New Project Coordinator in Engineering Firm – Not Sure What I Should Be Doing

I was recently rehired at a company where I previously worked as a land surveyor, but now I’m in a new role as a Project Coordinator. This is a brand-new position for the company, so there’s no existing structure or training.

My main responsibility is to help streamline operations and improve processes within the engineering and survey departments. The challenge is that I’m still learning the engineering side, and there’s not much guidance being provided.

So far, I’ve:

• Set up weekly team meetings for project updates
• Started sending Monday emails with past due, current, and upcoming deadlines
• Send follow-up recap emails after meetings
• Built a master project tracking spreadsheet

The issue is:

• Adoption has been inconsistent
• The senior PM is disorganized and communication is reactive
• I’ve been told to be patient, but I feel underutilized and unsure what “good” looks like in this role

I’ve also been asked to help with Construction Administration (CA), but I haven’t been trained on things like submittals, RFIs, or what a “delta” is.

I want to succeed in this role and add real value.

My questions:

1. What should a Project Coordinator in an engineering firm actually be doing day-to-day?
2. How do you drive adoption of new processes when senior leadership isn’t structured?
3. What are the most important things I should learn on the engineering/CA side?
4. Any tools, systems, or frameworks you recommend?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.