View Vacancy - SIN - Programme Officer - ASEAN Economic Reform Programme, B3(L)

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.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
Economic and Prosperity

The UK Government aims to promote inclusive economic growth and reduce poverty across the globe, while also creating opportunities for international business, including for UK companies. The regional programme team in Singapore lead an ASEAN wide programme that promotes economic reform by improving the business environment and financial markets in ASEAN. We are recruiting a Regional Programme Officer to support delivery of this Programme. 

This role will provide programme management support for the programme, working to the Head of Programme, and reporting into the overall Programme Director and ultimately to the Senior Responsible Owner (HM High Commissioner, Singapore). The successful candidate will be required to support delivery of a total of £19m of official development assistance (ODA) until March 2021, particularly targeted at six SE Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) as well as some work with the ASEAN secretariat. The programme is moving into its final year of delivery.  There are five delivery partners, including multilateral agencies (UNDP on fairer business environment and OECD on competition), UK agencies (on regulation and intellectual property) and a large contract with a development consultancy (on capital markets, fintech and intellectual property).

This is a challenging, exciting and influential role in a high-profile and strategic development initiative in South East Asia on behalf of the UK Government, which aims to have a positive impact on socially inclusive economic development and trade, as well as strengthening the relationship between the UK and South East Asia.

We are looking for a pro-active, engaged individual to support the delivery of these programmes through effective financial management and strong collaboration with UK diplomatic missions in the region.

Programme Co-ordination and Management (60%)

The successful candidate will have day-to-day responsibility for ensuring the coordination and delivery of the ASEAN Economic Reform Programme. This is a complex programme with a number of implementing partners and diplomatic missions involved. Responsibilities will include:

  • Programme GovernanceWorking with the Head of Programme, to support the management of delivery partners, and the Programme Management Team. Day-to-day responsibility for the governance of the programme including secretariat functions, working to ensure effective programme governance, including for example maintenance of records and governance, such as key decisions made, core programme documents, and financial decisions. Working with the Head of Programme to amend programme documentation (agreements, contracts) as and when required. Respond to requests from the FCDO team in London and the UK ASEAN Mission in Jakarta. Ensure implementing partners provide regular programme updates and lead on development of quarterly reports on programme progress.
  • Monitoring and Reporting - Ensure programmes meet central requirements of FCDO including on monitoring, reporting, evaluation and learning (MREL); support external reviews for the programme (annual review and project completion review); coordinate the network of posts delivering the programme to provide their technical input into MREL and leading on data monitoring data gathering for all posts. Ensure the collation and documentation of lessons learned across the programme in order to feed in to reporting and future programme design. Developing and improving MREL systems in line with Annual Review recommendations.
  • Compliance management of the commercial contract – reviewing compliance with contract service level agreements and key performance indicators, using survey tools as agreed to provide data and information to evaluate compliance.
  • Communications - The Officer will lead on regional communications (internal and external) strategy and delivery in relation to the programme. This includes co-ordinating with the regional communications lead on the production of regional communications tools, ensuring high-quality communications for implementing partners and to feed into FCDO’s communications strategy. 
  • Commercial Benefits - Support the secondary prosperity benefits of the programme by engaging with Secondary Benefit Advisors, Department for International Trade colleagues and delivery partners to develop and implement the Secondary Benefits Plan. Feed information into formal reporting and decision making in order to expand the market for international (including UK) trade and investment. Work to maximise synergies across other complementary FCDO prosperity programmes to ensure these maximum value for money and impact.
  • Gender and Inclusion - Support the implementation of the Gender and Inclusion programme action plan in order to reach set targets on women’s economic opportunities, inclusive growth and poverty reduction.

Financial Management (40%)

The role will manage programme finance for the ASEAN Economic Reform programme, working closely with the wider team to ensure robust financial management of the programme by embedding financial best practices on budgeting, forecasting and accruals, and preparing financial reporting for stakeholders in London, programme Working Groups and Steering Boards.

  • Provide support to Head of Programme on contract management, particularly in relation to validating programme transactions, including by challenging and rectifying suspicious transactions.
  • Undertaking in-depth oversight of forecasting and spend on the commercial contract, involving detailed milestone management; agile forecasting; holding the supplier to account; management of invoicing and undertaking financial spot checks as and when necessary.
  • Partner with regional Programme Managers on programme spend forecasts, providing financial input to discussions on alternative programme spend.
  • Report on programme financial position to the SRO, regional Steering Board,  stakeholders in London, and the Programme Working Group, including through the use of the FDCO’s finance systems: Hyperion and OBIEE (currently, subject to change).
  • Monitor and oversee programme spend against forecasts, reporting issues to the Programme Director as required.
  • Day-to-day management of programme finances, collaborating with finance colleagues in the UK and the regional finance hub in Manila.
  • Maintaining detailed records of financial management to feed into various data requirements such as the value for money scorecard and financial monitoring logs for implementing partners.
  • These roles and responsibilities may be adjusted once the final composition of the ER programme team is known.

Resources: The role will be responsible for ensuring robust financial processes but will not be responsible for how resources are utilised.

  • At least 2 years experience working with finance in the public sector.
  • Experience of international development programming, including delivering complex programmes and managing implementing partners.
  • Good people skills and able to work within a varied team environment.
  • Effective communication skills.
  • At least 2 years experience working in a programme environment, ideally in a development context.
  • Experience of working with Southeast Asian countries, ideally in a regional context.
  • Experience of managing commercial contracts.
  • Experience/knowledge of UK ODA programmes.
  • Project or programme management related accreditation.
  • Knowledge of relevant policy areas.
19 May 2021
Executive Officer (EO)
Full-time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
37.5
Asia Pacific
Singapore
Singapore
British High Commission
1
SGD
4,738
28 June 2021

We offer time and financial support for the successful candidate to take advantage of professional learning and development opportunities inside and outside of the organisation.

The BHC has an active Learning & Development Committee which works hard to provide a comprehensive L&D offer. There is a wide range of options available for personal development including training courses, coaching and mentoring, job-shadowing, presentations and learning sets. Staff have access to a wide variety of online resources through the International Academy and Civil Service Learning. Staff are strongly encouraged to take advantage of all available opportunities.

All new hires undertake a workplace induction and there are a number of mandatory e-learning courses that must be completed in order to pass probation.

Normal working hours are 37.5 per week: 8.30am to 5.00pm from Monday to Friday.  BHC Singapore supports and promotes flexible working as a crucial part of our inclusive offering. This particular role allows for flexibility in start and end times, working compressed hours, working remotely on one or a couple of days in a week, and the possibility of a job share arrangement, subject to agreement with management.

Successful candidates will be offered an annual contract, renewable on a yearly basis depending on staff performance and availability of programme funds.

In addition to the duties which this job normally entails, you may from time to time be required to undertake additional or other duties as necessary to meet the needs of the High Commission, including playing a part in the corporate life of the mission and supporting any crisis response.

No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain a local work permit which we will sponsor.

Staff recruited locally by the British High Commission are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Singapore employment law.

Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. Only short-listed applications will be called for personal interviews.

The British High Commission is an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on grounds of ethnic origin, race, religious beliefs, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation.

Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.

Please note that your application must be submitted before 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.

Indicated start date is provisional and subject to successful completion of reference and security checks.

To those applicants not short-listed, we extend our appreciation for considering the British Government as a potential employer.

The start date mentioned in the job advert is a tentative start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures. Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearances.

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.