View Vacancy - Consular Officer A2, Barcelona (ESP474)

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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Consular Roles)
Consular

The British Embassy in Spain is part of a world-wide network, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now recruiting for the position of Consular Officer, based in Barcelona.

With over 300,000 British residents and 15 million British tourists annually, Spain is the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s busiest consular operation globally. The selected candidate will provide consular support and assistance to British Nationals in the Catalunya Consular district. Also, he/she will be expected to provide assistance on complex cases, which will may mean dealing with grieving families, the death of British nationals in difficult circumstances or those who have been detained for a range of offences. You may be called upon to provide support to victims of crime and their families, or respond as part of a team to a crisis or natural disaster, which could be outside of normal working hours. You’ll receive training and support to do this as you follow written guidance and examples of best practice.

Main responsibilities will include:

  • To build internal and external relationships to enable correct signposting/advice/ support to British Nationals requiring consular assistance.
  • Provide a high level of consular assistance and support to British Nationals in a range of situations including hospitalisations, death, arrest, rape and sexual assault, financial difficulties, missing persons and child custody.
  • Liaison with Spanish local contacts such as funeral directors, police, courts, prisons, hospital and town hall social workers as well as key stakeholders, charities and support organisations in order to provide assistance to British Nationals.
  • Contribute to local influencing in conjunction with global prevention champions with the aim of reducing preventable consular cases.
  • Work with the local English speaking media to keep them informed of events and campaigns carried out by the Consulate.
  • Monitor the local media (English and Spanish speaking) to highlight issues and coverage to Vice Consul and Consul.
  • Excellent communication and customer service skills and experience.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in Spain and the UK as well as the public
  • Excellent written and spoken English and Spanish.
  • Attention to detail, strong analytical perspective and problem solving skills;
  • Ability to work at pace and prioritise, managing an often heavy workload
  • IT skills (Outlook, PowerPoint, Word and Excel).
  • Driving license.
  • University degree.
  • Experience of assisting British nationals overseas.
  • Experience of influencing and engaging key stakeholders and local authorities.
  • An understanding of the issues that British nationals (tourists and residents) may face in the Catalunya Consular District.
  • Catalan would be advantageous, but not essential.
25 October 2017
Administrative Officer (AO)
Full-time, Permanent
37.5
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Spain
Barcelona
British Consulate
EUR
2,185.14
1 December 2017

This is a permanent full-time position of 5 working days (37.5 hours per week).

All applicants should have the right to live and work in Spain. The British Embassy does not sponsor work permits.

The successful candidate is subject to a confirmation of a background check, security clearance and the successful completion of a probationary period.

The successful candidate will be enrolled in the Spanish Social Security Scheme and will therefore not be entitled to any gratuity from the Embassy based on gross annual salary.

Regarding taxation, the Embassy is a Diplomatic Mission with tax exempt status and does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are fully responsible for payment of Spanish income tax at the legally required rate.

Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy in Spain are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Spanish employment law.

Please be advised that Consular positions at the FCO entail dealing with casework in situations that may involve death, detention, rape, assault, post-mortems, prison visits and highly distressed customers.

Candidates should therefore have a high level of resilience to trauma.

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 of the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

We kindly advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application.

Only applications completed and submitted before the closing of the deadline will be considered.

 

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.