View Vacancy - Vice Consul and Deputy Head of Post B3ES, Las Palmas (ESP19.25)
The British Consulate in Las Palmas is part of a world-wide network, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now recruiting for a Vice Consul and Deputy Head of Post.
The main purpose of job is to lead and motivate the Las Palmas consular team in delivering first class customer service, consular assistance and support to resident and visiting British nationals in the Las Palmas consular district of Gran Canaria, Lanzarote & Fuerteventura. To manage the efficient running of the consulate in Las Palmas.To build and maintain good working relationships with internal and external stakeholders and to support the Consul/CROM and colleagues in Spain South to deliver against our strategic objectives.
Roles and responsibilities
Team Management/Leadership
Provide clear leadership and professional management to the consular team in Las Palmas and remotely manage the Honorary Consul in Lanzarote.
Set challenging objectives, encourage and promote training and learning & development opportunities, monitor progress, conduct regular 1-2-1 sessions, and conduct quality appraisals.
Provide coaching and mentoring as required, and maintain high levels of team motivation.
Ensure excellent customer service delivery; and efficiently manage resources, processes and systems.
Collaborate with, and provide cover for, vice-consuls in Tenerife and Malaga as necessary.
Policy and Projects
Keep abreast of evolving consular policy, ensure consular team is aware of key changes, promote its implementation, and ensure consistency.
Ensure team contribution to delivering on Europe South, Spain, and Consular Directorate priorities.
Remain aware of changes to local laws, and how these might affect resident and visiting British nationals.
Lead on the implementation of service improvements in Las Palmas.
Actively contribute to the Spain South management team.
Assistance
Ensure consular officers are equipped to manage assistance cases in accordance with guidance.
Maintain an overview of live cases, and provide support and advice where necessary.
Lead on high profile and complex cases, briefing and advising the Consul/CROM and other senior stakeholders as appropriate.
Stakeholder Management
Develop and nurture a strong network of mutually beneficial relationships with internal colleagues, local authorities, travel and tourist industry, local media, British community groups, and NGO sector, as appropriate.
Lobby host authorities as and when necessary.
Influencing/Prevention
Lead on delivering the Las Palmas prevention priorities.
Crisis
Lead crisis response for Post, maintaining and testing local crisis plans as part of a mission-wide effort.
Work with emergency service agencies to ensure efficient communication in the event of a crisis.
Support Consul/CROM in responding to crises.
Support and feed into contingency plans for large-scale events likely to attract significant numbers of British visitors.
- Fluent English and Spanish language skills
- Experience of leading, developing and working as part of a team
- Experience of working in a customer facing environment
- Experience of managing resources (human, financial and physical)
- Experience of working with vulnerable groups/people
- Experience of collaborating with partner
Ability to work independently and use initiative to meet timescales and deadlines
Willingness to work flexibly depending on service demands
- Understanding and experience of working with public sector stakeholders in the Canary Islands
- Understanding of the voluntary/NGO/charity sector in the Canary Islands
- Project management skills/experience
- Media and public speaking experience
- Knowledge and understanding of the British community in the Canary Islands.
This is a full-time permanent term position of 5 working days (37.5 hours per week).
The successful candidate will be subject to a confirmation of a background check and security clearance.
The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Spanish Social Security Scheme and will therefore not be entitled to any gratuity from the Embassy / Consulate based on gross annual salary.
The British Embassy is a Diplomatic Mission with tax exempt status and does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are fully responsible for payment of Spanish income tax at the legally required rate. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law.
Visa / passport requirements: must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Spain and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.
Please be advised that Consular positions at the FCO entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape, assault, post-mortems, prison visits and highly distressed customers.
Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.
We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered. Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.
Please be advised that the British Diplomatic Missions will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered a job.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
