View Vacancy – Deputy Consul General & Deputy Country Director – Trade (ITA21.496)

The British Consulate General in Milan invites applications for the position of Deputy Consul General & Deputy Country Director – Trade Grade C5 (L).

The British Consulate General, for which this role is Deputy Head, represents the UK government in the Northern regions of Italy. The consulate has around 40 staff, including sections responsible for trade and investment, tourism promotion, science and innovation, the Scottish Government, immigration enforcement, and corporate services.

The Department for International Trade (DIT), for which this role is also Deputy Director for Italy, is the Trade and Investment Promotion organisation for the UK, also covering Trade Policy and Market Access. The Department promotes UK businesses overseas and attracts foreign investment to the UK. The Department’s mission in Italy is to support growth in bilateral trade, including helping British businesses to export to and grow in the Italian market, and to support Italian investors to grow and succeed in the UK. The team also identifies and addresses market access and business environment barriers to trade, and promotes the UK’s brand abroad.

Roles and Responsibilities

Leadership of the Milan consulate team

• Working with the Consul-General, ensure a thriving and positive working environment at the British Consulate, characterised by mutual respect, inclusion and teamwork.

• Give visibility to the work of the team within the wider Italy network and European region, and encourage collaboration across team boundaries.

• Support a culture of learning and development and continual improvement, in which staff can grow and develop.

• Ensure a manageable workload within the team, and a fair distribution of work.

Operations lead for DIT Italy

• Responsible for the delegated DIT country budget and for securing funding for business engagement activities (through internal Government bids and/or external sponsorship), and accounting for this spend. 

• Responsible for DIT Italy’s corporate reporting and business planning processes reporting to DIT COO for Europe, including driving and tracking progress against metrics recording trade and investment work.

• Responsible for Human Resources operations, including coordinating recruitment for vacancies and agreeing on staffing structures together with the Consul-General.

• Responsible for capability building of DIT Italy staff, including securing and promoting learning and development opportunities matching business needs, equipping staff with the tools and skills they need to deliver and grow.

• Coordinate delivery of high quality visits and trade missions, including by trade ministers, the Trade Commissioner and business organisations.

Leadership of the Trade section for DIT Italy

• Line manage 3 members of staff leading on the UK-Italy trading relationship, and 1 member of staff responsible for business-facing marketing and communication. Countersign other members of staff in the consulate.

• Ensure excellent coordination and collaboration between trade teams leading on different sectors of the economy, and with other sections of DIT Italy and the Consulate.

• Identify and regularly review priorities for UK export promotion and Overseas direct investment by British business in Italy, maintaining oversight of sector specific export campaigns, ensuring they have clear objectives and a clear pipeline of deals and activities in place to achieve those objectives. In support of this you will coordinate the DIT Business Communications/Marketing delivery strategy.

External representation and Stakeholder relationships

• Deputise for the Consul General as and when required representing both internally and externally. This includes public speaking, senior institutional meetings and events, including in other parts of North Italy.

• Lead on agreed business relationships key for UK-Italy trading relations (specific relationships to be defined based on areas of expertise and interest of the successful candidate).

• Build an external network of other Deputy Consul Generals in Missions in Milan, Institutional relationships including the Regional and City governments, Business and trade institutions in Lombardy.

Corporate contribution to the organisation

• As for all staff in the network, the jobholder will be expected to deliver a meaningful corporate contribution to the organisation, based on their own initiative, expertise and interests.

All of this makes for an exciting, busy and varied job, with opportunities for in-country and regional travel (once COVID-19 restrictions allow). As the successful candidate, you will be a dynamic leader with good communication skills, able to motivate the team, and engage credibly with senior people in order to represent interests of UK Government in Italy. You will be good at thinking strategically and planning. You will be able to demonstrate the management capability to support a high performing, flexible and agile team; and have a proven ability to build good relationships with stakeholders and clients.

The above list is not exhaustive and the jobholder will be required to be flexible and take on other ad hoc tasks as required. The job description may be reviewed to meet changes in business needs.

• Relevant work experience working with/in both Governments and Business.

• Proven track record of leadership of a team, and cross-team collaboration.

• Proven experience in managing the delivery of complex and high paced projects, events or initiatives.

• Fluency both oral and written in English and Italian (Common European Framework level C1 above or equivalent*).

• A positive, resilient, flexible and adaptable “can-do” attitude that can see way through challenges.

• Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, ability to work successfully in multicultural teams and across boundaries, to build networks across the region.

• Excellent communication skills, both oral and written.