View Vacancy - Criminal Justice Assistant (BGR22.201)

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.
Other British Government Departments (Partners across Government, including UK Visas)
Crown Prosecution Services

The British Embassy in Sofia is part of a worldwide network, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a country-based Criminal Justice Assistant to support and assist the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Criminal Justice Advisor in achieving their objectives as set by the CPS.

The Criminal Justice Advisor works with UK law enforcement and prosecution agencies to ensure effective investigative and prosecution outcomes in the UK and Bulgaria and to develop and improve relationships with Bulgarian partners. 

The Criminal Justice Advisor’s work can sometimes involve providing support to UK prosecution and law enforcement authorities with casework in jurisdictions outside of Bulgaria. The assistant may also be required to support such work. 

The  assistant will work closely with the Criminal Justice Advisor to provide administrative and organisational assistance including: providing Bulgarian language support (written and oral), ensuring the extensive and varied caseload is adequately managed and reports and records are kept up-to-date, and attending meetings with UK and Bulgaria partners. 

Th assistant may also be called upon to conduct legal research, help to prepare guidance and briefing documents in Bulgarian and English and assist the Criminal Justice Advisor in preparing and delivering presentations. The country-based assistant may be given independent casework tasks and will be asked to help the Criminal Justice Advisor develop and improve relationships with UK and Bulgaria stakeholders. 

This job will give the successful candidate an opportunity to gain experience in working with the Crown Prosecution Service, UK law enforcement and the local authorities. The assistant will be encouraged to develop an understanding of policy work and may have opportunities to shadow other colleagues.  

The assistant should be prepared to attend training events to develop and improve their legal knowledge and administrative skills. 

The assistant will be based at the British Embassy Sofia. Travel in Bulgaria and to the UK may occasionally be required. 

There will be a degree of autonomy in the role during which the successful candidate will be expected to identify tasks which will assist the Criminal Justice Advisor or the wider network.

Main roles and responsibilities:

  • Establishing, maintaining, and strengthening relationships with key stakeholders within the Bulgaria and in particular within the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and Prosecution Service;
  • Maintaining existing cooperative and productive working relationships with the UK law enforcement agencies and other HMG departments represented at Post;
  • Case management of UK Mutual legal assistance (MLA), asset recovery and extradition requests, including initial review and triage, if directed by the  Criminal Justice Advisor;
  • Providing written and spoken translation services for the  Criminal Justice Advisor and stakeholders, sometimes at pace, maintaining a consistently high standard of translating and interpreting;
  • Providing essential administrative support, to contribute to the delivery of project work to enhance bilateral cooperation and progress UK priorities, to include proactively maintaining the database of requests for formal international cooperation from the UK to Bulgaria;
  • Providing legal support by conducting open source legal research of Bulgarian criminal justice laws and criminal justice processes, as directed by the  Criminal Justice Advisor;
  • Preparing formal written reports, maintaining the CPS casework log, transfer log and risk register and submitting these to CPS International each month at the direction of the  Criminal Justice Advisor; 
    Identifying case work actions and assisting with the progression of case work, sometimes independently in the absence of the  Criminal Justice Advisor; knowing when to escalate up where necessary; 
  • Conducting ad-hoc, open-source research and analysis, presenting findings in a logical and concise manner;
  • Managing the Criminal Justice Advisor’s diary appointments including organising meetings, preparing and distributing agendas, briefing papers and minute;
  • Working closely with the CPS Operational Delivery team to plan and organise travel for inward and outward visits, and to compile and organise programmes for incoming/outgoing conferences, workshops and other training events;
  • Supporting broader Embassy/High Commission work and objectives where appropriate, to include crisis response and cover for HMG partners at post during periods of absence as required;
  • Travelling to the UK, or traveling in-country or regionally, to support the  Criminal Justice Advisor including to attend training events/ team days;

The above list is not exhaustive and the country-based assistant will be required to be flexible and take on other ad hoc tasks as required. 

  • Fluency in English and Bulgarian languages, both verbal and written ( minimum C1 level according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages*);
  • Legal, law enforcement or criminal justice experience;
  • MS Office including working knowledge of Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint;
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with an ability to work with a range of stakeholders and to convey messages in a professional way;
  • Organisational and time-management skills with ability to demonstrate initiative, autonomy and self-motivation;
  • Self-starter with enthusiasm and energy, able to work independently as well as part of a team.

 

  • Experience in an international work environment.
Seeing the Big Picture, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Communicating and Influencing, Working Together
29 May 2022
Executive Officer (EO)
Full-time, Permanent
36
Europe, Eastern Europe & Central Asia
Bulgaria
Sofia
British Embassy
1
BGN
2,463.97 (non-negotiable, payable 13th times per year)
2 June 2022

This is a permanent full-time position (36 hours per week).

The successful candidate will receive a monthly salary of BGN 2,463.97 gross (non-negotiable), payable 13 times a year at a local EO level.

The successful candidate will be subject to confirmation of a background and security clearance. Anyone with right of residence and employment in Bulgaria may apply, including all EU/EEA citizens and the family members of EU/EEA nationals exercising a treaty right in Bulgaria.

Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy are subject to terms and conditions service according to Bulgarian employment law.

Visa/work permit requirements: Candidates must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Bulgaria and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure you meet the legal requirements to live and work in this country.

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

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application, since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

Please be advised that the FCDO will not be able to meet the travel costs incurred when travelling to the interview, nor the costs connected with relocation if offered a job.

*Please note for more information on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment  levels  please click on the following link CEFR. Please bear in mind in case you are invited for an interview your language skill is going to be assessed.

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.