View Vacancy - INTERNAL VACANCY – Deputy Director of Trade

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Department for International Trade roles (DIT)
DIT

The British Embassy in Kuwait is seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual for the position of Deputy Director of Trade, job grade Higher Executive Officer (HEO).

Main purpose of the job:

As the Deputy Director of Trade, the jobholder will be responsible for supporting the Country Director in the development and implementation of our Regional Trade Plan to promote trade and investment opportunities between Kuwait and the UK, whilst contributing to the wider Embassy and Country Plan objectives to enhance prosperity through bilateral trade.

The primary responsibility of the role as the Deputy Director for the DIT Kuwait team will include overseeing the trade promotion work through line management of a team of Senior Commercial Attachés, covering a range of key sectors as well as resource & budget management, business planning, data management and information reporting. Additionally, the role will lead on supporting British companies to access opportunities in the Kuwait Education sector. The deputy will also have the lead coordinator and engagement role in the Embassy between Kuwaiti stakeholders and the UK negotiating teams in the UK-GCC Free Trade Agreement (UK-GCC FTA).

The successful candidate will be required to support wider DIT responsibilities, including, but not limited to: deputising for the Country Director, leading on events, including Ministerial visits and DIT- related senior official visit programmes, briefings up to Ministerial level and supporting wider MEaP (Middle East and Pakistan) region and British Embassy Kuwait corporate objectives as required.

Roles and responsibilities:

Management (50%)

  • Support the Country Director in the leadership of DIT Kuwait, including setting the direction and priorities of the team.
  • Line management of 2 x Executive Officers (CBS- B3s).
  • Oversee the exports team across key export sectors including Healthcare, Agri-tech, Creative & Sports, Clean Energy Transition, Financial services and Advanced Manufacturing & Infrastructure. This includes supporting work on pipeline development to enable ‘export wins’, engaging stakeholders and identifying and tackling market access barriers to develop the ease of doing business for UK companies wishing to trade with Kuwait.
  • Work closely with colleagues across Government, including UK Export Finance, Science & Innovation, Trade Policy, Political and UK & Regional sector teams to identify and collaborate on resolving market access issues and crosscutting priorities such as clean growth, prosperity and UK-GCC FTA.
  • Build and maintain senior and operational relationships within the Embassy, across the wider MEaP region and with DIT/Whitehall.
  • Provide high-quality briefing for Ministers and other VIPs and manage the quality of briefing produced by the team.
  • Lead on all operational aspects of the team, including being responsible for effective and accurate budget management, recruitment activities, events forecasting & resource planning, a range of management reporting outputs, often requiring quick turn-around and being the DIT team information asset manager.

Trade Promotion – Education Sector Lead (25%)

  • Opportunities in the Kuwait education sector came into prominence during the COVID pandemic. With very little digitisation in the education system, lack of capacity and capabilities, Kuwait struggled to provide continuous education in the lockdown periods at the height of pandemic. In the light if these difficulties, the Kuwaiti Government has prioritised building capabilities and capacity in the system through innovative digital technologies. This offers tremendous opportunities for UK businesses in the sector. The job will be responsible for developing the opportunities pipeline and supporting UK businesses to access them.

Visits & Events (10%)

  • Kuwait has seen an upturn in Ministerial and VIP visits in the last year.  You will be expected to both support the Country Director and your team, as well as lead on visits when required, working with other parts of the embassy.
  • Occasional travel.

Corporate & Administration (15%)

  • Present monthly information on export pipeline.
  • Quality control of Ministerial briefing in order to support the Director to ensure the briefings meet the required standard.
  • Maintaining a log contact with customers on our global ‘Data Hub’ database as well as actively reviewing the DIT export win databases to measure progress against our targets.
  • Supporting wider Embassy forums, including Prosperity & Programme Boards.

The above list is not exhaustive and the jobholder will be required to be flexible and take on other ad hoc tasks as required.

Key behaviours required for the job:

  • Leadership - Show pride and passion for public service. Create and engage others in delivering a shared vision. Value difference, diversity and inclusion, ensuring fairness and opportunity for all.
  • Delivering at Pace - Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive.
  • Changing and Improving - Seek out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative ideas for improvement. Review ways of working, including seeking and providing feedback.
  • Managing a Quality Service - Deliver service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs.
  • Excellent communication skills (both written and oral) in English. Ability to express ideas and messages clearly and concisely.
  • Commercial experience, knowledge of trade and investment concepts, ideally in Kuwait and/or the UK.
  • Proven experience of working pro-actively, independently, and towards performance targets within a team setting, contributing to the overall goals of the section; ability to lead teams and set direction
  • Team player capable of collaborating effectively across local and international teams.
  • Ability to work at pace and deliver on ambitions in a fast-paced and changing environment. Strong customer focus and ability to deliver quality service.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills and able to communicate, influence and network confidently with industry leaders, senior government officials, and senior business people; able to build a network of contacts and maintain effective working relationships.
  • Strong drafting skills, able to produce concise briefings and details background documents.
  • Proven record of organisational ability.
  • Able to multi-task, organise and prioritise workload, and meet deadlines and changing priorities whilst maintaining close attention to detail and without compromising the quality of the work.
  • Ability to plan strategically, assimilate information from a range of sources, and to see the bigger picture to spot opportunities.
  • Resourcefulness in solving problems and demonstrates good judgement.
  • Strong IT computer skills and in using MS Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams).
  • Strong customer focus and ability to deliver quality service Able to build capability in others and support team development.
  • Arabic language skills (written and spoken) whilst not essential, are an advantage.
  • Understanding of the UK perhaps through previous jobs and or education and the Kuwait business culture, likely to have lived, worked or studied in the UK.
Changing and Improving, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Leadership
28 August 2022
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)
Fixed Term, Full-time
38
24 months
Middle East & North Africa
Kuwait
Kuwait
British Embassy
1
KWD
1494.250
1 October 2022

Eligibility:

This position is only open to internal country-based staff who are employed at the British Embassy in Kuwait, including UK based spouses/partners.

Working Conditions and Remuneration:

The Embassy aims to offer an attractive working environment and remuneration package for this role, including a non-negotiable gross salary of KWD 1494.250 per month, inclusive of all allowances.

The package includes a good level of medical insurance and an engaging working environment; 30 days of annual leave (on pro rata basis) plus 14 public holidays. There are no other allowances payable as part of this package. No accommodation and relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. 

This position is for a full-time employment, on a fixed-term basis for two (2) years.

Conditioned working hours are 38 hours gross per week (this is made up of 35.5 hours net per week and a daily 30-minute lunch break). The working hours are 07:30 – 15:30 from Sunday to Wednesday and 07:30 – 13:30 on Thursday. Due to the nature of the work, the successful candidate should be flexible in their approach to hours worked as these will be dictated by operational needs and may involve working out-of-hours.

The Embassy has an active Continuous Professional Development Committee, and the whole of Post is committed to providing the time and resources for staff to develop professionally. The 70/20/10 learning and development model is applied flexibility, with both internal and formal opportunities readily available. In addition, DIT provides opportunity for management and leadership training and sector-specific ‘developing skills & knowledge’ training to increase understanding of the UK market. There will likely be an expectation of undertaking training specific to crisis response/ management in 2022.

To Apply:

Interested candidates must complete and attach the following: 

  1. An updated Curriculum Vita (CV)
  2. Online application form
  3. Answer the why you have applied to this role section and behaviours questions  

** (Your application must include examples of when you have demonstrated the experience and behaviours outlined above in your online application form. Applications that are not complete will be rejected). 

All applications must be received before 23:55 (Kuwait Time) on 28 August 2022.

Applications received after the stated deadline will not be considered.

The start date mentioned in the advert is a tentative 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 Kuwait is an equal opportunities employer, dedicated to inclusivity, a diverse workforce and valuing difference.  Staffs recruited locally by the British Embassy are subject to Terms and Conditions of service according to local Kuwaiti 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.