Trade and Investment Officer

Job Description

Job Category
Department for International Trade roles (DIT)

Job Subcategory
DIT

Job Description

The British Embassy in Doha is part of a worldwide network that represents political, economic, security and consular interests overseas and is now looking for a Trade & Investment Officer - Creative and Infrastructure, job grade, Administrative Officer (AO).

Main duties and responsibilities:

As a Trade and Investment Officer, the job holder will be responsible for identifying, supporting and developing opportunities for new and extant British companies seeking to enter or expand in the Qatari market.

The role in context will have a primary responsibility for supporting the Senior Commercial Attaché within the Creative Industries and Infrastructure sector. There will be a key focus on opportunities within Sports, Media, Tourism and Travel combined with Infrastructure pipeline opportunities, particularly within rail. There will be occasions for wider team engagement and support with trade missions, Ministerial visits and crisis training.

In addition, the role will be leading on events management as the GREAT marketing liaison officer and supporting DIT’s involvement with GREAT@WC22 alongside the wider Embassy team.

The role is required to support wider DIT responsibilities including handling market research enquiries, coordinating events, and recording business interactions, providing tailored reports and proactively identifying business opportunities.

Responsibilities shall include:

• Providing direct support, but not limited to the Senior Commercial Attaché to develop a deep understanding of the UK and Qatari markets, including key players, market opportunities, market access issues and competition.
• Contribute to and support the growth of UK exports and/or ODI in the Qatari market.
• Build local relationships with organisations (private and public) and relevant Ministries that increase British trade by identifying export opportunities and future economic partnerships.
• Engaging the respective sectors’ network, including support briefing British and Qatari businesses, responding to enquiries, including market access, local engagement and doing business in Qatar.
• Support the sector leads to build and manage a pipeline of export opportunities for British
• Organise and support key events and activities which support British trade work in Qatar including webinars, roadshows, trade missions and Ministerial visits.
• Support the sectoral delivery against agreed targets, including Export Wins, OMIS (Overseas Market Introduction Service) revenue, Export Opportunities, and case studies / success stories published.
• Support the capture of challenges and improvement of Qatari market access for UK exports.
• Travel to the UK and region to support trade promotion activities where relevant.
• Initiate engagement with Qatari clients to identify market trends and emerging opportunities.
• Build and maintain operational relationships within the Embassy, across the wider MEAP region and with DIT/Whitehall.
• Collaborate with UK and Regional teams, including sector specialists to deliver high quality outputs and support to British businesses.
• Lead on marketing for the GREAT campaign, taking responsibility for marketing collateral, supporting staff and taking charge of DIT’s social media for Qatar.
• Provision of administrative support to the wider team as and when required.
• Promote, where relevant, the financing products offered by UK Export Finance, the British government’s Export Credit Agency, to support companies win contracts.
• Maintaining a log contact with customers on our global ‘Data Hub’ database.

Additional DIT team duties include:

• Providing support to wider team events, including VIP/Ministerial visits.
• Updating the DIT key contact database to be used for invites to events.
• Providing support to the wider Trade and Investment team as required.
• Any additional duties as required by the Director/Deputy Director of International Trade.

The above list is not exhaustive and the jobholder will be required to be flexible and take on other ad hoc tasks as required.

Key Behaviours:

• Delivering at Pace: Effectiveness in this area means focusing on delivering timely performance with energy and taking responsibility and accountability for quality outcomes. It’s about working to agreed goals and activities and dealing with challenges in a responsive and constructive way.
• Working Together: People skilled in this area create and maintain positive, professional and trusting working relationships with a wide range of people within and outside the Civil Service to help get business done. It requires working effectively, sharing information and building supportive, responsive relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, whilst having the confidence to challenge assumptions.​
• Managing a Quality Service: Effectiveness in this area is about being organised to deliver service objectives and striving to improve the quality of service, taking account of diverse customer needs and requirements. People who are effective plan, organise and manage their time and activities to deliver a high quality and efficient service, applying programme and project management approaches to support service delivery.
• Communicating and Influencing: Effectiveness in this area is about communicating purpose and direction with clarity, integrity and enthusiasm. It’s about respecting the needs, responses and opinions of others.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• Fluent standard of English. Able to express ideas and messages clearly and concisely, both orally and in written communication, with an eye for detail.
• You will need to be a self-starter who can hit the ground running and quickly adapt to the role.
• University level of qualification or equivalent standards of education.
• Experience in business development ideally in Creative, Tech or Infrastructure sectors.
• Proven track record of cross-team collaboration.
• Demonstrated experience meeting and/or exceeding challenging targets.
• Analytical skills acquired in an international market context with a consultative sales approach to achieving results.
• Fast learning, self-starter who can demonstrate initiative, resilience, and project management skills.
• Confident communicator.
• Strong IT computer skills using Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office and conducting internet searches.
• The ability to initiate and maintain a wide range of working relationships, both internally and externally.
• Strong organisational skills.
• The ability to work quickly, reliably and proactively with attention to detail and limited supervision.

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

• Knowledge of the Qatar business environment, including “doing business in Qatar”.
• Experience of organising events and customer database.
• Experience of working in a large diverse team.
• Experience in working within the GCC.
• Experience in Creative Industries and/or Infrastructure, or having some relevant knowledge would be advantageous.
• Arabic speaking skills an advantage.

Application deadline
11 July 2022