View Vacancy - Senior Economist and Policy Officer

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

Main purpose of job:

 

The British Embassy in Mexico City is looking for a talented, motivated and high performing Senior Economist and Policy Officer to provide technical, politico-economic and financial analysis and reporting on the Mexican economy, and policy advice to support delivery of UK foreign policy objectives.

This is a fantastic opportunity, during a fascinating political period in both Mexico and the UK, for a talented individual to work at the heart of everything the British Embassy Mexico does, directly influencing UK foreign policy in Mexico, and supporting our Commercial, Programme, and Policy Teams in building a strong UK/Mexico partnership.

You will be the Embassy’s expert on economic and financial issues, providing in-depth technical and political reporting, analysis and research on Mexican macroeconomic fundamentals, public policies, and engagement in key multilateral fora, to support and inform UK commercial, programme and policy activity. Your reporting will provide insight into the politics behind economic and financial policy developments, and how those developments will impact UK commercial, programme and policy activity, including identifying and communicating risks and opportunities. You will work closely with a wide range of stakeholders across the Embassy, in London and the region, proactively feeding in economic reporting and policy advice to inform a range of policy areas, including: financial services, energy, climate change, infrastructure, future cities, education, health, anti-corruption and trade.

You will also provide leadership and direction on the UK financial services policy in Mexico through the Embassy’s Financial Services Virtual Team, which brings together the commercial, programme and policy workstreams. You will also line manage a Financial Services Policy Officer.  

You will maintain a wide range of external contacts, including within the Mexican government (in particular maintaining regular contact with senior officials in SHCP, SE and SRE), international organisations and academia. And you will play a key role in the development and delivery of regular bilateral Government-to-Government high-level economic/financial talks between the UK and Mexico. You will also lead (with support) on the delivery of Financial Services focused visits, including the annual visit of the Lord Mayor of London to Mexico.

The Embassy is committed to ensuring an honest, inclusive and profressional working environment. In support of this, you will be also expected to contribute towards the corporate activity of the Embassy, participating in events and Committees to make sure that they are effectively contributing to the safety and wellbeing of staff and to the delivery of the Embassy’s wider needs.

 

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

 

·       To be the Embassy’s expert on the Mexican economy, delivering economic and political reporting that informs UK policies towards Mexico, including:

o   analysis of current events and economic and financial policy decisions;

o   horizon-scanning and proactive identification of risks and opportunies;

o   Mexican policies in economically and financially focused multilateral fora, such as the G20, OECD, and WTO

o   in-depth studies of areas of significant interest to Embassy, London and regional colleagues.

·       To develop a strong network of political, economic and academic contacts which strengthen our understanding of Mexican policies and objectives.

·       To provide tailored briefings on economic and financial services policy issues for high-level visitors (including Ministers), the Ambassador and senior officials;

·       To deliver an annual High Level Economic Dialogue between the UK and Mexico to take forward economic cooperation, investment promotion, and trade.

·       To work closely with the Head of the Economic and Financial Services Team, the Financial Services Policy Officer and the Financial Services Virtual Team, to shape and drive UK financial services policy objectives in Mexico, and to lead development and implementation of policy aspects of the Embassy’s Financial Services sector plan.

·       To work closely with the Programme team to provide economic analysis to support and inform Propserity programmes including financial services and other potential areas such as education/skills and future cities.

·       To work closely with the Embassy’s Trade Policy and Interntaional Trade Teams to provide economic advice and analysis to support negotiations for the UK Mexico Free Trade Agreement, which are due to start this year, and to provide support to the Embassy’s Trade and Investment team, and occasional presentations to visiting business delegations, in order to promote investment and trade relations.

·       To support the integration of economic analysis into the broader policy work of the Embassy, including by providing occasional presentations, workshops and advice to a range of internal and external stakeholders around the full spectrum of economic issues in Mexico, and econometric and evaluation techniques;

·       To line manage the B3 Financial Services Policy Officer, providing leadership and guidance, and supporting their professional development.

·       To contribute towards the corporate activity of the Embassy.

Essential on arrival:

  • A Master’s degree in Economics or other related subjects (e.g. International Trade, Business, Finance).
  • At least two years of work experience in similar job positions (Government, International Institutions, NGOs).
  • An in-depth and solid understanding of Mexico’s macro economic environment and economic policies.
  • An in-depth understanding of Financial Services and products
  • An in-depth understating in statistics, econometrics, and data mining.
  • Experience of managing teams.
  • Experience in delivering high quality work to tight deadlines and with different teams and stakeholders.
  • Experience in building and maintaining an internal and external stakeholder base.
  • Able to prioritise in a fast-paced work environment, working laregely unsupervised, delivering to deadlines and agreed targets.
  • Ability to translate complex and technical issues into readable papers for wider audiences, ensuring that messages are clear, well structures and tailored for a wide audience.
  • Advanced English - both written and spoken. Excellent interpersonal, written and oral communication skills in both laguages (which will be teste on interview).
  • Should be a proactive and creative self-starter with strong interpersonal skill who has the ability to learn quickly.

 

Desirable:

  • Experience in public policy and/or economic and policy research.
  • Experience in financial services.
  • Background in research and drafting papers.
  • Knowledge of econometric software (SPSS, Stata, Eviews, R, etc).
24 June 2021
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)
Full-time, Permanent
38
Latin America and Spanish speaking Caribbean
Mexico
Mexico City
British Embassy
1
MXN 43,380
2 August 2021

Candidates must be able to live and work in Mexico in their own right. The successful candidate will be subject to a security clearance and professional reference checks.

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 role requires security clearance – which the Embassy will facilitate.

The British Embassy Network offers a strong benefits package. This package includes generous vacation and leave time, flexible working patterns, and enriching learning and development opportunities. All staff at the British Embassy and its Consulates in Mexico are expected to work towards the UK mission statement of Building a UK/Mexico partnership, which makes the world and us more prosperous and secure, and to embody the Embassy’s agreed values of Honesty, Respect, Inclusion and Professionalism.

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.