View Vacancy - Administrative and Team Support Officer for UKRep (BEL19.628)
Due to COVID-19, you may experience some delay in the progress of this recruitment campaign. We are working hard to minimise any disruption. You may find more information in the Additional Information section below.
The UK Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKRep) in Brussels is part of a worldwide network of 230 Diplomatic Posts, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas.
UKRep is one of the UK’s busiest posts, with a team sourced from numerous UK government departments and locally engaged staff, working to engage EU partners in support of UK policy priorities.
This Administrative and Team Support Officer sits within the Article 50 section, which reports to the Director UK-EU Partnership and the Permanent Representative. The team is responsible for the coordination and delivery of UKRep’s central role in facilitating an orderly withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and preparing for negotiations on the future relationship.
The role will support the administrative and secretariat functions of the team, including operational support for negotiations, visits and events. The jobholder will also provide an Executive Assistant function to the Head of Team, Counsellor Article 50.
In addition, the jobholder will provide wider administrative and secretarial support to UKRep’s Legal Team, based in the same location on a part time basis.
It is a varied role and the jobholder will be expected to maintain a flexible "can do" approach to assist the team in maintaining its role delivering on the UK’s objectives in Brussels.
Main duties and responsibilities:
Administrative Support for the Article 50 and Legal Sections:
- Providing administrative support to both the Article 50 and Legal sections, including logistical organisation of internal and external meetings;
- Coordination and logistical organisation of internal meetings, including note taking and action logging where necessary;
- Management and logistical organisation of external meetings, and stakeholder engagement events;
- Supporting both the Counsellor Article 50 and Legal Counsellor with diary management and ad hoc tasks, including room booking and briefing coordination, helping support both in their daily duties;
- Managing travel arrangements for staff, including the both Counsellors;
- Assisting with Human Resourcing, outreach, training facilitation and knowledge management, as well as managing statutory requirements such as Freedom of Information and Data Protection requirements;
- Providing other ad hoc support such as ad hoc printing/scanning of documents and briefings for team members;
- Engaging with administrative staff in other UKRep teams to promote and deliver team priorities;
- Support to the wider team during busy negotiation periods, including logistical and operational tasks.
The job holder may also have the opportunity to provide support on policy development and cover arrangements in Private Offices when business needs require.
Learning and development opportunities:
UKRep and the 3 Brussels based Missions offer an extensive local learning and development programme aided by the presence of the Europe regional L+D centre in our building. This includes informal learning through UKRep excellence sessions (one hour seminars on current issues), formal learning with the RLDT, a local leadership programme comprising mentoring and hands on leadership projects in action learning sets, and occasionally programmes run from London.
We have a cross-mission L+D group that assess the needs of the missions and individuals to allocate a small annual budget to support training. More generally the post will offer exposure to Ministers and senior officials from across Whitehall.
UKRep is strongly committed to learning and development, both through creating opportunities within the job to stretch or develop particular skills. Our ground-breaking programme ‘UKRep Excellence’ and our in house training hub offers interesting and valuable learning opportunities.
- Proficiency in English (written and spoken, minimum of C2 level for CEFR framework*);
- Previous experience as Administrative, Corporate PA, Office Assistant or similar job duties (preferably in an international environment);
- Proficient Microsoft Office skills, especially Word and Excel;
- Proven ability to deal professionally with stakeholders at all levels, on a daily basis;
- Strong organisational and communication skills;
- Excellent attention to detail, ability to work to strict deadlines and good prioritisation skills;
- A flexible approach to tasks, discretion and good judgement.
- Previous UK Government and/or EU Institution experience;
- Previous Corporate and/or PA experience;
- An interest in EU affairs and UK politics is welcome;
- Fluent/Good French (written and spoken) is very desirable, not mandatory.
This is a permanent full-time contract for 5 working days (36.25 hours net) per week. The monthly gross salary for this position is € 3,334,47, A2 level. In addition, we offer an extensive salary package, which includes a 13 month, luncheon vouchers, pension scheme, hospitalisation insurance, reimbursement of public transport and a lot more. Extra-legal days of leave are also provided to staff from the start of their contract.
Please note that Belgian nationals will be paid their salary gross and are expected to comply with their tax obligations through completion of a tax return to the Belgian authorities. Non-Belgian nationals will receive their salary net, minus the deduction of an equivalent level of Belgian tax retained at source. Further information on this will be given to candidates during the recruitment process.
Staff recruited locally by the British Diplomatic Missions in Belgium are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Belgian employment law.
The successful candidates will be subject to professional background checks and security clearance.
Visa/Passport requirements: Candidates must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Belgium and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract. Additional requirements may become necessary after 31st December 2020.
The nature of the job means you need to be flexible and happy to adjust to changing plans, particularly attuned to changing team priorities.
There will occasionally be work out of normal working hours to support the team, including some weekends during negotiations or high level visits, which can emerge at short notice. But this will be the exception, rather than the rule, will include interesting, and unusual work, and can be compensated with more relaxed and flexible hours when business is less pressing. We are committed to supporting working practices that promote diversity and work-life balance, and any work in the evening or during weekends will be recuperated in compliance with Belgian labour law.
* Please note Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment indicates Level C2 as Mastery or proficiency Level which comprehends that a person can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read; can summarize information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation; can express themselves spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations. For more information please click on the following link CEFR. Please bear in mind in case you are invited for an interview your languages skills are going to be assessed.
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.
Additional Information (due to Covid-19):
- You may experiment some delay in the progress of this recruitment campaign and we are working hard to minimise any disruption;
- Interviews will be done remotely if the existing situation determines this to be the right course of action;
- Starting date may be delayed depending on circumstances at the time and it will be agreed with the selected candidate.
This opportunity is closed to applications.
