout activities by assembling final deliverables, documenting lessons learned, archiving project artifacts, and transitioning any remaining operational tasks to business owners.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc analysis requests and create tailored reports to inform decision-making during project execution.
  • Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives within the PMO by identifying recurring administrative inefficiencies and proposing scalable solutions.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies as a supporting role for hybrid projects, including backlog grooming, sprint demos, and retrospective logistics.
  • Assist in maintaining compliance matrices and regulatory submission trackers for projects with governance requirements.
  • Help coordinate internal training sessions and knowledge transfer workshops for project teams and stakeholders.
  • Manage low-complexity procurement activities and vendor communications for standardized project services.
  • Provide escalation triage for routine project questions and route complex issues to project managers or functional leads.
  • Help maintain resource capacity planning artifacts and provide input to forecasting models used by the PMO.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Excel: pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX-MATCH; PowerPoint: presentation design and storytelling; Outlook: calendar and mailbox management).
  • Hands-on experience with project management tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Asana, Trello, Jira, or Monday.com for task tracking, scheduling, and reporting.
  • Budget tracking experience: PO creation, invoice processing, expense reconciliation, and basic financial reporting in coordination with Finance or ERP systems (e.g., SAP, Oracle).
  • Document management and version control experience using SharePoint, Google Drive, or other DMS platforms; strong file taxonomy and governance skills.
  • Familiarity with creating dashboards and visualizations using Excel, Power BI, Tableau, or Google Data Studio to present project KPIs and burn-rate metrics.
  • Basic data analysis skills: manipulating datasets, cleaning data, summarizing status metrics, and creating charts for stakeholder consumption.
  • Experience with meeting facilitation and minute-taking: distilling action items, owners, due dates and ensuring follow-through.
  • Knowledge of project governance processes, change control, risk/issue management, and lessons learned documentation.
  • Comfortable preparing contracts, NDAs, and SOWs in collaboration with Legal and Procurement teams.
  • Experience with vendor onboarding and vendor management processes, including compliance documentation and contract tracking.
  • Familiarity with agile ceremonies and artifacts (backlogs, sprints, retrospectives) for hybrid project environments is a plus.
  • Basic knowledge of compliance and audit-ready documentation standards for corporate projects.

Soft Skills

  • Excellent written and verbal communication, able to craft concise executive summaries and convey complex status updates to diverse stakeholders.
  • Highly organized with exceptional attention to detail in scheduling, documentation and follow-up to prevent scope creep and missed deadlines.
  • Strong time management and multitasking ability to balance competing priorities across several projects simultaneously.
  • Proactive problem solver who anticipates dependencies, escalates issues early, and recommends workable solutions.
  • Customer- and stakeholder-focused mindset with a commitment to service excellence and responsiveness.
  • Collaborative team player who builds trust across functions and enables smooth handoffs between technical and business teams.
  • Adaptable and resilient in dynamic environments; comfortable operating under ambiguity and shifting priorities.
  • High level of discretion and professionalism when handling confidential or sensitive corporate information.
  • Comfortable working with cross-cultural and distributed teams; strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
  • Detail-oriented critical thinker who validates assumptions, questions gaps in information, and ensures accuracy of deliverables.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Associate degree in Business Administration, Project Management, or related field (or equivalent work experience).

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Finance, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
  • Certificates such as CAPM, PMP (aspiring), or Agile Scrum Master are advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Project Management
  • Finance / Accounting
  • Management Information Systems
  • Industrial/Systems Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 1–5 years supporting corporate projects, PMOs, or cross-functional teams in a project coordination, administrative, or analyst capacity.

Preferred:

  • 2–4 years of direct experience as a Project Assistant / Project Coordinator or in an administrative role within a project-driven environment.
  • Demonstrated experience with PM tools (Smartsheet, MS Project, Jira/Confluence), corporate expense and procurement processes, and producing executive-level status reports.

SEO & ATS Tips (for applicants and hiring teams): Use exact job title "Corporate Project Assistant" in resume headers, include project management tool names (Smartsheet, Jira, MS Project), quantify administrative impact (e.g., reduced reporting cycle from weekly to bi-weekly, managed budgets of $X), and highlight concrete outcomes such as on-time deliverables, reduced invoice turnaround time, or improved stakeholder satisfaction scores.

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