View Vacancy - SRR - Private Secretary to HMA, Office Manager, and Political Officer - Yemen Overseas Network (YON) A2(L)

The British Embassy Riyadh has a vacancy for a Private Secretary to Her Majesty's Ambassador (HMA), Office Manager, and Political Officer under the Yemen Overseas Network (YON).

This role involves lots of one-to-one interaction with HMA and opportunities to learn directly. It’s a great learning and development opportunity, on a high-profile and exciting agenda, on which the UK has real influence. The UK is a leading actor on Yemen, including supporting the UN peace process, acting as penholder for the Yemen file in the Security Council and responding to the humanitarian crisis.

The jobholder will act as Private Secretary to HMA/ Chargé d’affaires, including acting as effective liaison during HMA’s extensive travel and time at the British Embassy Amman. You will lead on effective office management to support the work of wider YON and lead on management of the YON Chevening programme. You will also take on additional aspects of political work as agreed with the line manager.

Duties and responsibilities:

- Private Secretary to HMA (40%)

• You will act as the primary point of contact for HMA/ Chargé both internally and externally: managing both diary and inbox, ensuring that all appointments are organised properly. It is critical that in organising meetings you assist him with time management by allowing for desk time to manage his administration; this will necessitate pushing back on individuals who want to see him from time to time. HMA keeps a busy schedule working across the Yemen Overseas Network located in three posts (Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Amman). Managing HMA/ Charge’s travel arrangements both in country and internationally (flights, visas, and accommodation) will be a vital task expected of you.
• Over time you will lead in arranging HMA’s meetings with senior Yemeni contacts and other high level international stakeholders including Saudi and Emirati leadership, and other senior members of international organisations and embassies. You will become the first point of contact between the Embassy and the offices of these individuals.

- Office manager (30%)

• You will provide administrative support the work of the wider Yemen Office. This will include supervision of the leave calendar, setting up and managing contact database, and monitoring post budgets in conjunction with the Deputy Head of Mission (DHM). During periods of heavy workload, you may be asked to help with travel arrangements for additional members of staff.
• You will serve as Information Management Officer, acting as the driving force for ensuring excellent record keeping and handling of information across the Yemen Overseas Network.
• You will play a key role in crisis management, taking ownership of YON’s preparations and processes such as the telephone tree. You will also be a key contact point with the Crisis networks for each host embassy.

- Chevening programme (20%)

• You will be the Yemen Office Network lead on all aspects of the Chevening programme. You will design and implement national marketing and outreach strategies to attract applicants, delivering an annual telephone interview process involving Yemen Network staff at post and in London, liaise with the Chevening Secretariat in London to sift and select candidates, organise departure and reception events for Yemeni scholars. You will also help manage the Network’s relationship with sponsor co-funding scholarships.
• You will manage contacts and communications with former scholars and identify opportunities for engagement with the Yemen Overseas Network. Ensure scholars have the opportunity to remain looped in with events and projects at the British Embassy of the country to which they return to help consolidate and build the network prior to an eventual return to Yemen.
• You will contribute to development of regional and global Chevening networks, learn from other countries and identify areas for collaboration.

- Political (10%)

• You will support the Political Team firstly through leading in arrangement of events and hospitality across all YON platforms, including helping to ensure YON and its contacts are suitably represented at the Queen’s Birthday Parties of host countries.
• You will monitor and lead in response to messages to the British Embassy Sana’a mailbox, seeking advice from others in the team where necessary. You will be expected to increase your knowledge of UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) rules and procedures in order to be the team lead and contact point for all visa queries.
• You will be expected to participate in (at least) one BE Riyadh activity or represent Yemen Office on a committee.
• So long as all other aforementioned duties have been completed, there will then be opportunity to work in support of YON’s political work, being involved in meetings, building contacts (particularly Yemenis), and reporting. This would most likely be ad hoc, but if sufficiently driven to find the hours you would need to devote there is scope for you to become the network lead on one issue agreed with your line manager.

Key competencies required:

• Delivering at Pace - Focusing on delivering timely performance with energy and taking responsibility and accountability for quality outcomes. Working to agreed goals and activities and dealing with challenges in a responsive and constructive way.
• Managing a Quality Service - Being organised to deliver service objectives and striving to improve the quality of service, taking account of diverse customer needs and requirements. Effectively planning, organising, and managing time and activities to deliver a high quality and efficient service, applying programme and project management approaches to support service delivery.
• Collaborating and Partnering - Creating and maintaining positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the organisation to help get business done. Working collaboratively, sharing information and building supportive, responsive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, whilst having the confidence to challenge assumptions.
• Making Effective Decisions - Being objective; using sound judgement, evidence and knowledge to provide accurate, expert and professional advice. Showing clarity of thought, setting priorities, analysing and using evidence to evaluate options before arriving at well-reasoned justifiable decisions.

For this role, you will need sound judgement, the ability to deliver with and through others, great organisational skills, and the resilience to deliver in what can be, at times, a hectic environment, with quickly evolving circumstances and priorities. You will need to be prepared to be asked to think innovatively in order to solve problems you encounter.

Particularly in relation to the Chevening programme, crisis preparation, and information management, you will work to be able to make suggestions about ways of improving working methods, systems, and processes, and whereby you can then support change by implementing new policies and procedures.

This role will also provide stretch in decision making and collaboration and partnering. The Yemen Office Network team is split across primarily three locations in Riyadh, Amman, and London, and so creative thinking is important in managing to maintain a high quality service in that context.

You will also be expected to be fluent in English, both written and spoken.