EMSA

Call for Applications: EMSA/AST/2019/06 - Personal Assistant to the Executive Director

Post: EMSA/AST/2019/06 - Personal Assistant to the Executive Director
Directorate/Unit: The Bureau of the Executive Director
Type of post: Temporary agent post
Grade: AST2
Location: Lisbon
Closing date for applications: 3 July 2019

The selection of candidates will follow the EMSA Staff Recruitment Procedure. Candidates must apply for this post via the EMSA website http://www.emsa.europa.eu - vacancies. Please note that to make an EMSA on-line application you will need to create your EMSA profile using a valid e-mail address and a password.

1. Background

The European Maritime Safety Agency was established for the purpose of ensuring a high, uniform and effective level of maritime safety, maritime security as well as prevention of and response to pollution by ships within the EU.

The idea of a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) originated in the late 1990s along with a number of other important European maritime safety initiatives. EMSA was set up as the regulatory agency that would provide a major source of support to the Commission and the Member States in the field of maritime safety and prevention of pollution from ships.

The European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 1406/2002, as amended, provides the legal basis for the establishment of the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

2. Tasks of the agency

The Agency provides technical, operational and scientific assistance to the European Commission and Member States in the fields of maritime safety, maritime security, prevention of, and response to, pollution caused by ships as well as response to marine pollution caused by oil and gas installations.

The Agency also contributes to the overall efficiency of maritime traffic and maritime transport and supports European cooperation on coastguard functions.

3. The Bureau of the Executive Director

Support to the Director in all areas under her responsibility. This includes helping good governance with management support, promoting compliance, transparency and civil service culture. In the area of planning and monitoring the Unit is responsible for developing the main institutional planning and reporting documents (SPD and CAAR), follow the full budgetary cycle, from the initial input to monitoring its execution. The Executive office provides secretariat to the EMSA’s Administrative Board and includes all compliance and audit related tasks of EMSA (IAS, ECA, ICF, etc) including risk management. Two other areas under the responsibility of the Executive Office are the continuous development of a Quality Management System and the Accounting Officer (with direct reporting to the Agency’s Administrative Board). Communication is also part of the Unit both in terms of traditional and digital/social media products. International and Interinstitutional relations for work with institutions and authorities, within the EU and beyond are also in the portfolio of the Executive Office. This involves planning and taking initiatives, coordinating EMSA’s position as well as organising events and visits.

4. Functions and duties

The Personal Assistant to the Executive Director, under the responsibility of the Head of the Executive Office, will be responsible for the following tasks:

  • Assisting in the overall administration of the Executive Director's office and in particular with all maritime related stakeholders;
  • Planning the Director's agenda with appropriate consultation of the operational Units;
  • Organising, attending and taking minutes at meetings organized by EMSA with the relevant maritime stakeholders;
  • Organising missions including accommodation and transport reservation and preparing the reimbursement of mission expenses for the Executive Director;
  • Preparing and gathering operational documents and information files for missions, conferences and external meetings for the Executive Director;
  • Answering and filtering the Executive Director's calls, taking messages, responding to general enquiries, including those related to maritime issues;
  • Liaising with Heads of Unit and Heads of Department to prepare draft answers to correspondence for the Executive Director;
  • Drafting, correcting, proofreading, copying and typing correspondence, operational reports, meeting documents, minutes etc.;
  • Ensuring quality control of outgoing and internal correspondence: Ensuring compliance with EMSA's corporate identity;
  • Handling correspondence and ensuring the appropriate follow-up, including recording incoming and outgoing correspondence through the relevant electronic tools;
  • Developing proposals for the improvement of internal administrative procedures.

5. Eligibility and Selection Criteria

A. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Qualifications and experience required:

A.1 Education:

  • A level of post secondary education of an official duration of three years attested by a diploma, or;
  • A level of secondary attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education, and appropriate professional experience of at least three years.

A.2 Experience:

  • At least three years of proven professional experience acquired after the award of the diploma when the normal duration of studies is three years. When the official duration of the post-secondary studies is less than three years, the difference in time is to be compensated by additional professional experience after the award of the diploma;
  • At least six years of professional experience acquired after the award of the diploma for a secondary education giving access to post-secondary education. The three years mentioned in A.1. Education are included in this 6 year period.

A.3. Language skills;

The main working language in the field of maritime safety is English. Candidates must therefore have a very good command of oral English as well as in writing with a satisfactory knowledge of at least one other official language of the European Union to the extent necessary for the performance of the above mentioned duties.

B. SELECTION CRITERIA

B.1. Essential

  • At least three years of proven relevant professional experience in a high-level Assistant position to a Senior Manager, Head of Department, Director, Director-General or equivalent. Candidates should specifically mention on their CV the range of tasks covered, the level of work done and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
  • Work Experience in the maritime sector. Candidates should specifically mention on their CV the range of tasks covered, the level of work done and their relevance to the functions and duties of this vacancy notice;
  • Proficiency in relevant technologies including  MS Office suite (Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook), the use of a PC and other relevant office equipment. Candidates should specifically mention on their CV how they use these applications and for what purpose in their work.   

B.2 Advantageous:

  • Professional experience in the EU Institutions/bodies or Agencies or in a Public Administration;
  • Knowledge of other EU languages.

Applicants must meet the required eligibility criteria concerning the required educational qualifications and years of experience, as well as the essential criteria by the deadline for this call for applications.

In addition to the requirements above, candidates invited to the interview and test phase may also be assessed against the following supplementary requirements:

Supplementary:

  • Good organisational and interpersonal skills as well as the ability to deal with people tactfully;
  • Very good organisational skills;
  • Service-orientated with a strong customer-focused approach to work, demonstrating responsiveness and flexibility;
  • Ability to clearly communicate in an effective manner with colleagues, superiors and external contacts at different levels;
  • Motivated with a capacity to work with minimum supervision;
  • Sense of initiative and responsibility;
  • A high level of confidentiality;
  • Ability to work under pressure and to deliver within precise deadlines and to prioritise tasks.

6. General conditions

In order to be eligible the candidate must:

  • Be a national of one of the Member States of the European Union or of Iceland or Norway;
  • Be entitled to your full rights as a citizen;
  • Have fulfilled the obligations imposed on you by the laws concerning military service;
  • Meet the character requirements for the duties involved; and
  • Be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

7. Conditions of employment

The Personal Assistant to the Executive Director will be appointed by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

This vacancy notice concerns a Temporary Agent position, pursuant to Article 2 f) of the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Communities.

The initial duration of the contract is three years, with possibility of renewal.

The successful candidate will be recruited in the grade AST2.

The basic monthly salary, before any deductions or allowances, weighted for Lisbon, at 1 July 2018 for grade AST2 first step is 2832.61EUR.

In addition to the basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, such as an expatriation allowance (16% of basic salary), household allowance, dependent child allowance and education allowance. The salary is subject to a Community tax deducted at source and staff members are exempt of national taxation.

Please note that recruitment is done in the first or second step of the indicated grade, depending on the duration of the acquired professional experience. EMSA offers a comprehensive welfare package including pension scheme, medical, accident and occupational disease insurance coverage, unemployment and invalidity allowance. Further information regarding rights and conditions of employment can be found in the following document.

Please note that in line with the Staff Regulations recruited candidates shall be required to demonstrate before their first promotion the ability to work in a third European Community language.

The place of employment is Lisbon, Portugal.

Candidates are advised that if they are offered a post, and accept, they must undergo a compulsory medical examination to establish that they meet the standard of physical fitness necessary to perform the duties involved.

8. Submission of applications

Candidates should ensure that they clearly indicate how they meet the selection criteria in their application and motivation letter.

Candidates must submit their application electronically solely via the EMSA website within the deadline. Applications by any other means (hard copy or ordinary e-mail) or submitted after the deadline will not be accepted.

All candidates will receive an acknowledgement of receipt for their application.

It is expected that the interviews (and written tests) will take place in July 2019.

EMSA is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from all candidates who fulfil the eligibility and selection criteria without any distinction whatsoever on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age, marital status or other family situation or sexual orientation.

You may apply in any of the official languages of the European Union, but it would be helpful to apply in English in order to facilitate the selection process.

9. The selection process

For each selection process a Selection Committee is nominated. The selection is carried out in two phases:

1. In the first phase all eligible applications will be evaluated by the Selection Committee and scored against the selection criteria. Please note that non-compliance with at least one of the essential selection criteria will result in the exclusion of the candidate from the selection process. Advantageous criteria constitute additional assets and will not result in exclusion, if not fulfilled. The advantageous criteria will be considered by the Selection Committee depending on the number of applicants meeting the essential selection criteria.

On this basis, the Selection Committee will invite to the interview and to the test phase the best qualified candidates (maximum of 15), on condition that they have achieved at least 60% of the highest possible score during the evaluation of applications. Should the case arise that there are various candidates scoring the same number of points in the 15th ranking, the number of candidates to be invited will be increased accordingly to accommodate this. 

2. In the second phase, the selected candidates will be invited to pass one or several written tests related to the job profile and to take part in a selection interview.

During this recruitment phase, the selected candidates will be evaluated by the Selection Committee. After the interviews and tests, the Selection Committee will draw up a list of the most suitable candidates to be proposed to the Appointing Authority. Only candidates receiving at least 70% of the maximum points at interview and at the test phase will be included in the list of the most suitable candidates. The Appointing Authority will, after establishing a reserve list, select the most suitable candidate after interviewing some or all of the candidates on the list. The successful candidates will be informed accordingly.

Candidates are strictly forbidden to make any contact with the members of the selection committee, either directly or indirectly. Any infringement of this rule will lead to disqualification from the selection procedure.

All candidates will receive an information letter of the outcome of their application.

Please note that a binding commitment can only be made after verification of all conditions and will take the form of a contract signed by the Executive Director.

The reserve list will remain valid for a period of 1 year following its establishment. Therefore candidates whose name will be put on a reserve list could be offered a contract during this period of time. Please note however that inclusion in the reserve list does not guarantee recruitment.

Please note that the selection process may take several months to be completed and that no information will be released during this period. Once a selection process has been completed, its status will be displayed in the e-recruitment.

Please note that once you have created your EMSA profile, any correspondence regarding your application must be sent or received via your EMSA profile.

For any prior enquiry, please refer to the FAQ (Frequently asked questions) section, or send an e-mail to recruitment@emsa.europa.eu

Requests for information and appeal:

An applicant who would like further information, or considers that he/she has grounds for complaint concerning a particular decision may, at any point in the selection procedure, request further information from the Chairperson of the Selection Committee.

For information on how to lodge a complaint and/or an appeal procedure, please consult the ‘General Information for Recruitment’ overview on our website for more information:

http://www.emsa.europa.eu/recruitment-info.html