JOB DESCRIPTION

View Vacancy – Special Assistant to the Ambassador AO (04/25 NMY)

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. The FCDO operates an agile workforce and to facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time, as we may reasonably require.

Job Category

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Operations and Corporate Services)

Job Subcategory

Corporate Services Support

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Main purpose of job:

To provide protocol and political support to the Ambassador, ensuring effective diary management, organisation of visits, and replies to correspondence. Other key responsibilities include providing support to Embassy communications, cultural activity and providing consular services (not visas) to the small British community in Niger.

Roles and responsibilities:

Diary management (35%): You will provide efficient management of the Ambassador’s diary. You will establish a network with other protocol leads in the Government of Niger and the international community to enable access and meetings for the Ambassador. You will maintain an up to date list of contacts for the Embassy.

Protocol and correspondence (30%): You will manage the Ambassador’s correspondence, including writing Note Verbales to the Nigerien government on bilateral and international affairs. This will include translation of documents from English into French. You will lead on wider protocol activity, including securing relevant clearances through liaisons within Nigerien ministries.

Visits and outreach (25%): You will support the organisation of programmes for visiting officials and ministers from the UK Government. You will lead on event organisation, including the annual King’s Birthday Party. You will provide support to the Communications Officer on implementing the Embassy communications strategy through use of print media, social media, and outreach activities.

Consular (10%): You will lead on the Embassy’s basic consular services (not visas) for the very small British Community in Niger. You will draft consular guidance and feed into consular and crisis planning with help from British Deputy High Commission, Lagos.

Wider Embassy work: As a full member of the embassy team, you will also make a wider contribution to making the Embassy a friendly and supportive environment to work in. Where necessary, the you must be ready to support any other Embassy business (e.g. emergency, political or corporate work).

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• A strong academic record to degree level (or equivalent professional qualification)
• Knowledge of the Nigerien institutions and political system
• Strong written French and English, and French/ English translation and interpretation ability
• IT literacy (Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams and other common software)
• Social media skills (Facebook, Twitter, others)
• Critical thinking skills – an ability to think independently, critically analyse information and draw out conclusions
• Ability to work independently and unsupervised, and as part of a wider team

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

• Experience of working with the Nigerien government and/or the international community in Niger
• Experience of events organisation
• Experience of using communications professionally to promote organisations

Required behaviours

Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service

Application deadline

22 September 2025

Grade

Administrative Officer (AO)

Type of Position

Fixed Term, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal

Working hours per week

35.5

Duration of Post

12 months

Region

Africa

Country/Territory

Niger

Location (City)

Niamey

Type of Post

British Embassy

Number of vacancies

1

Salary

XOF 919 696 (Base salary is subject to tax and other statutory deductions)

Type of Salary

monthly

Start Date

1 November 2025

Other benefits and conditions of employment

Learning and development opportunities:

In addition to on-the-job learning, the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office offers a wealth of Learning and Development (L&D) opportunity (on-line and in person) to help staff pursue their professional development. The successful applicant will be required to undertake a number of mandatory trainings and will then have access to a range of L&D opportunities both in-house and overseas.

We do not expect the candidate to be an expert in all areas of responsibility on joining, and are prepared to provide the right candidate with formal L&D and informal mentoring and support. The right candidate will show strong motivation to learn and improve.

Dependant on performance, there is also an opportunity to gain experience in areas of interest to the job holder, including development, programme management, political and corporate work.

Additional information

Please ensure that your application is authentically written based on your own experiences. If AI tools are used, their usage must only be limited to specific tasks such as ensuring formatting consistency and keyword relevance. The core content, personal narratives, and responses to behaviour and skill-based questions must genuinely reflect your professional journey, experiences, and achievements. We place great importance on originality and individual effort throughout the application process. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.

• The British Embassy will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position
• The base salary is subject to tax and other statutory deductions
• Employees recruited locally by the British Embassy in Niamey are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Niger.
• All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit
  The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to:
  1.Obtain the relevant permit
  2.Pay the fees for the permit
  3.Make arrangements to relocate
  4.Meet the costs to relocation
• 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.
• Information about the Civil Service Success Profiles can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
• Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates
• Please log into your profile on the application system on a regular basis to review the status of your application
• Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6 months, the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate

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.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements