View Vacancy - AUS - Vice Consul B3(L)

Applications are invited for the position of Vice Consul at the British Consulate-General Melbourne for a fixed-term contract of 2 years.

The British Consulate General Melbourne is located on Collins Street in the heart of the CBD and represents the UK government providing consular services to British nationals in Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. In addition to consular, policy, political, as well and trade and investment activities are undertaken from this location.

The Vice Consul is an important part of the leadership team in Melbourne, and will play a key role in team working and morale. This is a great role which will provide the successful applicant the opportunity to gain experience in a vast array of consular work. This includes assistance, crisis, representational and project work.

As the head of Consular Section in Melbourne, you will be responsible for leading a team in providing high quality consular services to British nationals across Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. You will report directly to and work closely with the Consular Regional Operations Manager (CROM) located in Canberra, assisting in delivering our objectives under the Consular Strategy and Australia-wide business plans. Although reporting to the CROM, primary accountability for the delivery of consular services across Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania is to the Consul-General Melbourne.

The role encompasses the full range of modern consular work including providing assistance to vulnerable British Nationals, delivering Consular prevention strategies and contributing to the co-ordination of crisis management planning.

You will manage a team of locally engaged Pro-Consuls and regional Honorary Consuls. You will be responsible for the local post’s consular budget and oversee the collection of fees for consular services.

The role has a responsibility to lead on and contribute to the People and Wellbeing strategy for the APAC Consular network.

Responsibilities will include:

• Assistance and services - Lead on high profile and complex assistance cases, ensuring that an appropriate level of assistance is provided to customers, prioritised to those most vulnerable. Undertake prison, detention centre, and hospital visits as required and liaise with bereaved families. Ensure the provision of accurate and efficient processing of Emergency Travel Documents in line with Foreign Commonwealth Office guidance and act as a Registration Officer for same-sex marriages.
• Prevention - Develop and deliver a programme of focussed prevention activity. Build and maintain a strong network of key contacts and stakeholders including local officials and authorities, friendly missions, British associations, expatriate groups, and NGOs.
• Crisis management - Regularly update and test the consular part of Post’s Crisis Management Plan and ensure that the Crisis Consular team is fully staffed and trained. Contribute effectively to post’s Crisis Committee and to training and exercising.
• Team management - Manage the Consular Section in Melbourne effectively, setting strategically aligned objectives, delegating work where appropriate, and providing regular and honest developmental feedback. Recruit and induct new staff in line with FCO guidance. Ensure that the team are kept fully informed on the Consular Strategy, business priorities, and new developments. Lead and contribute to the APAC Consular people and wellbeing strategy. This includes participation in reviews, workshops and overseeing the delivery of network wide initiatives that support positive outcomes.
• Budget management - Manage Melbourne’s consular budget so that it is on track to deliver a year-end spend aligned with allocation. Provide accurate monthly forecasts and maintain an up-to-date record of actual and planned expenditure.

You will need to be an effective manager, supportive leader, and be able to multi-task under pressure. You will have a great deal of autonomy – you lead your team and operations and the role is managed remotely from Canberra. It is therefore important that you are a self starter and can act on your own initiative in running the consular operation and keeping stakeholders informed and engaged.

Strong networking skills are integral to success in this role and it will be important to be flexible and resilient. There are many British nationals residing in Melbourne and thousands more visiting each year, meaning there is a steady demand for a wide range of assistance and services. Although the number of assistance cases is not particularly high, they can often be complex and challenging, calling for sensitive and considered handling. You will be expected to take the lead on many of these.