View Vacancy - Second Secretary - Corporate (BEL18.639)
The UK Representation to the European Union (UKREP) in Brussels is part of a world-wide network of 230 Diplomatic Posts, representing British political, economic and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a full-time C4L, Second Secretary - Corporate.
On 29 March 2019, the UK will leave the EU and UKRep will become a Third Country Mission to the EU. While the nature of UKRep’s work will change, it will remain a significant and busy UK overseas Mission as we work to establish a close future partnership with the EU. Given this evolving context, we are looking for an individual who is prepared to be flexible and adjust their responsibilities as required.
The jobholder will lead on the overall design and operation of corporate governance arrangements within the organisation as it adapts to its new role as the UK leaves the EU. It will involve working closely with the senior management team and building close and effective working relationships with colleagues across the building as well as those in the Department for Exiting the EU (DEXEU) and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) involved in corporate issues that have a potential impact on UKREP. The jobholder will be responsible for the monthly UKREP Management Board meetings, managing a forward look of agenda items, co-ordinating and quality checking papers and following up on actions.
The jobholder will lead on significant operational elements of the running of the organisation including having overall responsibility for areas of UKREP’s financial management, including delegated budgets on business, hospitality and travel. On this, they will need to monitor spend on a monthly basis across teams and provide monthly financial updates to Management Board.
The jobholder will work closely with the Internal Communications officer on ensuring the organisation understands and is engaged with the ongoing work to become a third country mission when we leave the EU.
The jobholder will manage a small team, including the new B3L Internal communications officer, providing strategic guidance on the focus of UKREP’s internal communications. This will involve ensuring that teams across the building have the information they need to support negotiations on Brexit and ongoing EU business through their daily contacts with colleagues in other Member States and the EU Institutions. The jobholder will also work closely with the Internal Communications office and will maintain oversight of the direction, composition and tone of internal communications in UKREP. They will also manage the A2 Corporate Support Officer.
There are also a couple of further areas of work where the jobholder could make a significant contribution, depending on need and their areas of interest and expertise.
Main Duties / Responsibilities:
Secretariat to UKREP Management Board (30%)
- Overall lead on arrangements for Management Board, managing and advising on forward look of agenda items, ensuring the right issues are considered at the right time;
- Build closer links with DEXEU and FCO corporate teams to ensure that the issues the Management Board considers complement parallel discussions in the FCO and DEXEU corporate boards;
- Commission and quality check papers.
Other Corporate Governance (30%)
- Senior Leadership Team (SLT) meetings: Prepare speaking notes for Permanent and Deputy Permanent Representatives;
- Ensure the meetings take place at regular intervals and in good time ahead of/following key developments to enable the SMT to consider these and feed in advice to London;
- All staff meetings: Work with teams across UKREP to identify issues to focus on at upcoming all-staff meetings, scheduling forward rolling agenda of agenda items, and prepare speaking notes for meeting Chair.
Financial Management (20%)
- Monitor spend on delegated budgets on a monthly basis across teams and provide monthly financial updates to Management Board. Identify issues early and propose mitigation.
Oversight of internal communications (15%)
- Line Management of B3 Internal Communications officer, providing strategic guidance to them on areas of focus and on tone of messaging;
- Develop ways to encourage and equip UKREP staff to be advocates of HMG’s vision for Future UKREP in their contacts with external stakeholders;
- Working with the DEXEU and FCO Communications teams to ensure that internal communications are coherent.
Freedom of Information and public correspondence (5%)
- Lead on cross cutting Freedom of Information requests for UKREP, and advise other teams on responses to answering sector specific requests. Where necessary for potentially controversial requests, prepare submissions for Ministers. Lead on responding to cross cutting correspondence from members of the public to UKREP.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English;
- Excellent interpersonal and network building skills;
- Experience working in a fast-paced, complex corporate role;
- Strong organisational skills;
- Ability to manage conflicting deadlines under pressure and demonstrate resilience;
- Experience of customer service, and ability to deliver difficult messages to demanding audiences;
- A self-starter able to show initiative and operate with autonomy;
- A strong knowledge of Microsoft Office software, particularly PowerPoint and Excel.
Terms and conditions
Must currently hold the independent right to live and work in Belgium and be prepared to ensure that right remains throughout the scope of the contract.
This is a permanent full-time contract for 5 working days (36.25 hours net) per week. Although the appointment is for an indefinite period of time, it is expected that the overall period of service will most probably not exceed two years. This point will be addressed during the recruitment process.
The monthly salary for this position is €4,984.46 C4 (L) level (The British Diplomatic Missions in Belgium salaries are not subject to annual indexation).
Please note that Belgian nationals will be paid their salary gross and are expected to comply with their tax obligations through completion of a tax return to the Belgian authorities. Non-Belgian nationals will receive their salary net, minus the deduction of an equivalent level of Belgian tax retained at source. Further information on this will be given to candidates during the recruitment process.
The successful candidates will be subject to professional background checks and security clearance.
Staff recruited locally by the British Diplomatic Missions in Belgium are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Belgian employment law.
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 British Diplomatic Missions 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.
This opportunity is closed to applications.