View Vacancy - Office and Finance Manager, EO, New Delhi

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)
UK Research and Innovation

Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, experience-based segment and the behaviours and technical/ professional skills based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only for all the required details. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.’

Main purpose of job: 

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

UK Research and Innovation is a new entity that brings together nine partners and a budget of £7bn to create an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation, and a vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. The UK’s expertise spans all fields of knowledge, from the discovery of penicillin and monoclonal antibodies, to the jet engine and the World Wide Web. Our inspirational creative industries are strong in art, design and the innovative use of new materials and technologies. Our universities and laboratories produce a disproportionate percentage of the world’s top research, and their academics are highly-sought as international colleagues and co-authors and are among the world’s best at attracting overseas students. This excellence is not confined to university campuses and research centres. Our engineering, automotive and pharmaceutical industries are successful in part because of the superb graduates they can hire and the top rate researchers that support them.

UKRI India is a small, dynamic, high-achieving team within the British High Commission, New Delhi. We work across the breadth of UKRI interests to build collaboration with India. Since the establishment of the UKRI (then RCUK) office in India in 2008, the research and innovation (R&I) partnership between the UK and India has grown from an almost zero base to over £300 million of joint investment. This partnership in R&I is now one of the fastest growing areas of bilateral cooperation between our two countries. 

Summary of the Role

This role offers an exciting opportunity to work in a fast-paced, high-achieving environment rife with opportunities for further enhancing UKRI’s robust and growing collaboration with India. The successful candidate will provide comprehensive operational and administrative support to ensure the smooth functioning of the UKRI India office. This role will also work closely with senior programme managers in the team to provide support for programme delivery, and building connections across the X-HMG work. The successful candidate will gain exposure to high level events and visits by senior stakeholders and experience that enables a future move into Operations Management or Senior Programme Management roles.

You will have the ability and confidence to lead and drive operational activity, including identifying areas for improvement and efficiency savings. You will be a proactive and capable team player who has experience of balancing a range of tasks and rapid problem solving to ensure the effective running of an office.

You will provide high quality executive assistance to the Director and Deputy Director and this role will, therefore, include senior stakeholder engagement with our funding partners in the Government of India, UKRI’s headquarters in the UK and colleagues across the British High Commission Network in India. You will use your excellent written and verbal communications skills, ability to prioritise and your organisation and attention to detail towards this.

You will provide programme support to enable effective delivery of joint programmes between UKRI Councils and Indian funding partners. This will offer you with a unique learning opportunity for wider programme management in the future. You must have an interest and enthusiasm for research and innovation and an appetite to learn new things.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?

This role will operate at an administrative level including (but not limited to) the following duties: 

Leading operations delivery and administration for the office (40%): 

· Support the Director and Deputy Director in financial planning, quarterly and annual budget forecasting

· Take a lead role in office finance management by maintaining logs/spreadsheets of different types of spend, anticipating cash flow and managing adequate bank balances, settling of FCO-UKRI invoices,  procuring goods and services, managing reimbursement for GST and VAT claims, vetting and payment of vendor invoices

· Ensure understanding, and adherence of finance policies within the team, and ensuring a clear audit trail mechanism is followed for all finance matters

· Act as the lead point of contact for all operational matters working closely with the UKRI Head of International Operations in the UK, including the organisation of team visits to the UK, risk management and assurance activities. This will include acting as the lead point of contact for all operational matters relating to our presence in the British High Commission and bridging between UKRI and BHC policies and processes

· Support the office Directors in HR matters by working closely with UKRI International and UKRI HR on matters pertaining to HR policies and staff welfare

· Act as IT lead ensuring smooth IT infrastructure for the team by working closely with UKRI IT, UKRI head office, and the High Commission IT team, including for an upcoming IT upgrade

· Mailbox management and responding to general external enquiries on behalf of the team

· Act as the team learning and development (L&D) champion by proactively liaising with UKRI L&D, BHC DART and any relevant resources to support team members’ L&D plans individually and as a team

· Act as the team well-being champion by participating in UKRI and BHC well-being groups, and organising well-being and team-building activities

· Identifying where office management changes are required:  designing and implementing new standards, systems and procedures, and communicating these effectively to stakeholders.

Providing executive assistance for the Director and Deputy Director (30%):

· Managing complex diary and travel arrangements for the Director and Deputy Director, including developing meeting schedules, arranging suitable attendance, negotiating dates and making effective decisions to help with their workload management

· Employing well-informed discretion to prioritise appointments and respond to external stakeholders accordingly

· Proactively ensuring clear agendas and briefings for meetings and other senior stakeholder interactions, sourcing these from colleagues outside and within the team as appropriate

Supporting programme delivery for a range of R&I programmes (25%)

· Working closely with senior programme managers in the team to provide programme support for the delivery of multi-million-pound UK-India partnerships by liaising with Indian and internal stakeholders on matters related to programme negotiation, agreeing peer review models

· Supporting, and where relevant leading, the development of scoping visits, academic workshops, panel meetings and preparing corresponding paperwork 

Supporting, and where relevant leading, the successful delivery of UKRI India events and communications activities (5%)

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

No line management responsibilities.

Day-to-day oversight of the office budget reporting to the office Directors

Language requirements: 

Language:  English (essential), Hindi (desirable) 

Level of language required:  English- excellent written and spoken                           

 

Essential:

  • Experience of working with overseas partners or in an international organisation, including working at distance from colleagues
  • Efficient, with excellent planning and organizational skills and attention to detail
  • A diplomatic interpersonal manner and ability to continue developing a broad network of contacts in the UK and India
  • Capable of writing complex and comprehensive documents, briefings, and notes in a clear, concise, non-technical style, with an ability to identify which information is relevant to the audience’s needs 
  • Able to work at pace while managing a diverse range of potential opportunities, and re-prioritise where needed 
  • Capable of reacting to different circumstances where past precedence and practice is of little help and formal guidance is not available, including being able to judge when to refer elsewhere for advice  
  • Adaptability and a demonstrable ability to settle quickly into a new working environment and/or to new focus areas
  • Located in NCR Area, India.

Qualifications:

· Excellent all-round education, graduate calibre

Desirable:

  • Experience of working in an international organisation
  • Experience of working with research and innovation in universities, businesses, or government
  • Experience of managing projects proactively and innovatively with minimal supervision
  • Experience of handling small amounts of programme budget
  • Understanding of UKRI and how research and innovation funding works in the UK and/or India
Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Delivering at Pace, Working Together
9 October 2022
Executive Officer (EO)
Full-time, Permanent
40
South Asia & Afghanistan
India
New Delhi
British High Commission
1
INR
INR 68,508 per month plus 12% provident fund and 6% Superannuation Fund
1 November 2022

For BHC candidates, the Local BHC Terms & Conditions will apply.

For other than BHC candidates, Basic Salary will be INR 68,508 per month together with a 12% provident fund and 6% Superannuation Fund. 

Additionally the BHC offers a great benefits package that includes annual domiciliary medical cover, plus a Group Hospitalisation Scheme with INR 500,000 floater cover for your immediate family.

No relocation or any other related costs or assistance will be provided.

Please note - BHC does not deduct tax at source and employees are required to ensure that any requirements of local income-tax law are complied with in full. Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary, eg. some non-local national staff and some spouses or partners of UK diplomatic staff, will have their salaries abated by an equivalent amount.    

The BHC is recognised as a good employer, with a robust, fair and transparent performance management & appraisal system linked to increments and staff bonuses. We have a 5-day working week, plus annual leave, public holidays, maternity leave provision, special leave, paid sick leave provision; ample development opportunities, travel opportunities, a good organisational culture, and excellent work/life balance. 

Around half of our work forces are women.  We treat people with respect and equality and have a policy of zero tolerance for any form of discrimination, bullying, or harassment. 

This is a good opportunity to be part of a strong, diverse team, working in the biggest network that FCO has anywhere across the globe.  We are aiming to make it the best.

Note : All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the complete online application form including the employment and educational details, experience-based segment and the behaviours and technical/ professional skills based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the application forms only for all the required details. Forms that are incomplete in any respect will not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.’

To Apply: 

Please note applications without (a) and (b) will not be considered.

A. Complete the Online Application Form

B. Complete the Experience, Behaviour and Technical/ Professional skills based questions segment in the Online Application Form

Internal candidates applying for this position need to upload their appraisal forms for the previous 2 years (if applicable) and also inform their current line managers, else the applications will not be considered.

We will accept only online applications by 9 October 2022 till 23:55  

Please note that all the applicants will be required to strictly adhere to the security guidelines for British High Commission.

Please note - Provident Fund Transfer in and out from EPFO is not possible as BHC PF is managed by a private PF trust governed by Indian Income Tax Act, 1961. The staff still has the option to transfer out and in from a privately held PF trust which are not governed by EPFO.

Applicants who do not have the required qualification & experience should kindly abstain from applying, as their applications will not be considered.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and no telephone enquires will be dealt with.

The appointment will be subject to Police Verification and other checks including references, medical, educational and professional.

We welcome all applications irrespective of age, race, colour, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief or creed. We are also open to applications from people who want to work flexibly.

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.