Senior Administrative Assistant (P000595) (Re-Advertisement) at North West University

PURPOSE OF THE POSITION

• Responsible for the administration of general office and record-keeping management, project accounts and payments, expenditures, reports, as well as S&T payments.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Central Financial Services

• Project contractor payments, Tender Administration, Project Reconciliation, Identifying overspent projects, Contractor liaison on project finances. Service Billings, Closing of projects. Kuali GECs and support to Stores personnel on finances were required.
• Recordkeeping where required.

General Finances & Project Admin

• Purchase orders, Petty-cash handling, Kuali documents, Reporting and ensuring proper spending according within budget (Monthly reports). Meeting minutes where required. 

Project Portfolio Responsibilities

• PPO Super-user with support to users, Provide input and background to PPO System Administrators on workflow, requirements and current Avaza & Kuali Procedures/Workflow. 

Ad hoc Tasks

• Carry out general ad hoc tasks as and when it arises as part of the Central Shared Services function within Smart Campuses.

Office Kitchen

• Support to Snr. Office Admin with handling of kitchen- and daily kitchen supplies to staff and general hospitality for staff & visitors.

OHS

• Conform to NWU OHS regulations including participation in Fire Drills & Bomb threats, Reporting at central assembly point, Fire extinguisher controls.

Remote Working

• Remote working & availability as per NWU Policy.

Minimum requirements

Qualifications:

• An advanced certificate in project finance & management (NQF Level 5) and
• A higher certificate in general office administration & documentation (NQF Level 5).

Experience:

• A minimum of three (3) years’ experience with
• Enterprise-grade financial systems (preferably NWU KFS).
• Project Portfolio Management, with fluency in enterprise-grade software (e.g. PPO).
• Reconciliation of accounts, journal entries, error corrections, and budgeting.

Added Advantage:

• A diploma/advanced certificate in accounting & financial management (NQF Level 6).

KEY FUNCTIONAL/ TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES:

• Reconciliation of general ledger and project/other accounts, find missing or incorrect entries & correct via financial journals, general error correction (GEC) or similar mechanisms.
• Knowledge of answering audit requests, stores counts and handle year-end and WIP journals
• Zero-based budgeting approaches and full mastery of Excel and other tools.
• Responsible for master project records and master project cost accounting (funds available, expenses, and across multiple financial years.

Ability to take responsibility for

• Prevent overspending, analyze trends and take reporting/corrective action,
• Tender timeline and value adjustments through application for approvals,
• Interaction with NWU Finance Department on payment issues and approvals of payments,
• Compiling reports/data from systems, assemble and editing of reports from data sources and present for approval,
• Assisting departmental staff and guests with accommodation, hospitality, travel bookings and transport arrangements.
• Assisting with departmental functions, events and guests.

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES

• Have a friendly, accommodating and welcoming personality in general.
• Be honest, maintain highest degree of integrity and professionalism in all aspects of work.
• A self-starter, prioritizing workload and requests.
• Identify and report/address deficiencies and issues in department- and project administration and -funding.
• Attend to detail, without losing sight of the bigger picture and goals.
• Remain firm, yet accommodating in terms of expense control, overspending on projects, capital allocation to projects.
• Track capital from departmental budget in terms of promises towards specific projects / goals or programs, actual spending, funds remaining (promised and real), funds carried over per year.
• Responsive to requests of the director and managers as far as possible and reasonable.

Apply by: 4 September 2026