About this job

The Operations and Services to Users (OPS) Department is responsible for exploiting EUMETSAT’s operational satellite systems and delivering agreed data, products and support services.

The Personal Assistant (PA) to the Director of the Department (D/OPS) will provide direct secretarial/administrative assistance to the Director and manage, coordinate and supervise the secretarial/administrative services provided to the four managers reporting to him.

EUMETSAT is Europe’s meteorological satellite agency. Its role is to establish and operate meteorological satellites to monitor the weather and climate from space – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information is supplied to the National Meteorological Services of the organisation’s Member and Cooperating States in Europe, as well as other users worldwide.

EUMETSAT also operates several Copernicus missions on behalf of the European Union and provide data services to the Copernicus marine and atmospheric services and their users.

As an intergovernmental European Organisation, EUMETSAT has 30 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.)

Responsibilities

• Provide direct secretarial/administrative assistance to the Director of the OPS department, including drafting correspondence and other documents, taking minutes of meetings, and preparation of travel and meetings;
• Manage, coordinate and supervise secretarial/administrative services provided to the OPS Department management including correspondence, travel management, and office accommodation;
• Maintain the departmental working practices for secretarial/administrative support;
• Track and follow up progress of cross-organisational actions involving the OPS department;
• Ensure the effective organisation of regular high-level international meetings and conferences including preparation of meetings and post-meeting documentation;
• Monitor and control the departmental budgets for travel, representation expenses and social events;
• Supervise the OPS Department secretary/administrative assistant;
• Maintain and update the OPS Department intranet pages;
• Support the coordination of secretarial/administrative assistance across the five departments of EUMETSAT.

Profile

• A full secondary education and/or secretarial education or equivalent professional qualification is required.
• The official languages of EUMETSAT are English and French. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and have some knowledge of French. A good knowledge of German will be an advantage
• Proven secretarial and administrative experience in a multi-lingual and complex environment, including drafting of correspondence in English;
• Experience in organising large or complex meetings or other events;
• Experience of managing budgets;
• Proven ability to deliver high quality outputs within deadlines;
• Experience of people management would be an advantage;
• Demonstrated service-orientation and autonomy ;
• Excellent skills in typing and using MS Office suite (i.e. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and document management tools; experience of using an action management tool (e.g. JIRA) would be an advantage;
• Very good communication and team-working skills with ability to interact effectively at all levels of the organisation with tact and diplomacy.