British Embassy
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Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
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Economic and Prosperity
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The British Embassy in Mexico City is looking for a new Support Officer to provide administrative and logistics support for the United Kingdom’s International Climate Finance (ICF) portfolio of programmes in Mexico. In total, there are 21 ICF programmes operational in Mexico representing substantial funding from three different UK government ministries: the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). In practice, the Support Officer will concentrate on implementation of the UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transition (UK PACT) Programme, worth £2.5 million a year in Mexico), with ad hoc tasks for the other 20 programmes.
In addition to admin and logistics, the Support Officer will help manage five small budgets worth £80,000 a year approximately and help oversee the spend of two other small programmes currently worth £45,000 a year in Mexico. The jobholder will also assist in a wide range of programme management activities such as project design, stakeholder engagement, grant management, and monitoring and evaluation.
The jobholder will be part of a small team of three members. This includes the UK PACT Manager and the ICF Officer who will line manage the AO position. The ICF Team sits within the larger Climate Team managed by the Head of Climate. Climate is one of five different teams within the Embassy’s Development Section. All UK development work in Mexico has a strong focus on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI). In addition, the Climate Team has its own development communications strategy on sharing impacts and lessons learned from our climate work.
The new ICF Support Officer will proactively contribute to the Climate Team’s GESI and communications priorities. They will also support wider Embassy corporate objectives through membership of one or more committees or taskforces.
This is a great opportunity for the right candidate to work across a broad range of international development and programme management activities in one of the greatest challenges facing humanity – climate change. The Support Officer will contribute to poverty reduction, gender equality, sustainable economic development, and environmental protection in Mexico.
Roles and Responsibilities:
1. Lead on administration and logistics for the Embassy’s Climate Team (40%)
- Improving efficiency of Climate Team administrative procedures and processes, facilitating access for London based colleagues to climate information from Mexico.
- Regular updating of the Climate Team databases and document repositories.
- On logistics, undertake the following tasks:
- Organise and coordinate the team’s events and activities.
- In accordance with procurement guidance, solicit quotations for products and services.
- Create a database of suppliers.
- Book meeting rooms, travel arrangement and catering provisions as required.
- Coordinate with the Embassy’s security and estates teams when visitors come to our premises.
- Draft minutes of meetings as required.
2. Effectively manage the team’s finances (30%)
- At the start of the UK Financial Year, create the necessary tables and spreadsheets to insert and keep track of the team’s expenditure from five different local budget lines: International Climate Finance (ICF), Climate Policy, Regional Climate Coordinator, COP26, and the Partnership Engagement Budget (PEB) worth £80,000 a year approximately.
- Monitor the spend of the Climate Diplomacy Fund (CDF) and the Enabling Equalities Fund (EEF) worth £45,000 a year approximately.
- Working with climate team colleagues, establish the baseline for each budget and update the team’s finances on a regular basis (at least monthly).
- Advise the team of any challenges related to their budgets including potential over or underspends.
- Organise and conduct regular meetings with the team to present the budget updates and resolve any outstanding issues.
- Coordinate internal calls for proposals for CDF and PEB and ensure reporting compliance with London.
3. Provide Programme Management Support to climate team (20%)
- Work with programme leads on day-to-day programme management activities, including:
- Setting up new projects and suppliers on the FCDO internal information system.
- Implementing the FCDO’s Purchase to Payment (P2P) process.
- Managing the effective transfer of external project documents into the FCDO internal information system.
- Contributing to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) programme requirements.
- Supporting programme communications as required.
- Supporting the delivery of Gender Equality, Disabilities and Social Inclusion activities under our climate portfolios.
4. Corporate Contribution: Help make the Embassy a great place to work (10%)
- All Embassy staff are expected to fulfil a defined role in the event of a crisis.
- Contribute to the Embassy’s wider corporate agenda and values by being an active member in one of our committees, working groups or taskforces.
Resources managed (staff and expenditure):
Staff: No Staff
Resources: Manage five small local climate budgets worth a total of £80,000 a year approximately and monitor the spend of two small programme funds in Mexico worth about £45,000 a year.
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We are looking for a proactive self-starter, able to work well and have a flexible approach to work whilst under pressure. We are looking for someone with excellent interpersonal and communications skills to build strong relations within the British High Commission and UK teams and with a wide range of stakeholders in Mexico.
Candidates should demonstrate:
- An undergraduate degree, in Environmental Science, Climate, Energy, Sustainable Development, International Development, or related course;
- A comprehensive understanding of climate and environment issues and policies in Mexico;
- An aptitude for Project/Programme management, preferably with international stakeholders.
- Flexible and creative problem-solving skills, and the ability to come up with innovative solutions to problems;
- Fluency in written and spoken English and Spanish;
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal) and ability to adjust to different audiences;
- Excellent presentation skills;
- Team working skills;
- Commitment to align to Embassy’s core values: respect, inclusion, professionalism, and honesty.
Language requirements:
Language: English and Spanish
Level of language required: minimum level required C1 under CEFRL or equivalent.
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Desirable:
- Experience in managing programmes related to Mexico’s climate change challenges, its international climate commitments and institutional framework.
- Candidates with prior work experience in international or multilateral programmes will be considered as a plus.
- Knowledge of UK climate and energy policy and its global leadership in the subject matter.
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Changing and Improving, Delivering at Pace, Managing a Quality Service, Working Together
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12 May 2024
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Administrative Officer (AO)
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Full-time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
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38
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Latin America and Spanish speaking Caribbean
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Mexico
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Mexico City
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British Embassy
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1
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MXN
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21,762.00 MXN per month
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17 June 2024
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31 March 2025
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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.
Please ensure you answer all application questions in full as CVs will not be considered in the recruitment process until the interview stage.
Please note all applications must be submitted by 11:55pm on 12 May 2024.
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.
Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6-12 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate.
Learning and development opportunities:
A mix of formal and on the job learning and development opportunities will be provided.
Working patterns:
Embassy working patterns are 38 hours a week from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday to Thursday and 8:00 am to 2:30 pm on Fridays.
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The Embassy aims to offer an attractive working environment and remuneration package for this role, which includes 16 days of leave for staff their first year of service and, 25 days for staff with 1-5 years’ service and 30 days for staff with more than 5 years’ service (calculated pro-rata).
There are no other allowances payable as part of this package. No accommodation and relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. The Embassy cannot offer Visa sponsorship for this position; applicants must hold a valid work permit before applying.
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.
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