The British Consulate in Alicante Is Seeking a Consular Officer

The British Consulate in Alicante is seeking a Consular Officer

The British Consulate in Alicante provides consular assistance to around 340,000 British residents and in the region of 3.5 million visitors per annum. The district covers the Valencian Community (Alicante, Valencia & Castellon) and the regions of Murcia and Albacete.

The Consulate is seeking to recruit a Consular Officer, to join their dynamic, highly motivated and experienced team committed to delivering high-quality customer service. The role of the Consular Officer is to support British Nationals in Spain who require emergency assistance, involving a range of cases.

The job will involve attending to British Citizens in person, by telephone and by email. It will involve issuing emergency passports, carrying out notarial work and dealing with a range of consular cases such as hospitalisations, deaths, welfare cases and prison visits.

The role also involves an element of support work, which could be office management, internal communications or organising events and visits.

We are looking for someone with proven experience in handling customers and working in a target driven environment. The candidate should have strong service delivery awareness, good interpersonal skills, be quick to learn, pragmatic, patient, resolute and a team player. You will need to demonstrate empathy for dealing with British Citizens in distress. You must have native-level fluency in English and excellent Spanish, both written and spoken.

The role will include liaising with the local authorities and visiting hospitals and prisons. As this involves travel outside of the office, a valid driving licence is therefore essential.

Good knowledge of MS Office tools is required: Outlook, Word, Excel & PowerPoint. You will be required to keep accurate records for management information purposes and a thorough approach and attention to detail is critical.

Employment Terms:

Hours: Working hours are 37.5 per week. You will also be required to take part in a Duty Officer rota (for one week approximately once every two months, including nights and weekends) for which you will receive additional payment.

Salary: Gross salary is €2.064 (non-negotiable) per month payable twelve times a year

Income Tax: The Consulate in Alicante is part of the British Mission in Spain, and as such supervised by the British Embassy in Madrid. As a Diplomatic Mission it is exempt from paying taxes, so does not collect taxes for other States. Employees are totally responsible for payment of Spanish income tax at the legally required rate.

Social Security: Employer/employee contributions are made to the Spanish State system.

Contract: Permanent subject to successful completion of a three month probationary period.

Start date: Mid October 2011.

Applications: Applicants should submit a letter of application in English by email, explaining why they believe they meet the requirements of the job, together with their CV in English. Please send to HR Manager by 21th September 2011.

We regret that we will not be able to reply to all applicants personally. Those not contacted by the 29rd September should assume their application has not been successful.

Short-listed candidates will be invited to attend an interview at the Consulate in Alicante on the 6th October 2011.

For further information on the work of the British Embassy and the British Consulate please see ukinspain.fco.gov.uk and www.fco.gov.uk