View Vacancy – SG – Social Secretary, AO (Part-Time)

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 (Residence and Support Staff)

Job Subcategory

Private Office

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

The British High Commission (BHC) is hiring a Social Secretary to assist in planning and delivering events for the High Commissioner. The majority of these will take place at the High Commissioner’s residence, Eden Hall, a historic building and host to dozens of high level visits and events each year. It plays a key role as a showcase for the UK in Singapore, and as such contributes directly to deepening our strategic partnership with Singapore.

This role will be part of Private Office team, which is responsible for delivering on the High Commissioner’s priorities and managing effective workflow across a large diplomatic mission. The jobholder will report to the High Commissioner’s Private Secretary and interact with teams across the High Commission. They will work most closely with the Residence team, Bilateral Communications team and Private Office. The jobholder will assist in all aspects of event planning and delivery, including sending and tracking invitations, procurement and managing external stakeholders, logistics, tracking expenditure and coordinating and communicating with High Commission teams.

The ideal candidate will be collaborative, professional and flexible, with a can-do attitude and will have experience in either managing or supporting events. The Social Secretary will be required to attend occasional out of hours events.

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

• Act as Secretariat the Events Committee: draft agendas, take minutes, track actions, review requests for the use of Eden Hall for events, ensuring they are in line with our UK-Singapore strategic priorities and liaise with stakeholders on meeting outcomes.
• Maintain comprehensive records and databases, including the Residence Events Tracker and Calendar.
• Act as first point of contact in BHC Singapore for the Eden Hall team.
• In partnership with the Residence Manager, plan and manage externally and internally funded events from kick off call to delivery, including:
• Budgeting and ensuring value for money for the High Commission.
• Administer invitations and guestlists for Private Office or High Commissioner led events
• Stakeholder coordination including with the British Chamber of Commerce as event delivery partners and the High Commission.
• Ensuring compliance with security and risk requirements
• Identifying suppliers and organising site visit
• Attending and delivering events, including some evening events.

• Provide annual leave cover when necessary for the Residence Manager and members of Private Office.
• Provide ad hoc support on wider Private Office work during busy periods.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• A minimum of 4 years work experience, including some events management or delivery experience;
• Excellent IT skills, particularly with Excel, Word and internet use ;
• Good interpersonal skills with the ability to interact confidently and professionally with both internal and external stakeholders at all levels;
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral;
• Candidate must be a team-player and willing to learn and adapt;
• Must be able to work flexibly, with demonstrated ability to adapt quickly to incoming tasks and changes.
• Delivery experience.

Language requirement:

Expertise in English

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

• Events management
• Client engagement or customer service experience;
• Budget management experience.

Required behaviours

Changing and Improving, Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Working Together

Application deadline

29 May 2026

Grade

Administrative Officer (AO)

Type of Position

Part-Time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal

Working hours per week

26 hours per week

Region

Asia Pacific

Country/Territory

Singapore

Location (City)

Singapore

Type of Post

British High Commission

Number of vacancies

1

Salary Currency

SGD

Salary

Full-time rate of SGD 4,457 to be pro-rated to 0.7 FTE

Type of Salary

monthly

Start Date

29 July 2026

Other benefits and conditions of employment

Working hours

26 hrs to be completed between Monday – Friday 08:30 – 17:00

Terms and Conditions

In addition to the duties which this job normally entails, you may from time to time be required to undertake additional or other duties as necessary to meet the needs of the High Commission, including playing a part in the corporate life of the mission and supporting any crisis response.

No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain a local work permit which we will sponsor.

Staff recruited locally by the British High Commission are subject to terms and conditions of service according to local Singapore employment law.

Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. Only short-listed applications will be called for personal interviews.

We have a generous leave offer including: 23 days annual leave, increasing to 25 after 5 years” service, with the option to carry over up to 12 days into the subsequent leave year; 14 public holidays; generous maternity and paternity leave; and childcare leave. We encourage volunteerism and offer up to 5 days paid volunteer leave.
We offer medical insurance to support staff with the high costs of healthcare in Singapore and periodic reimbursement for the cost of eye tests and replacement eye wear

The British High Commission is an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on grounds of ethnic origin, race, religious beliefs, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation. Our values of Collaboration, Openness, Respect and Expertise (CORE) are our guiding principles. We aspire to live our values consistently to make the British High Commission a great place to work where staff feel valued, supported and inspired to be their best.

Please note that all successful candidates will be expected to serve a minimum of 6 months in their new role before being eligible to apply for further positions within the British High Commission.

Learning and development opportunities (and any specific training courses to be completed):

We offer time and financial support for the successful candidate to take advantage of professional learning and development opportunities inside and outside of the organisation.

The BHC has an active Learning & Development Committee which works hard to provide a comprehensive L&D offer. There is a wide range of options available for personal development including training courses, coaching and mentoring, job-shadowing, presentations and learning sets. Staff have access to a wide variety of online resources through the International Academy and Civil Service Learning. Staff are strongly encouraged to take advantage of all available opportunities.

All new hires undertake a workplace induction and there are several mandatory e-learning courses that must be completed to pass probation.

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.

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Note: All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the online application form completely including the employment and educational details, experience, professional skills and behaviour-based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the applications and incomplete form in any respect may not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

Only shortlisted candidates for interview will be contacted. Interviewees will be assessed on the core behaviours/qualifications listed above. Unsuccessful candidates will be notified via the system in due time. 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.

To ensure a successful application it is important that you explain how you demonstrate these behaviours, including through your experience. You are strongly advised to read the Success Profiles Civil Service Behaviours Framework, which provides detailed guidance on how the behaviours are defined.

Applicants are encouraged to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format to prepare specific examples of when they have demonstrated these behaviours in their application. Using the STAR format to provide evidence of your skills and experience in your application and at interview helps to give a structure. You briefly describe the situation in which you showed the behaviour, and then explain your task in addressing the situation, what action you took and the result of this.

For inclusivity and diversity, please remove the following personal information when uploading your CV: name, address, email address, age, date of birth, gender and nationality.

The start date mentioned in the job advert is a tentative start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures. Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearances.

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.