Senior Program Assistant, OUGME

Staff - Union

Job Category

CUPE 2950

Job Profile

CUPE 2950 Salaried - Sr Program Asst-Gen (Gr8)

Job Title

Senior Program Assistant, OUGME

Department

Undergraduate Medical Education Support Staff | Medical Undergraduate | Faculty of Medicine

Compensation Range

$4,739.00 - $5,102.00 CAD Monthly

Posting End Date

September 17, 2026

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

Job End Date

Ongoing

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.

Job Description Summary

The Senior Program Assistant (SPA), Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) provides confidential administrative and coordination support to areas in the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME) within the MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP). The incumbent will be responsible for supporting core functions of the OUGME which includes coordinating the flow of information for day-to-day activities, managing all aspects of the 3-4 faculty leaders’ calendars, including the scheduling of large group and committee meetings, and providing general secretarial and committee support. The SPA implements and follows office routines, unit functions, and program/university policy and procedures while exemplifying a professional work ethic and high level of student/customer service. The incumbent will provide a high level of understanding and initiative in required administrative areas while maintaining confidentiality.

The SPA interacts frequently with staff and faculty within the MDUP, the Faculty of Medicine (Office of the Dean, Office of the Vice Dean Education, Digital Solutions, Departments, Schools and Centres), and with UBC central offices as required. The SPA will need to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all faculty and staff.

This role operates within a collaborative team model, where SPAs maintain cross-functional knowledge and provide reciprocal coverage to ensure continuity of OUGME operations during absences, peak workload periods, and operational transitions.

The position is based out of Gordon and Leslie Diamond Health Care Centre (GLDHCC). Occasional travel within the Lower Mainland may be required to support UGME events at other UBC sites.

Organizational Status

The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME) is the provincial, strategic, operational, and administrative office for the MD Undergraduate Program (MDUP). It is responsible for providing critical support and works closely with all MDUP distributed sites. With expanded and distributed undergraduate medical education and postgraduate medical education across the province of British Columbia, the Faculty of Medicine MDUP has four distributed academic campuses, the Island Medical Program (IMP) at the University of Victoria (UVic), the Northern Medical Program (NMP) at the University of Northern BC (UNBC), the Southern Medical Program (SMP) at the University of British Columbia Okanagan (UBCO), and the Vancouver Fraser Medical Program (VFMP) at the University of British Columbia (UBC), as well as clinical campuses governed through affiliation agreements with all six provincial health authorities.

Work Performed

• Provides calendaring and administrative support to the Associate Dean, UGME and other senior faculty members within the UGME portfolio, using tact, diplomacy, and discretion.
• On behalf of the Associate Dean, UGME and other senior faculty leaders under the UGME portfolio, and working directly with staff across distributed sites, schedules meetings and appointments in coordination with their calendars and program activities. Identifies and communicates high priority requests and takes initiative in preventing and resolving all calendar/time conflicts.
• Provides calendar and administrative support for UGME standing committees and high-level confidential meetings within the UGME portfolio; which includes preparing agenda, transcribing and distributing minutes, maintaining and updating Terms of References and associated membership lists, preparing annual reports, contributing towards the completion of action items, and following up with others, and updating associated webpages as required. These meetings may take place in-person, remotely via video or teleconference, or online.
• Writes, initiates and compiles draft confidential correspondences/communications and reports on behalf of the Associate Dean, UGME and UGME senior faculty leaders, which includes annual Student Mistreatment reports. When required, researches, prioritizes, and recommends appropriate course of action and/or response on issues to the Associate Dean, UGME, Manager, Office of UGME (OUGME), Assistant Manager, OUGME and senior faculty leaders.
• Participates in the development of electronic information support systems, including mailing lists. Maintains these electronic information support systems to ensure that data is up-to-date and reflects the current stakeholders of the OUGME.
• Responds to confidential and complex telephone, email, and in-person inquiries, and interacts with faculty members, staff, learners, and others in a professional manner on behalf of the Associate Dean, UGME, consistent with the Faculty’s Professional Standards document. These requests and interactions may require significant tact and diplomacy and/or contain sensitive information. Escalates unusual or highly complex requests to the appropriate individuals. Screens and prioritizes incoming calls and mail, exercising judgment as to whether matters require urgent attention and/or whether background information must be acquired immediately.
• Supports the Manager and Assistant Manager, OUGME in the coordination of UGME events. This involves planning, coordination of complex schedules, writing communication to attendees, preparation and printing of materials, room bookings, catering, contacting vendors, equipment set-up and troubleshooting, and following up on action items. May be required to adjust or work outside of normal office hours to support events.
• Monitors assigned and shared UGME generic email inboxes and intake channels, and maintains cross-coverage readiness to monitor and triage other UGME inboxes during peer absences or high-volume periods.
• Communicates and supports students, faculty, and staff to support the core functions and responsibilities of the OUGME in alignment with established UGME processes and priorities. This includes responding to queries and applications with student specific initiatives such as Student Extracurricular Activity Liability Insurance, Student Promotion Review Board appeals, Student Transfer requests, updating student facing websites, etc.
• Supports the MDUP accreditation processes under the direction of the Manager, OUGME, which includes uploading approved UGMEC policies and documents to MedNet, organizing and coordinating logistics (room bookings, catering etc.) for internal reviews and on-site Accreditation visits, and assists with the preparation of relevant documentation and schedules.
• Supports the Assistant Manager, OUGME with coordination of HR processes and maintains shared procedural knowledge with the amongst the SPAs to ensure compliance. These includes supporting UGME faculty recruitment, coordinating interviews, generating offer letters, and maintaining personnel files for UGME faculty leads, in compliance with UBC and FoM standards.
• Arranges travel for the Associate Dean, UGME, including booking flights, accommodations, creating an itinerary, and processing of expenses.
• Performs financial duties such as preparing and reviewing invoices, credit card payments, processing expenses, in line with their due dates.
• Responsible for the maintenance of office supplies including ordering and purchasing, with pre-approval from the Manager, OUGME and/or the Associate Dean, UGME.
• Provides UGME and MD/PhD Program SPA team vacation and leave coverage support as needed.
• Maintains and coordinates filing in compliance with the Faculty of University’s records retention managmenet system.
• Maintains an up-to-date procedures manual for assigned responsibilities, aligned with team-level standards to support knowledge sharing.
• Performs other related duties as required to meet the operational needs of the OUGME.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

Consistent with the Faculty’s Professional Standards document, the Faculty is committed to the highest level of professionalism in all interactions. This position requires judgment, critical thinking, tact, discretion and initiative to an outstanding degree, especially in handling matters of a non-routine nature requiring the interpretation of University and Faculty guidelines, procedures and policies. The Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME) routinely deals with sensitive and high priority issues. Tact and discretion in dealing with confidential and sensitive matters is paramount. Errors in judgement with internal and external constituents could have a negative impact on the OUGME, the Faculty and the University resulting in legal action, negative public relations, financial costs, and loss of credibility.

Work must often meet tight deadlines and requires the incumbent to perform well under extreme pressure. The incumbent is expected to respond well to unexpected circumstances and exercise independent judgement. The incumbent must demonstrate exceptional public relations and interpersonal skills in dealing with government, high profile members and senior administration of the university community. Inappropriate or errant communications of sensitive issues could have a serious impact on operations and have legal implications.

Supervision Received
Reports to the Manager, Office of Undergraduate Medical Education (OUGME). Works closely and receives direction from the Associate Dean, UGME and other senior UGME faculty leaders, and Assistant Manager, OUGME. Performs duties independently and in accordance with established procedures.

Supervision Given
Formally trains new staff on work procedures, and/or oversees work of students and/or temporary staff.

Minimum Qualifications

• High School graduation and two-year post-secondary diploma. Minimum four years of related experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven experience with electronic calendar maintenance, reconciliation of scheduling conflicts, and meeting coordination. Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven organizational skills with ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail.
• Proven experience in transcribing meeting minutes, composing, editing, and proofreading correspondences, reports, presentations, and other written materials using clear concise business English.
• Proven experience with Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Powerpoint, Sharepoint, Teams, at an intermediate to advanced level.
• Proven ability to adapt to changing priorities, set work priorities, work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Proven ability to take initiative, work independently, but also function collegially within a close team-working environment.
• Proven experience working in a confidential environment, exercising diplomacy, tact, discretion, sound judgement and reliability, and with the ability to approach interactions with awareness of sensitive issues, and exercise sound judgment when resolving difficulties.
• Proven interpersonal skills with ability to work with a diverse group of individuals in all levels of the organization, across the distributed sites and in other organizations, with professionalism.
• Proven ability to analyze and problem solve with minimal guidance, learn and adapt to new processes or systems.
• Proven experience with modern online platforms such as Doodle Poll, Qualtrics, etc, and the ability to use them effectively.
• Proven experience supporting meetings (both online and in-person). Ability to provide guidance and training to individuals on use of virtual meeting platforms (Zoom, MS Teams) and help troubleshoot issues as needed.
• Proven knowledge of University and Faculty of Medicine policies, procedures, governance and administrative systems an asset.
• Ability to travel between local sites as required.