View Vacancy - BK - Head of Prevention and Engagement, C4 (L)
The jobholder will lead the Consular section’s prevention and engagement activities, ensuring the team deliver a range of high quality projects, campaigns and partnership initiatives.
The Consular Section’s role is to support British Nationals in difficulty in Thailand through modern and efficient consular services in line with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Consular Strategy, consular guidance and customer charter, business targets, local procedures and conditions through effective operational management and project work. The incumbent will drive high standards of customer services in a fast paced and complex environment, with focus on outreach and engagement work, partnership building with key stakeholders, and preventative communications campaigns.
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Leadership and Development
Effective line management, motivation and development of two Prevention Team members. Active participation in the Consular team’s management, demonstrating high standards of professionalism and supporting the welfare of the wider team. Represent the Consular team within the wider Embassy, building networks and offering support and guidance as necessary.
- Engagement, partnership and lobbying
Developing and leading the consular team’s Prevention strategy, including oversight of prevention activity, reporting and evaluation. Contact making, networking and outreach with a range of local stakeholders to build and develop local Thai partnerships, share local knowledge and influence to enhance the delivery of consular services. This will include identifying and building partnerships with new contacts, and leading on organising visits and events (in Bangkok and around Thailand) to build and maintain partnerships.
Keeping up-to-date on Thai government policy changes relevant to the UK’s consular services. Build and maintain a database of key government contacts, both regional and national who can be contacted as needed for information/advice. Brief senior stakeholders in Thai and English.
Devise and deliver through the team innovative communications campaigns to raise awareness of risks amongst British nationals and reduce avoidable consular cases. Lead on internal communications to promote the work of the consular team with stakeholders.
- Project Management
Leading on Prevention projects in support of consular team objectives and the Consular Strategy. Developing project bids and implementation plans; monitoring and evaluation; effective budget management.
- Crisis
In crisis/emergency situations work as required to support Embassy response, sometimes on a shift pattern working unsociable hours. Occasional crisis-related activities, if required, may include crisis casework, visiting distressed British people, communications and other activities as directed by Embassy management.
- Excellent written and spoken Thai and English languages. For candidates with English as a second language, certification at IELTS (or equivalent) level 9 or higher within the last 2 years is required. All skill areas (Writing, Speaking, Listening and Reading) must be IELTS score 8.5 or higher.
- An experienced manager with proven skills in leading and managing a busy team
- A confident person with strong communication and influencing skills
- Experience of working in challenging and busy environments; strong personal resilience skills
- Experience of planning and implementing communications campaigns
- Proven project management skills
- A track record of displaying sound judgement and an analytical approach in decision making
- Excellent writing skills and the ability to explain complex issues clearly both orally and in writing
- Good self management and organisational skills with an ability to plan and prioritise own work effectively with competing workload under pressure
- IT proficiency – Using MS Office, Outlook and ability to learn FCO systems
- Ability to travel within Thailand and regionally/to the UK.
- Experience of living in, or understanding of the UK
- Previous consular or other experience in a service delivery role
- Project management qualifications (e.g. PRINCE2)
- Skills and/or an interest in graphic design and media e.g. social media, video editing.
The British Embassy offers a competitive remuneration package, including salary (will be abated for those not liable to tax), benefits, a leave entitlement, Health Insurance and full training. Mandatory Consular training will be provided once in the role. Consular team encourages flexible working patterns wherever operationally feasible.
Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment and security checks. Staff who are locally recruited by the British Embassy are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law.
No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain work authorisation in Thailand in order to apply. Any costs related to obtaining or renewing permits and visas are the responsibility of the successful applicant.
All applications must be received before 23:55 on 20 August 2017.
Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.
Interviews for this position will commence during the week of 18 September 2017.
The successful candidate should be able to start as soon as possible.
Reminder for existing Embassy staff who will be interested to apply:
Along with the completed online application form, candidates should upload their last two years End of Year Appraisals if applicable. If applicants have been employed for less than twelve months, they will need to provide permission from their Head of Section to apply and should attach this to their application.
Guidance on completing competency based application forms and sitting Interviews can be found on the BE Website and also on the Civil Service Learning portal, Virtual Ashridge portal and Goodpractice.net (both accessed through the CSL). Staff are strongly advised to refer to these.
We recommend all applicants to understand the Civil Service competences before applying for any role and in preparation for interviews. For more information, you can visit our website - https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-embassy-bangkok/about/recruitment.
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This opportunity is closed to applications.
