Job Posting: SFPIRG Director of Administration

28 hours/week
Wage rate: $36.21/hr with benefits
Starting date: week of July 25, 2022
Location: working mostly at SFU Burnaby, some work from home possible

This is a unionized position with CUPE 3338.

Application deadline is Monday, June 6 at 9am.

The Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG) is a student-funded and student-directed resource centre dedicated to engaging students in social and environmental justice. Established in 1981, the organization is a registered non-profit governed by a student board of directors and managed by a unionized staff collective (CUPE Local 3338, Unit 7). SFPIRG strives to be non-hierarchical in its structure and consensus decision-making is used at all levels of the organization.

Position Overview:

The Director of Administration is one of the three co-Executive Directors that make up SFPIRG’s staff collective. (The other two are the Director of Research & Education and the Director of Engagement). The three co-executives are jointly responsible for the overall management of SFPIRG, including operating in accordance with SFPIRG’s values, strategic planning, fiscal management, personnel management, policy development, board relations, and member welfare. The Director of Administration’s responsibilities include financial, administrative & office coordination, stewarding the lending library, and working collectively with staff and the board of directors to manage the organization. The position involves extensive work with volunteers, the SFPIRG board, temporary staff, and students. Applicants must be able to balance heavy workloads across multiple tasks, work efficiently in a busy environment and provide a strong leadership role in organizing and mentoring SFPIRG’s administrative & financial systems and the organization as a whole. Applicants must value process, collective work, and consensus decision-making within a transformative justice and intersectional anti-oppression framework.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Position Specific Duties

  • Office Coordination: office supplies, equipment, food ordering, contact sheets, space maintenance, filing systems.
  • Financial Administration: development of annual budget, payroll, bookkeeping, banking, apply for and administer grants, petty cash, produce monthly financial statements, liaise with auditor for year-end compilation, invoicing.
  • Employee Administration: payroll, timesheets, administer student work study program, benefits set up.
  • Organizational Administration: insurance, contracts, room bookings, membership lists and opt-out period, policy development (for example, bylaws), coordinate staff meetings (scheduling, agenda, & minutes), SFPIRG elections, AGM, and other organizational developments.
  • IT: Oversee computer network, liaise with consultants over upgrades and repair.
  • Manage and oversee the resource library including online database, volunteers, acquisitions, and coordinating with other student groups sharing our online database system.
  • Board support: admin, meeting coordination.
  • Accessibility coordination: book ASL interpretation and coordinate other accessibility accommodations as needed.

Organizational and Collective Duties

  • Work with the other staff to manage SFPIRG: staff and maintain the office; respond to requests from students and the public; participate in SFPIRG organizational work, initiatives, and events; mentor and advise the Board of Directors; Board of Directors training and development.
  • Contribute to ongoing organizational development of SFPIRG including strategic planning, hiring staff and work study students, working with volunteers, Action Group support, and staff collective development.
  • Collaborate with the staff collective to determine and prioritise the goals for each semester and to delegate the day-to-day management of the organization.
  • Serve as a fiduciary and Senior Manager for SFPIRG per the BC Societies Act.

Skills and Experience Required: 

  • Commitment to social and environmental justice and progressive social change.
  • Strong intersectional anti-oppression analysis and practice, grounded in transformative justice principles, including: compassionate accountability, non-disposability, and making space and opportunity for learning and growth.
  • Education and/or work experience doing administration in a non-profit or community setting.
  • Interest and experience working in a mentorship capacity with young adults.
  • Extremely well-organized, attention to detail, excellent problem solving and time-management skills.
  • Love of numbers, spreadsheets, and filing systems.
  • Bookkeeping experience, including familiarity with Sage 50, an asset.
  • Experience in progressive non-profit/community organizations: ability to translate vision into action, understand budget/finances, prioritize and delegate tasks.
  • Human Resources experience an asset: hiring, coordinating, working with student workers and volunteers.
  • Experience and interest in working in a collective setting using consensus.
  • Excellent communication skills: clear written and verbal communication, conflict resolution, facilitation, ability to dialogue with diverse parties, ability to openly give and accept feedback.
  • Excellent knowledge of MS Office, Windows, excellent computer and technical skills. Knowledge of Google Workspace tools is an asset.
  • Basic computer repair, troubleshooting, and networking an asset.
  • Ability to be self-directed and efficient in a hectic environment.
  • A sense of humour and a commitment to compassion.

Application Process:

SFPIRG is an affirmative action employer. In order to increase the range and diversity of skills, perspectives, and experience presently existing within SFPIRG, hiring preference shall be given to qualified applicants from groups who face systemic barriers to employment, including systemic barriers that often go unnamed and unacknowledged. Applicants who wish to be considered for affirmative action are encouraged to discuss this in their cover letter. We also encourage applicants to include other skills and experiences in addition to those outlined above. SFPIRG is committed to accommodating people with mental and physical disabilities, including, for example, obtaining necessary adaptive technologies.

Please submit cover letter and resume by email to:

Email:  hiring-committee@sfpirg.ca

Attention: Director of Administration Hiring Committee

Please include cover letter and resume in ONE attached document, with your name as the title of the file. 

Application deadline is Monday, June 6th, 2022, at 9am.

No phone or email inquiries please. Late applications will not be accepted. 

Only short-listed applicants will be contacted. This will happen at the latest by the end of day Friday, June 10th, 2022.

Interviews will take place via video meeting during the week of June 13th, 2022.

Short-listed applicants will be invited to share any accessibility needs for the interview, including access to

internet and/or technology.