View Vacancy - Trade & Investment Officer – Creative and Infrastructure

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Department for International Trade roles (DIT)
DIT

The British Embassy in Doha is part of a worldwide network that represents political, economic, security and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a Trade & Investment Officer – Creative and Infrastructure, job grade, Administrative Officer (AO).

Main duties and responsibilities:

As a Trade and Investment Officer, the job holder will be responsible for identifying, supporting and developing opportunities for new and extant British companies seeking to enter or expand in the Qatari market.

The role in context will have a primary responsibility for supporting the Senior Commercial Attaché within the Creative Industries and Infrastructure sector. There will be a key focus on opportunities within Sports, Media, Tourism and Travel combined with Infrastructure pipeline opportunities, particularly within rail.  There will be occasions for wider team engagement and support with trade missions, Ministerial visits and crisis training.

In addition, the role will be leading on events management as the GREAT marketing liaison officer and supporting DIT’s involvement with GREAT@WC22 alongside the wider Embassy team.

The role is required to support wider DIT responsibilities including handling market research enquiries, coordinating events, and recording business interactions, providing tailored reports and proactively identifying business opportunities.

Responsibilities shall include:

  • Providing direct support, but not limited to the Senior Commercial Attaché to develop a deep understanding of the UK and Qatari markets, including key players, market opportunities, market access issues and competition.
  • Contribute to and support the growth of UK exports and/or ODI in the Qatari market.
  • Build local relationships with organisations (private and public) and relevant Ministries that increase British trade by identifying export opportunities and future economic partnerships.
  • Engaging the respective sectors’ network, including support briefing British and Qatari businesses, responding to enquiries, including market access, local engagement and doing business in Qatar.
  • Support the sector leads to build and manage a pipeline of export opportunities for British
  • Organise and support key events and activities which support British trade work in Qatar including webinars, roadshows, trade missions and Ministerial visits.
  • Support the sectoral delivery against agreed targets, including Export Wins, OMIS (Overseas Market Introduction Service) revenue, Export Opportunities, and case studies / success stories published.
  • Support the capture of challenges and improvement of Qatari market access for UK exports.
  • Travel to the UK and region to support trade promotion activities where relevant.
  • Initiate engagement with Qatari clients to identify market trends and emerging opportunities.
  • Build and maintain operational relationships within the Embassy, across the wider MEAP region and with DIT/Whitehall.
  • Collaborate with UK and Regional teams, including sector specialists to deliver high quality outputs and support to British businesses.
  • Lead on marketing for the GREAT campaign, taking responsibility for marketing collateral, supporting staff and taking charge of DIT’s social media for Qatar.
  • Provision of administrative support to the wider team as and when required.
  • Promote, where relevant, the financing products offered by UK Export Finance, the British government’s Export Credit Agency, to support companies win contracts.
  • Maintaining a log contact with customers on our global ‘Data Hub’ database.

Additional DIT team duties include:

  • Providing support to wider team events, including VIP/Ministerial visits.
  • Updating the DIT key contact database to be used for invites to events.
  • Providing support to the wider Trade and Investment team as required.
  • Any additional duties as required by the Director/Deputy Director of International Trade.

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:

  • Delivering at Pace: Effectiveness in this area means focusing on delivering timely performance with energy and taking responsibility and accountability for quality outcomes. It’s about working to agreed goals and activities and dealing with challenges in a responsive and constructive way. 
  • Working Together: People skilled in this area create and maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the Civil Service to help get business done. It requires working effectively, sharing information and building supportive, responsive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, whilst having the confidence to challenge assumptions.​
  • Managing a Quality Service: Effectiveness in this area is about being organised to deliver service objectives and striving to improve the quality of service, taking account of diverse customer needs and requirements. People who are effective plan, organise and manage their time and activities to deliver a high quality and efficient service, applying programme and project management approaches to support service delivery. 
  • Communicating and Influencing: Effectiveness in this area is about communicating purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. It’s about respecting the needs, responses and opinions of others.
  • Fluent standard of English. Able to express ideas and messages clearly and concisely, both orally and in written communication, with an eye for detail.
  • You will need to be a self-starter who can hit the ground running and quickly adapt to the role.
  • University level of qualification or equivalent standards of education.
  • Experience in business development ideally in Creative, Tech or Infrastructure sectors.
  • Proven track record of cross-team collaboration.
  • Demonstrated experience meeting and/or exceeding challenging targets.
  • Analytical skills acquired in an international market context with a consultative sales approach to achieving results.
  • Fast learning, self-starter who can demonstrate initiative, resilience, and project management skills.
  • Confident communicator.
  • Strong IT computer skills using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office and conducting internet searches.
  • The ability to initiate and maintain a wide range of working relationships, both internally and externally.
  • Strong organisational skills.
  • The ability to work quickly, reliably and proactively with attention to detail and limited supervision.
  • Knowledge of the Qatar business environment, including “doing business in Qatar”.
  • Experience of organising events and customer database.
  • Experience of working in a large diverse team.
  • Experience in working within the GCC.
  • Experience in Creative Industries and/or Infrastructure, or having some relevant knowledge would be advantageous.
  • Arabic speaking skills an advantage.
Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together
11 July 2022
Administrative Officer (AO)
Fixed Term, Full-time
38
24 months
Middle East & North Africa
Qatar
Doha
British Embassy
1
QAR
12,585
1 September 2022

Eligibility:

Applicants must already reside in Qatar and hold the right to live and work there, including those either under spouse sponsorship or be able to transfer an existing sponsorship to the British Embassy. If sponsorship transfer is required, all sponsorship incurred fees shall be borne by the successful applicant. The Embassy cannot guarantee how much cost or time it may take for the process to complete.

Working Hours and Remuneration:

The British Embassy offers a competitive remuneration package, including non-negotiable salary of QR 11,785 per calendar month and transportation allowance of QR 800 per calendar month, paid in arrears. No accommodation and relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position.

The contract will be for a full-time employment, on a fixed-term basis for 2 years, with a possibility of extension subject to 6 months’ probation period.

Conditioned working hours are 38 hours per week. Embassy working hours are 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday and 7.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. on Thursday. Some out of hours work, including evenings and weekends, may be required from time to time to support events, conferences and other business engagement.

The Embassy supports flexible working including working from home for some part of the working week. This flexibility will vary depending on the department’s commitments and requirements, hence the jobholder will be expected to be able to make last minute changes to their work plans and work location accordingly. Some out of hours work, including evenings and weekends, may be required from time to time to support events, conferences and other business engagement.

Regular Embassy L&D opportunity with both online and distance learning modules open to all staff as priorities permit. Finance training will be provided (e-learning) and on the job coaching and mentoring by experienced colleagues within the Mission and the wider HMG platform in Doha.

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.

The successful candidate will need to commence security clearance procedures through the Embassy and will be required to have or obtain the appropriate security clearance before employment commences and maintain this throughout period of employment.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates must complete the:

  1. Online application form;
  2. Answer the why you have applied to this role section and
  3. 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).

The closing date for applications will be 11 July 2022 by 23:55 Doha local time.

Applications received after the stated deadline will not be considered.

Process:

The recruitment process, including security clearance, is expected to take around two months.

The start date mentioned in the job 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.

Personal data collected will be treated in strictest confidence under the terms of the UK Data Protection Act and used for recruitment purposes only.

 

The British Embassy Doha is an equal opportunities employer, dedicated to inclusivity, a diverse workforce and valuing difference. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy is subject to Terms and Conditions of service according to local Qatari 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.