NRT Project Coordinator, Mechanical Engineering

NRT Project Coordinator The NRT Project Coordinator will play a key role in advancing Boston Universitys National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program A Convergent Training Program on Biological Control. This exciting interdisciplinary initiative brings together faculty graduate students and external partners to prepare the next generation of researchers in a rapidly growing field. This is an outstanding opportunity for someone who enjoys building programs connecting people and making a meaningful impact on graduate education and interdisciplinary research.

The successful candidate will be highly organized collaborative and community-oriented with a passion for supporting student success and fostering an inclusive environment where graduate students can thrive. As a key member of the NRT leadership team the Project Coordinator will work closely with faculty and staff leaders to promote community and collaboration among all program participants while supporting the continued growth of this innovative program.

Key Responsibilities:

• The Project Coordinator will: Manage the day-to-day operations of the NRT program including graduate student trainee recruitment admissions retention and progress tracking.
• Coordinate and provide operational support for summer boot camps workshops internship opportunities and annual symposia.
• Organize meetings of representatives from participating graduate programs to coordinate recruitment mentoring and retention activities.
• Maintain the programs website and social media presence.
• Partner closely with the Project Evaluator to track trainee progress and faculty development.
• Work closely with the Project Director to prepare reports for the National Science Foundation the Provosts Office and other University administrative offices as needed.
• Collaborate with staff supporting trainee professional development to foster a welcoming inclusive community that prioritizes student growth belonging and self-efficacy.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with faculty staff students and external partners across the University and beyond.

Successful Candidates Will Demonstrate:

• The successful candidate will excel at building relationships across the University fostering an inclusive graduate student community collaborating with internal and external partners and using data to inform program decisions.

Candidates should possess:

• Strong interpersonal communication and leadership skills.
• A demonstrated ability to work effectively with a diverse graduate student population.
• Experience building and managing relationships with a broad range of stakeholders including graduate trainees principal investigators program and University administrators and industry government and nonprofit partners.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities deadlines and stakeholders simultaneously.
• The ability to work independently while collaborating effectively as part of a team.
• Strong analytical skills including the ability to collect interpret and analyze data to support program planning assessment and decision-making.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with graduate students or young adults in higher education research or nonprofit settings.
• Experience coordinating complex programs or projects involving multiple stakeholders is desirable.

More About the Program:

Biological control is an emerging discipline in which study of the engineering principles of feedback control merges with investigations of the diverse array of self-regulating systems in biology. Historically educational and research opportunities in biological control have been limited to ad hoc collaborations whose scale is insufficient to meet the growing workforce demand in biotechnology manufacturing robotics systems engineering data science rehabilitation bioremediation agriculture and sustainability. As such the NRT program creates an integrated training environment where faculty trainees and external partners collectively develop new approaches for describing feedback control methods uniquely found in biology. Researchers in the program will then use these constructs to create new engineered systems new experimental approaches for gaining control of biological systems and new teaching strategies for supporting this important discipline. The NRT program includes faculty staff and graduate students from many departments across the university including mechanical biomedical and electrical engineering; biology; physics; chemistry; bioinformatics; biochemistry; and computing and data sciences.

Resume and cover letter required. Education: Bachelors degree with 3 years of related professional experience.