View Vacancy - Vice Consul and Head of Consular

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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular

The British Embassy in Beirut has a vacancy for the position of Vice Consul and Head of Consular, Grade – B3 (L).

Main purpose of job:

As the Head of the Consular Section in Beirut, you will be oversee the delivery of high quality consular services to British Nationals in Lebanon in line with the Consular Strategy 2016-2020. The role encompasses the full range of modern consular work including providing consular assistance to vulnerable British Nationals and some notarial and documentary services.  You may also be involved in cases relating to British Nationals in Syria, where the UK currently has no representation. Such cases will involve close liaison with teams in London and at Post including counter-terrorism and political teams.

Alongside senior management, and as part of the whole of mission approach, you will also lead on the Consular aspects of post’s Crisis Management Plan, including evacuation planning for Brits and other eligible persons. You will need to work closely with the communications team both at post, London and regionally to deliver effective and coherent Consular messaging and prevention campaigns and you will lead on networking and outreach to the British community in Lebanon.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Assistance: Lead on high profile and complex assistance cases, ensuring the appropriate level of assistance is provided to customers.  Consular lead on sensitive, complex and special cases, such as kidnaps, working closely with political colleagues and those in London. Ensure the team provides an accurate and efficient notarial and documentary service in line with FCO guidance.

Prevention: Through in depth analysis of available data, and by spotting trends, develop and implement high quality and impactful local prevention campaigns to help reduce the number of preventable consular incidents year on year. Monitor changes in local procedures and practices, ensuring that information and guidance for reflects changes and is up to date.  Build and maintain a strong network of key contacts and stakeholders including Lebanese officials, friendly missions, expatriate groups and NGOs through regular meetings and outreach events. Development and delivery of impactful local consular campaigns and targeted social media, in conjunction with communications team at post and UK and regional digital communications leads.

Crisis management: Regularly update and test the consular element of Post’s Crisis Management Plan and ensure that Consular crisis staff are adequately trained and fully aware of their role during a crisis. Help the DHM ensure that other sections are at a similar level of readiness and help ensure a whole of mission approach to Crisis planning.  This is a priority, given Lebanon’s past crises (evacuation in 2006) and potential for volatility.

Resource management: Manage Beirut’s consular budget so that it is on track to deliver a year-end spend within 1% of allocation.  Provide accurate monthly forecasts for the Consular Regional Director (CRD) and maintain an up-to-date record of actual and planned expenditure.

Corporate: Play a positive and constructive role in wider corporate activity in the Embassy.

This is a challenging yet rewarding job which provides an excellent variety of frontline consular work and also allow the successful incumbent to develop experience in leadership, crisis, representational and communications work. You will need to be a good manager and effective leader and be able to multi-task under pressure. You will have a great deal of autonomy – you lead your own team and operation as the role is managed remotely from Amman, Jordan. It is therefore important that you are a self-starter and can act on your own initiative to run the consular operation and to keeping colleagues at Post, and the wider Consular management chain, informed and engaged.

It is also essential that you have good networking skills and that you are flexible and resilient. With over 5,000 British nationals visiting Lebanon each month and 3000 living there permanently there is a steady demand for Consular services. Although the volume of assistance cases is not particularly high, they can be complex and high profile calling for sensitive and considered handling.  Building and maintaining good relations with Lebanese officials (in particular the General Security, and airport authorities) is essential.

Key Competences required for the job:

  • Leading and Communicating - Effectiveness in this area is about leading from the front and communicating with clarity, conviction and enthusiasm. It’s about supporting principles of fairness of opportunity for all and a dedication to a diverse range of citizens.
  • Making Effective Decisions - Effectiveness in this area is about being objective; using sound judgment, evidence and knowledge to provide accurate, expert and professional advice. It means showing clarity of thought, setting priorities, analysing and using evidence to evaluate options before arriving at well-reasoned justifiable decisions.
  • Managing a Quality Service - Effectiveness in this area is about being organised to deliver service objectives and striving to improve the quality of service, taking account of diverse customer needs and requirements.
  • Collaborating and Partnering - People skilled in this area create and maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the Civil Service to help get business done.

Essential:

  • Fluent communication skills in English (both spoken and written)
  • Excellent customer care skills and the ability to respond to a range of customer’s needs.
  • Experience of managing a team.
  • Adaptable to changing priorities. Must be able to work and act without close supervision.
  • Experience of working strategically and of project development and management.
  • IT literacy in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Outlook) and Oracle programmes.
  • Good interpersonal skills and an ability to cultivate and maintain a range of contacts at all levels.
  • Ability to talk to large groups of people as part of our Prevention and Communication work.

Desirable:

  • Previous experience in a related field (e.g. caring professions such as social work, teaching or health).
20 March 2019
Executive Officer (EO)
Full-time, Permanent
40
Middle East & North Africa
Lebanon
Beirut
British Embassy
1
USD
1 May 2019

Working Hours and Remuneration:

Conditioned working hours are 40 hours gross per week. The Embassy is committed to ensuring that you are able to maintain a suitable work-life balance. Leave entitlement is 20 days (pro rated) plus 14 public holidays.

The embassy offers a competitive remuneration package in line with local labour law (including transport, family, education allowances, and medical insurance coverage). 

The successful candidate will be subject to a 90 day probationary period. 

Eligibility:

If you are selected for this position, we will be able to employ you as long as you:

  • The successful applicant will be required to obtain the necessary security clearance. Higher clearances can be granted only to certain nationalities. For this reason, candidates must be of British, American, Australian, Canadian, or New Zealand nationality in order to gain the level of clearance required.
  • Have (or be willing to obtain) the right to live and work in Lebanon. Candidate's residence permit and work permit, and the expense to obtain them, will be their own responsibility.

Application Process:

Interested candidates must attach the following documents along with the completed online application form:

  1. An updated Curriculum Vita (CV)
  2. A covering letter

** (Your application must include the above attachments and must include examples of when you have demonstrated the competencies outlined above in the cover letter. Applications that do not include this information will be rejected).

 

All applications must be received before 23:55 (Beirut Time) on 20 March 2019.

Applications received after the stated deadline will not be considered.

Interviews will be held at the British Embassy Beirut Office. Due to the large amount of applications we receive only those shortlisted for assessment/interview will be contacted. 

The start date mentioned in the advert is an assumed start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures.  Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearances and reference checks.

 

The British Embassy is an equal opportunities employer, dedicated to inclusivity, a diverse workforce and valuing difference.  Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy is subject to Terms and Conditions of service according to local Lebanon employment law.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.