Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Internal Operations Coordinator
💰 $45,000 - $75,000
🎯 Role Definition
The Internal Operations Coordinator is a tactical, cross-functional role responsible for ensuring seamless office operations, vendor and facilities management, operational process improvement, and day-to-day administrative systems that enable teams to focus on core deliverables. This person manages internal service delivery (facilities, procurement, IT/desk support liaison, expense processing), maintains operational standards and SOPs, produces recurring operational reports and KPIs, coordinates cross-functional projects, and partners with HR and Finance on onboarding, compliance, and vendor contracting. Ideal candidates combine strong organizational discipline, practical data-literacy, and a bias for operational excellence.
📈 Career Progression
Typical Career Path
Entry Point From:
- Administrative Assistant or Office Administrator
- Facilities Coordinator or Vendor Coordinator
- Project Coordinator or Operations Assistant
Advancement To:
- Senior Operations Coordinator / Operations Manager
- Office Manager / Facilities Manager
- Program Manager, Business Operations or Head of Internal Operations
Lateral Moves:
- Procurement Specialist
- HR Coordinator (onboarding & employee experience)
- IT Service Coordinator / Service Delivery Specialist
Core Responsibilities
Primary Functions
- Serve as the central point of contact for day-to-day internal operations, coordinating across Facilities, IT, HR, Finance and business teams to ensure timely resolution of service requests, facilities incidents, and workspace needs.
- Own vendor management for assigned categories (office supplies, janitorial, security, catering), including sourcing, RFP coordination, contract maintenance, SLA monitoring and quarterly performance reviews to ensure cost-effective, reliable service delivery.
- Manage incoming operational requests through ticketing or helpdesk workflows; prioritize, triage and escalate issues, and maintain resolution SLAs while communicating status updates to stakeholders.
- Oversee procurement and purchase order workflows for routine internal spend: prepare requisitions, obtain approvals, track deliveries, reconcile invoices with Finance, and maintain an audited record of purchases and vendor contracts.
- Implement and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and runbooks for core internal services (onboarding, offboarding, office moves, equipment provisioning), and ensure documentation is current and accessible to stakeholders.
- Coordinate employee onboarding logistics for new hires: workspace allocation, provisioning of accounts and hardware, access badges, welcome kits and first-week operational set-up in partnership with HR and IT.
- Plan and execute office moves, reconfigurations and seating plans end-to-end; coordinate third-party movers, facilities vendors, internal communications and post-move validation to minimize disruption.
- Maintain inventory of core office assets (IT hardware, spare peripherals, furniture, supplies); track asset lifecycle, enforce returns on offboarding, and lead periodic audits to prevent loss and control costs.
- Monitor and report on operational KPIs (ticket volume and SLAs, vendor spend, occupancy & desk utilization, facility incident rates) and produce weekly/monthly dashboards for leadership to identify trends and improvement opportunities.
- Administer travel and expense processes where applicable: review, code and submit expense reports, enforce policy compliance, and reconcile company cards or petty cash reports with Finance.
- Support workplace health & safety and building compliance activities: coordinate fire drills, ensure first-aid supplies, manage vendor health certificates and facilitate safety training logistics.
- Lead regular vendor and facilities SLA reviews; identify performance gaps, negotiate corrective action plans and recommend contract renewals or re-sourcing based on performance and pricing benchmarks.
- Coordinate and run recurring cross-functional meetings (operations working group, facilities planning, onboarding reviews) and maintain meeting artifacts, action logs and follow-ups to closure.
- Serve as the operations liaison for internal events and executive visits: manage room bookings, AV, catering, travel logistics and vendor coordination to ensure professional execution under budget.
- Drive small process improvement initiatives using data and stakeholder feedback (e.g., optimize supply ordering cadence, streamline onboarding checklist steps), document impact and scale successful pilots.
- Handle confidential operational tasks—such as payroll paperwork coordination, background check scheduling and contract signatures—while maintaining high standards of discretion and data privacy.
- Provide first-line support for office technology and AV equipment: troubleshoot common issues, coordinate IT escalations, maintain spare hardware stash and manage lifecycle replacement schedules.
- Create and maintain a centralized internal operations knowledge base and resource hub to accelerate issue resolution and reduce ad-hoc information requests across teams.
- Prepare and manage operations budgets for assigned categories: forecast recurring spend, track actuals vs. budget, flag variances and partner with Finance to implement cost controls.
- Facilitate multidisciplinary projects that impact workspace or operational capability—coordinating timelines, resource needs, stakeholder communications and ensuring project milestones are met.
- Conduct regular supplier market scans and price benchmarking to recommend more cost-effective solutions or value-added services while maintaining continuity of service.
Secondary Functions
- Support ad-hoc operational data requests and exploratory analysis to inform leadership decisions (desk utilization, vendor spend trends, onboarding timelines).
- Contribute to the organization's operational strategy and roadmap by surfacing recurring pain points and identifying scalable solutions.
- Collaborate with business units to translate operational needs into procurement specifications, workspace requirements, or vendor SLAs.
- Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies when supporting cross-functional projects or continuous improvement initiatives.
- Assist HR and IT in coordinating periodic audits (access rights, asset inventories, compliance checklists) and implementing remedial actions.
- Support corporate events and employee experience programs by coordinating logistics, vendor selection and post-event reconciliations.
- Maintain and update internal systems of record (facility management systems, asset tracking spreadsheets, helpdesk platforms) to ensure data integrity for reporting and audits.
Required Skills & Competencies
Hard Skills (Technical)
- Office operations systems: Experience with desk/room booking and facilities management tools (e.g., Envoy, Robin, FM:Systems) and maintaining operational workflows.
- Procurement & vendor management: Contract administration, PO creation, vendor performance tracking and experience with RFP processes.
- Finance operations: Familiarity with expense systems (Concur, Expensify), purchase-to-pay workflows and basic budget tracking / reconciliation.
- Project & task management tools: Strong use of Asana, Trello, Jira, Monday.com or similar to manage cross-functional deliverables and action items.
- Advanced spreadsheet skills: Excel (pivot tables, VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, conditional formatting) or Google Sheets for data analysis, tracker creation and KPI dashboards.
- Reporting & dashboarding: Ability to produce recurring internal dashboards (Looker, Tableau, Data Studio or polished spreadsheet dashboards) for operational KPIs.
- Asset & inventory management: Experience maintaining asset registers, amortization lifecycle tracking and coordinating equipment returns on offboarding.
- Basic IT literacy: Troubleshooting common AV and endpoint issues, working with IT ticketing systems and coordinating escalations.
- Compliance & safety coordination: Familiarity with workplace safety protocols, emergency preparedness and managing vendor certificates of insurance.
- Documentation & SOP authoring: Ability to write clear, searchable procedures, runbooks and knowledge base articles that reduce repeat inquiries.
Soft Skills
- Strong communicator: Clear, timely written and verbal updates to stakeholders at all levels, including executives.
- Customer-service orientation: Proactive, solution-focused approach for internal clients with high responsiveness and follow-through.
- Cross-functional collaboration: Comfortable working across HR, IT, Legal, Finance and business teams to deliver outcomes.
- Attention to detail: Manages contracts, invoices and asset records with precision and audit-readiness.
- Problem solving & prioritization: Can triage competing operational demands, set priorities and escalate appropriately under time pressure.
- Organizational agility: Manages multiple projects and recurring operational tasks with disciplined scheduling and tracking.
- Data-driven mindset: Uses metrics and trend analysis to recommend improvements and quantify impact.
- Confidentiality & professionalism: Handles sensitive information with discretion and integrity.
- Negotiation & vendor influence: Able to negotiate scope, pricing and SLA terms to protect company interests.
- Adaptability & continuous learning: Comfortable in changing environments and quickly learns new tools and processes.
Education & Experience
Educational Background
Minimum Education:
- High school diploma or equivalent; demonstrated experience in office or operational roles required.
Preferred Education:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Operations Management, Supply Chain, Hospitality Management, or related field.
Relevant Fields of Study:
- Business Administration
- Operations Management
- Supply Chain / Logistics
- Human Resources
- Finance / Accounting
Experience Requirements
Typical Experience Range:
- 2–5 years of progressively responsible experience in office operations, facilities, procurement, or administrative coordination.
Preferred:
- 3–7 years experience supporting mid-sized or fast-growing companies in an operations, facilities, or vendor management capacity, with demonstrable success owning key operational programs, process improvements, and cross-functional stakeholder engagement.