Senior Administrative Assistant (Contract to Hire)

Merrillville, IN

Job Title: Senior Administrative Assistant (Contract to Hire)
Location: Merrillville, IN
Work Model: Hybrid — onsite Tuesday through Thursday; remote Monday and Friday
Rate: $37.94/hour
Contract Duration: November 9, 2026 – November 1, 2027
Contract-to-Hire: Yes
Employment Type: W-2 Only
Work Authorization: U.S. Citizens Only | Green Card holders also eligible; no visa sponsorship available
Work Schedule: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and highly organized Senior Administrative Assistant to provide comprehensive administrative, scheduling, project coordination, and operational support to executive leadership within a fast-paced utility environment.

This position will play an important role in helping leadership effectively manage calendars, meetings, travel, projects, expenses, priorities, and day-to-day administrative responsibilities. The Senior Administrative Assistant will also develop reports and presentations, coordinate information across teams, maintain confidential records, and help improve administrative processes and systems.

The ideal candidate is proactive, polished, highly organized, and comfortable managing multiple competing priorities. This individual should possess excellent judgment, discretion, communication skills, and the ability to take assignments from initial concept through successful completion.

Key Responsibilities

Executive & Administrative Support

  • Provide day-to-day administrative support to executive leadership.

  • Assist executives with effective time management and prioritization.

  • Coordinate short-term and long-term calendars, meetings, projects, and commitments.

  • Anticipate administrative needs and proactively address potential scheduling or workflow issues.

  • Maintain a professional and positive presence when interacting with internal and external stakeholders.

  • Handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion.

  • Provide backup administrative support to team members as needed.

Calendar & Meeting Management

  • Manage complex executive calendars and scheduling.

  • Schedule meetings, appointments, and other business activities.

  • Prioritize competing meeting requests based on business needs and executive priorities.

  • Coordinate meeting logistics and communicate relevant details to participants.

  • Identify and resolve scheduling conflicts.

  • Ensure executives are appropriately prepared for upcoming meetings and appointments.

  • Gather presentations, reports, agendas, background information, and other necessary meeting materials.

  • Maintain awareness of upcoming deadlines, meetings, and commitments.

Travel Coordination

  • Coordinate business travel arrangements as needed.

  • Schedule transportation, lodging, meetings, and related travel logistics.

  • Prepare and communicate travel itineraries and supporting information.

  • Adjust travel arrangements as business needs change.

  • Help ensure executives have necessary information and documentation for business travel.

Project Coordination

  • Support administrative and business projects from concept through completion.

  • Assist with project planning, scheduling, coordination, and follow-up.

  • Track activities, deadlines, deliverables, and outstanding actions.

  • Balance competing priorities to help ensure critical projects are completed on time.

  • Work with team members to collect and organize information for projects and strategic initiatives.

  • Coordinate information and activities across multiple stakeholders.

  • Identify administrative roadblocks and proactively help resolve them.

Presentations, Reports & Business Materials

  • Create and format professional:

    • PowerPoint presentations

    • Excel spreadsheets

    • Reports

    • Graphs and charts

    • Business letters

    • Correspondence

    • Meeting materials

  • Gather, compile, organize, and summarize information for leadership.

  • Ensure documents are accurate, professional, and appropriately formatted.

  • Support development of materials for presentations, projects, and strategic planning activities.

  • Apply strong document-design and formatting standards.

Budget & Expense Administration

  • Maintain budget-related records and supporting documentation.

  • Provide leadership with updates regarding budget status as needed.

  • Process executive expenses according to established corporate guidelines.

  • Review expense documentation for completeness and accuracy.

  • Ensure expenses are submitted and processed in a timely manner.

  • Maintain organized expense and financial records.

Communication & Stakeholder Coordination

  • Handle incoming phone, email, and postal inquiries professionally and appropriately.

  • Respond directly when appropriate or route requests to the appropriate stakeholder.

  • Maintain confidentiality when handling sensitive communications.

  • Communicate clearly and professionally with employees, executives, business partners, vendors, and external stakeholders.

  • Build strong working relationships across organizational levels.

  • Demonstrate tact, discretion, diplomacy, and sound judgment in all interactions.

Administrative Process Improvement

  • Evaluate existing administrative procedures and identify opportunities for improvement.

  • Recommend, create, implement, and maintain improved administrative processes and systems.

  • Develop efficient methods for organizing information and managing recurring activities.

  • Establish and maintain electronic and paper-based filing systems.

  • Improve administrative workflows and documentation practices.

  • Help standardize processes where appropriate.

  • Support continuous improvement initiatives across the team.

Team Support

  • Work collaboratively as a member of the broader team.

  • Provide backup support for coworkers when necessary.

  • Assist with shifting priorities and unexpected requests.

  • Support team and company goals through responsive and flexible administrative support.

  • Take ownership of assigned responsibilities regardless of size or complexity.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities

  • Manage executive calendars and meeting schedules.

  • Prioritize and coordinate meetings and appointments.

  • Prepare executives for upcoming meetings.

  • Gather and organize meeting materials.

  • Coordinate business travel.

  • Process executive expenses.

  • Maintain budget records.

  • Prepare PowerPoint presentations and Excel reports.

  • Create spreadsheets, charts, graphs, reports, and correspondence.

  • Respond to emails, calls, and administrative requests.

  • Track project activities and deadlines.

  • Organize electronic and paper records.

  • Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders.

  • Support special projects and strategic initiatives.

  • Identify opportunities to improve administrative processes.

  • Provide backup support to other team members as needed.

Required Qualifications

  • High school diploma or equivalent.

  • 1–3 years of recent project coordination or related administrative support experience, with approximately three years strongly preferred.

  • Proven organizational and time-management skills.

  • Ability to manage a high volume of varied responsibilities in a fast-paced environment.

  • Excellent attention to detail.

  • Strong ability to manage multiple competing priorities and critical deadlines.

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

  • Ability to communicate in a confident, concise, clear, and professional manner.

  • Strong relationship-building and interpersonal skills.

  • Demonstrated tact, discretion, and diplomacy.

  • Ability to maintain confidential and sensitive information.

  • Professional and positive demeanor.

  • Ability to independently take assignments from concept through completion.

  • Strong planning and project-coordination capabilities.

  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including:

    • Word

    • Excel

    • PowerPoint

    • Outlook

  • Demonstrated experience scheduling appointments and managing calendars.

  • Knowledge of professional document formatting and business correspondence.

  • Ability to work onsite in Merrillville, IN Tuesday through Thursday.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Associate's degree.

  • Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university.

  • 5–8 years of administrative support experience, particularly in a senior or executive-support capacity.

  • Experience supporting executives or senior leadership.

  • Experience managing complex calendars and competing executive priorities.

  • Experience coordinating executive travel.

  • Experience maintaining budget information and processing expenses.

  • Experience supporting project or strategic planning activities.

  • Experience developing reports, spreadsheets, graphs, and executive presentations.

  • Previous experience within a utility, energy, industrial, or large corporate environment.

Core Competencies

  • Executive Support

  • Administrative Support

  • Calendar Management

  • Meeting Coordination

  • Travel Coordination

  • Project Coordination

  • Microsoft Outlook

  • Microsoft Excel

  • Microsoft PowerPoint

  • Microsoft Word

  • Expense Processing

  • Budget Tracking

  • Report Preparation

  • Presentation Development

  • Document Formatting

  • Confidentiality

  • Stakeholder Management

  • Time Management

  • Organization

  • Prioritization

  • Professional Communication

  • Process Improvement

  • Discretion

  • Attention to Detail

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a polished, proactive, and highly dependable Senior Administrative Assistant who can effectively support executive leadership in a fast-moving corporate environment.

The strongest candidates will have experience managing complex calendars, coordinating meetings and travel, preparing executive presentations and reports, processing expenses, tracking budgets, and supporting multiple projects simultaneously.

This individual should be comfortable working independently, anticipating needs, managing confidential information, and balancing changing priorities without losing attention to detail. They should also be someone who takes ownership of assignments, builds strong relationships across the organization, and consistently looks for ways to make administrative processes more efficient.