View Vacancy - DXB - SDI Assistant Development Executive A2(L)

The British Embassy Dubai has a vacancy for an Assistant Development Executive with Scottish Development International (SDI).

SDI is a joint venture between Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and the Scottish Government. Its purpose is to support the internationalisation of Scottish companies, to engage with and attract overseas companies to invest in and collaborate with Scotland and Scottish companies, potentially leading to foreign direct investment, and to maximise investment opportunities.

Dubai is an attractive market for Scotland in terms of its economic wealth, high disposable incomes, and economic trading environments. The market is witnessing significant growth across key sectors of the economy such as construction, transport, retail, and hospitality as it seeks to diversify its economy from oil to other industries, particularly in terms of their retail, tourism and hospitality offering.

SDI is seeking to recruit an administrative assistant to support the small, but ambitious team to deliver Scotland’s international economic development activities across the Middle East region.

The Assistant Development Executive will be responsible for supporting the Regional Manager and a core team of up to six (6) trade specialists. 

The successful candidate will be expected to use the organisation’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which has recently been implemented. You will help embed CRM usage into everything we do as a team. The successful candidate will be the CRM champion and the go-to person, having developed your knowledge from working/ using CRM frequently as part of your core role.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Support the team in preparation of meetings, briefing notes, liaison with stakeholders and development of resources, as required.
• Provide excellent administrative management of our resources, ensuring that value for money is achieved at all times.
• Responsible for ensuring best practice, compliance with the organisations policy regarding CRM usage, analysing data, and preparing quarterly reports.
• Produce a monthly report on all activities (combination of CRM and other data) and a preview of activities in the upcoming month on a timely basis. Present data in written form creatively, meaningfully, and insightfully.
• Plan and deliver various networking events and VIP visits and support trade missions based on our key sector priorities and growth ambitions.
• Provide marketing support.
• Assist the Regional Manager with all matters relating to finance, including processing commercial invoices and co-ordinating budget activity, re-profiling and analysis.
• Maintain regional database of contacts and auditing as required.
• Participate as a member of the EMEA team with colleagues in Scotland and elsewhere.

Key competencies required:

• 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 appropriately, and building supportive, responsive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders whilst having the confidence to challenge assumptions.
• Managing a Quality Service - Planning, organising, and managing time and activities to deliver a high quality, secure, reliable and efficient service, applying programme and project and risk management approaches to support service delivery
• Achieving Commercial Outcomes - Maintaining an economic, long-term focus in all activities, having a commercial, financial and sustainable mindset to ensure all activities and services are delivering added value and working to stimulate economic growth.
• Engaging Internationally - Leading internationally, engaging our staff, contacts and international partners and developing productive relationships to help deliver UK Government objectives. Being aware of cultural sensitivities in area of responsibility and building up negotiating expertise and use language skills where appropriate to deepen impact.

• Recent experience of CRM, interpreting market intelligence, analysing/ processing data accurately.
• Previous experience of budget management and a strong grasp of the financial side of operations.
• Excellent ICT skills and working knowledge of online creative tools.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the confidence to establish relationships. A team player.
• Able to work well under pressure to tight deadlines in a challenging and demanding environment.
• Able to work on own initiative and taking accountability for your responsibilities and actions.
• With an awareness of and sensitivity to the different cultures in the region.
• High level of written and oral communication skills in English.