Project Coordinator Operations

Project Coordinator Operations who acts as a link between the organisation and management.
For the Environmental Sciences Group (ESG), we are seeking a Project Coordinator who can lead and/or supervise complex operational projects, including accommodation projects. As a project coordinator, you will report to the Director of Operations, work within the management support team and carry out projects on behalf of the management.

As a Project Coordinator, you will serve as the liaison between ESG employees, managers, management, staff departments, location managers, corporate departments, and other stakeholders. The projects are diverse in nature and include both policy and operational components. Examples of projects include improving internal processes, supervising the implementation of new ICT systems and streamlining large renovation projects in office and laboratory environments.

As a project coordinator for business operations, you will be responsible for effectively supervising various processes, from developing project plans to their completion. You will ensure that employees, managers, and directors are well-informed during the projects, and you will be responsible for ensuring that the projects are completed on time and correctly. Preparing for decision-making is also an essential part of the role.

You are a generalist who gathers the correct information, can deduce the pros and cons of various options and communicate these clearly, both verbally and in writing. You can involve your constituency in the process and point out the possibilities and impossibilities of their wishes. You are empathetic, a connector, and you do not let a little resistance throw you off course.

In addition, many of the projects require a different way of working (together) in which employees must be involved. The project coordinator we are looking for can shape and initiate the necessary change, get people on board and bring the process to a successful conclusion. The content of this position, therefore, involves an interesting combination of technical and cultural aspects.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• helping to shape and implement complex projects within ESG and leading project teams;
• providing solicited and unsolicited advice to management on operational projects;
• using your organisational knowledge and with an eye for the interests of the organisation and employees, informing and advising the management on the content and progress of the projects;
• understanding complex situations and identifying the key points; providing clear advice to the management, among others, so that decisions can be made where necessary; connecting the various interests and finding a good balance between these interests, and making progress;��
• communicate effectively with the client, staff departments, corporate services, management or other stakeholders, depending on the question and situation;
• Preparing decision-making in collaboration with others, including mapping out financial aspects, timelines, dependencies, stakeholders, etc., and preparing documents.

Your team
Of course, you will not be working alone; you will assemble project teams with relevant ESG employees for the multiple projects and involve other departments as necessary. The executive secretary and director of operations are your key partners, and you work in close contact with the WUR building and real estate department. You report directly to the Director of Operations.

You have a healthy drive to improve business operations, combined with an understanding of the primary ESG processes. You have experience in project management, including building and refurbishing projects from a user's point of view, within multidisciplinary projects. You are a good networker and can quickly familiarise yourself with different subjects.

For this versatile position, we would like to see the following:

• Experience in supervising complex projects with multiple stakeholders. Experience with housing-related or change projects may be helpful, but is not essential. The ability to quickly master new material and an interest in a wide range of topics.
• A higher professional education (HBO+) or university (WO) level of working and thinking.
• An affinity with business operations and change processes; Preferably experience within an administrative environment.

And:

• Organisational sensitivity: you are a good listener and have a feel for the different interests in a project and the organisational culture; Assertive; you are confident and self-assured;
• You can build connections and have strong communication skills in both Dutch and English (C1 level);
• Critical, decisive and proactive, you are solution- and goal-oriented in your actions; Analytical, stress-resistant and highly flexible;
• You have a feel for systems and processes, and at the same time, you have a 'roll up your sleeves' mentality.

Finally, we require the ability to understand and comprehend the Dutch language well, as many (construction) documents are in Dutch.��
If an English-speaking candidate meets this requirement, we expressly invite them to apply.��
In our international working environment there is an increasing amount of communication in English. For this position it is about language level C1.

Wageningen University & Research offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• working hours that can be discussed and arranged so that they allow for the best possible work-life balance;
• sabbatical leave, study leave, and partially paid parental leave;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed year-end bonus of 8,3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will of course receive a good salary. We offer, depending on your experience, a competitive gross salary of between € 4,045 and € 7.068 for a full-time working week of 36 hours, in accordance with the CLA Wageningen Research (scale 11-12). Additionally, for this role a contract for 32 hours can be discussed. As for your contract, we initially offer a one-year contract that can be extended - if possible within (company) organizational circumstances - on good performance.

Wageningen University & Research offers plenty of opportunities for growth and development, with a strong internal recruitment policy and excellent training programmes.

You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. For 20 consecutive years, we have been voted the "best university" in the Netherlands! A place to be proud of.

The mission of Wageningen University & Research is ‘To explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’.

We pursue this mission through a synergistic approach between Wageningen University and Wageningen Research Foundation (applied research). Our research focuses on questions within the domains of food, living environment, and society. With approximately 30 locations, 7,700 staff members, 2,500 PhD candidates, and over 13,000 students, Wageningen University & Research is among the world’s leading knowledge institutions in its domain. The integral approach to challenges and the collaboration across various disciplines form the core of the unique Wageningen approach.

Read the 5 reasons why your future colleagues enjoy working at WUR.

We will recruit for the vacancy ourselves, so no employment agencies please. However, sharing in your network is appreciated.