Effect of project coordination task on academic profile I'm soon handing in my PhD thesis, and have funding for at least a one year Post Doc position at the same institute. In my post doc I'll be working on research related, but not directly associated, with my PhD field of work.

My phd has been funded by a huge 'umbrella' project involving both academic and industry institutions, and domain specific partners. My Phd supervisor is also the project leader on this big project. The project has quite a distinct profile and has attracted a fair amount of public attention.

So...moving on to my dilemma. 

Yesterday my supervisor phoned me up, and asked me if I was interested in taking over a part time position as project coordinator for this big project as the current coordinator is moving on to another job. According to him, some of the administrative tasks would be transferred to other project members, but I was offered to manage a lot of the collaboration with project partners and, I'm guessing, play an important role in the final reporting when the project finishes.

I'm uncertain to what extent taking on such a role would affect a potential academic career. Would it be beneficial in the long run to acquire experience in managing projects, or would it look more like I was 'degraded' to a secretary-'like' role?

As far as I understand, both my supervisor, and our institute director, would like me to assume the role. I guess this both gives me some leverage...but also puts me in a potential pinned down situation if I decline.

Their estimate is that the project coordination tasks would take up roughly 25% of my time. So there would still be time to do research.
In the comments above, I asked whether OP had any experience performing project coordination tasks similar to that of the position under consideration. OP's reply:


  Yes, I have five years of experience from industry, not directly as a
  project manager, but as a product manager. So it would be within my
  current skillset.


You have obtained one answer here which emphasizes the benefits of gaining this sort of experience. However, it doesn't sound like that answer is applicable to you (though, you would probably know better than us whether this experience would truly be worth it, or if you would just end up doing stuff you already know how to do). 

Let's review where you are, at this critical stage in your career:


You are just now wrapping up your PhD.
You are getting ready to start a transitional postdoc.
You seem to be interested in pursuing an academic career.
You have already gained project management/coordination experience from working in industry.


To my mind, all of the above points to one conclusion: 

You telling your PI/institute director "no, thanks." 

Instead of taking on the coordination tasks, I recommend that you use all of your time in "postdoc mode" working on the things that will strengthen your research profile: producing high-quality research output, finishing up manuscripts, defining your research agenda, growing your network of collaborators, etc. 

When you begin to apply for academic jobs at the next level, or for other postdoc positions after the transitional one ends, you will already be able to play up your ability to coordinate complex projects. So, I don't really see the benefits of playing the project coordinator role right now. The downside of taking that coordinator role on, however, is the main concern: I think it would interfere too much with all of the other important things you should be focusing on at this critical stage of your career. 

(And, let's face it, spending 25% of your time on project coordination tasks for a large project, with lots of moving parts, is probably a very conservative estimate.)