Why you want to work here:

We are a DC-based scientific organization with a collegial, collaborative culture, seeking a detail-oriented individual for the position of Awards and Recognition Specialist. This is a full-time opportunity for an individual with excellent communication skills and demonstrated experience prioritizing tasks and supporting diverse teams.

Job Overview for Awards and Recognition Specialist:

Reporting to the Director of Membership, the Awards and Recognition Specialist provides day-to-day support for the management of the association’s awards, grants, and recognition programs. This includes but is not limited to scheduling and supporting committee meetings; compiling and distributing notifications, agendas, and material; ensuring that related webpages, the award management system, and the association management system reflect accurate and timely information; and working collaboratively across departments to ensure an excellent experience for our volunteers, award/recognition/grant winners, and members.

Responsibilities for Awards and Recognition Specialist:

Overseeing the awards/recognition/grants cycles, including submission deadlines, committee review and selection, and marketing and announcements.
Serving as staff liaison to our awards, honors, and grants committees and performing duties such as updating committee rosters in our AMS, tracking terms and rotations, ensuring vacancies are filled in a timely manner, and regularly communicating with committee members.
Handling all technical logistics of the awards/grants platform (OpenWater), including opening and closing programs, updating templates, and ensuring integration with our AMS.
Identifying opportunities to streamline and improve processes across the awards, recognition, and grants programs.
Developing evaluation materials, judging workbooks, training materials, and best practices for committee members.
Updating and maintaining related web pages and digital assets, including lists and write ups of winners, calls for nominations/proposals, FAQs, online submission information, and announcements.
Preparing relevant reports on nomination pools and awards and recognition recipients as well as yearly reports highlighting funded grant projects.
Collaborating across the organization to grow both pools of committee members and pools of applicants/nominees while incorporating diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging principles across all programs.
Serving as first point of contact for nominators, applicants, and recipients to provide direction, coordinate logistics, and answer questions.
Creating or updating certificates and physical awards for award recipients, including ordering, tracking, proofing, and distributing.
Processing and tracking payments for award and grant recipients and various vendors.
Tracking and creating reports, key updates, and other notable information about award winners and grant recipients to share internally and externally.
Serving as the primary contact to award winners for coordination, recognition, and onsite logistics at the awards ceremony at our Annual Convention.
Contributing to overall efforts of the membership team, including assisting with shared inboxes and helping with customer service requests.
Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications for Awards and Recognition Specialist:

Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of experience and training.
2 to 4 years’ experience working with volunteer committees, providing general member or donor support, or serving in an administrative role.
Exceptional organization, time management, attention to detail, and written and oral communication skills.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 (Teams, SharePoint, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and comfort learning new technologies.
Ability to solve problems and execute independently.
Ability to meet deadlines while maintaining high quality and accuracy.
Eagerness to collaborate across multiple teams.