View Vacancy - Consul, Belo Horizonte

Main purpose of job

To lead UK government representation in Belo Horizonte and across the state of Minas Gerais. This includes creating and promoting trade and investment opportunities, political engagement with State and City politicians and officials, external representation and media engagement. The jobholder will lead a Consulate of 5 staff, and work with UK government colleagues across Brazil to promote close relations with the UK, manage visits to Minas Gerais by the UK Ambassador and senior officials/Ministers from the UK, and contribute to good corporate management of our network.    

Roles and responsibilities

As the UK government’s lead representative in Minas Gerais, promote opportunities for the UK and strengthen strategic relationships in the region, including with the State and City Governments, business, media, major universities and research centres, and other relevant stakeholders. This includes promoting and organising visits by the UK Ambassador to Brazil, Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Latin America, and other UK senior officials and occasionally Ministers.

Trade and investment: Promoting and delivering opportunities for trade and investment between the UK and Minas Gerais across a range of sector – Mining, Life Sciences, Technology and Smart Cities, Infrastructure, Advanced Engineering and Energy. Provide strategic oversight for the DIT mining sector High Value Campaign (HVC) in Brazil, covering the whole whole country (not just Minas Gerais), leading the way on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) engagement in the state, and promoting other sector opportunities with colleagues based in other states (such as in the following sectors: Life Sciences, Technology and Smart Cities, Infrastructure, Advanced Engineering and Energy).

Political and media relations: Political engagement is an important part of role and the job holder must be comfortable in engaging political and public sector stakeholders. The job holder must have a keen eye for media opportunities, and support the communications team to access media and social media coverage.

Regional engagement: Given the size of the state, the job holder is expected to proactively travel to different regions of the state, to engage local stakeholders, promote the UK, develop opportunities and participate in events.

UK scholarship programme (Chevening): Actively engage with local stakeholders including the Chevening network to promote the scholarship and identify new potential candidates.

Corporate responsibilities: Oversee the consulate and a team of 5 staff.   Contribute to network-wide   corporate management, learning and development, wellbeing and other staff initiatives.

The job holder will be line managed remotely, by the Consul General in Rio de Janeiro, and therefore is expected to be a self-starter and autonomous leader.

To achieve these the successful candidate will have a university degree and a minimum of five years experience of working with businesses and government, as well as good local knowledge of Belo Horizonte and Minas Gerais.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

1 x B3 DIT sector manager, 1 x A2 DIT sector assistant, 2 Interns. Local travel and entertainment budget. Co-ordination with other colleagues on joint projects and associated budgets.

At least 5 years of post-graduation professional experience.