View Vacancy - Senior Trade Adviser - Creative Industries - C4 - Mumbai

MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB

You will be one of the senior staff in the Creative Industries team of the British Deputy High Commission Mumbai, with the objective of identifying export opportunities and developing those opportunities into export wins for UK Exporters. 

The team focuses on supporting UK exporters in the creative industries to dramatically grow the volume of trade with India, through strategic campaigns and pipeline development. This post will be focussed on tapping into the rapidly growing creative sector in India and promoting UK expertise. The creative sector encompasses music, film, live entertainment, experience economy, and more.  

You will bring with you, or demonstrate how you would quickly acquire, an in-depth knowledge of the sector.  You will build a strategy based on this knowledge to turn the long-term potential and direction of travel of the sector into a pipeline of opportunities for UK business.  To do so, you will identify and build relationships within the sector and build a pipeline of validated projects for UK business, particularly large or high-value deals which would require UK government support or involvement to win.  You will then work with the Department for International Trade’s (DIT’s) Headquarters’ team in the UK and in other markets to bring UK companies to India and support them to win business, delivering towards the UK government’s twin export targets.

Your role will be high profile.  You will be the voice of the UK government and industry in the sector, and wider; you will be expected to gain access to the most senior levels within Indian industry and government if necessary using the Deputy High Commissioners and other senior staff.  You will be a self-starter who can demonstrate a long-term objective; plan and manage a delivery model; identify, grow and make effective use of stakeholders.   You will work with colleagues within DIT in India and elsewhere, with other UK government colleagues, Indian government(s), business and other multipliers (trade associations, etc.).

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Create, validate, plan and deliver a strategy for the Creative Industries sector across India.  Identify, validate and deliver a pipeline of high value projects and opportunities; plan and deliver activities to connect UK business to these opportunities and provide bespoke support to UK companies to win business.  In doing so, meet DIT’s internal targets (for pipeline, export wins, return on investment and customer satisfaction/quality). 
• With the cross HMG Creative Industries team, build and manage senior level relationships, with key Indian and UK business, stakeholders and partners, to support objectives and deliver value for UK business.
• Create and innovate models needed to engage with stakeholders, raise the profile of the sector through activities & events planned and managed by DIT and others, including GREAT.
• Provide help, support and advice to colleagues and peers in the Creative Industries team across India and in other sub-sectors on specific projects, events and activities.
• Contributing to wider corporate UK government objectives, including input to Ministerial/VIP visits and deliverables in Post and across one-HMG in India.

WHAT WE DO

Department of International Trade (DIT) works with UK based businesses to ensure their success in international markets through exports. We encourage and support overseas companies to look at India as the best place to set up or expand their business. Improving trade and investment links with India is a UK Government priority. The Indian Government is opening up major opportunities and there is a determination to see a major expansion in bilateral trade and investment.

This job is a senior position, reflecting a decision by DIT to create greater capacity within the team, enabling greater strategic direction and focus on individual sectors where significant opportunities exist for the UK. We are targeting these opportunities through strategic campaigns which are programmes of activity designed to unlock individual business / investment opportunities for the UK; our focus is on high value opportunities. We also support individual UK businesses with market access issues and Government lobbying. India has a lot of UK Ministerial/VIP attention and on average we host an incoming Minister/VIP every month.

The DIT team is a high-performing, hybrid team of supportive colleagues made up of UK-based and locally engaged staff totalling around 100 people, spread across nine cities in India. 

WHAT WE WANT FROM YOU

The job is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact on the UK’s trade and investment links with India. We will give you the freedom and space to develop within your sector and build your networks, but we will support you too with opportunities to get the right learning and development, career development and opportunities to travel across India and to the UK. But you will need to be collaborative and flexible too to fit in with the network’s ethos; and, importantly, focussed on delivering results and contributing to the wider corporate efforts especially around our busy Ministerial/VIP visit programme. To be successful:

• You will have an in depth understanding of the creative industries sector, and specifically the creative industries economy, both in India and the UK and a strong network on the ground, and use your good analytical skills to apply this to identifying significant market opportunities for UK business and then supporting them to turn these in to contracts. 
• You will need to be strategically aware to identify emerging opportunities in your sector, and to what is happening in the UK in your sectors and to emerging investment opportunities.
• You will have strong interpersonal skills and be a credible team member, capable of gaining the team’s trust and respect - and doing so while working within a virtual team located across India.
• You will have experience of developing productive relationships with senior decision makers in UK and Indian businesses and with stakeholders and partners, and of using these to deliver your objectives.
• You will need to be collaborative and flexible and able to manage yourself and the demands on you.

You will have good project management skills to create and deliver campaigns; and excellent English written and verbal communication skills. You will be expected to produce written work in Standard English to a high standard.

Qualifications:

Graduate/post graduate. Candidates without the required educational qualifications but with exceptional practical experience will be considered.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of relevant commercial/business experience
• An in-depth understanding of the sector and a strong network in the sector are essential.
• Strong analytical and problem skills to search out significant opportunities for UK business.
• Tried and tested project management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal, team working and people management skills. Experience of dealing with senior level decision makers in corporate organisations and state governments. You will need to show a solid track record of dealing with senior level decision makers in the business world.