Vacancy notice CONS/AD/185/23
Date: 2023-02-23
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Council of the European Union, European Council, Secretary General of an Institution, administrator, competition (EU), job vacancy, managing director, recruitment








CA2023066EN.01000101.xml










23.2.2023   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


CA 66/1






Vacancy notice CONS/AD/185/23
(2023/C 66 A/01)
 

GENERAL INFORMATION







Department


Private Office of the Secretary-General




Place of work


Brussels, Justus Lipsius Building




Title of post


Director




Function group and grade


AD 14




Security clearance required


SECRET UE/EU SECRET





DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS




9 March 2023 – 12:00 (noon) Brussels time





We are

The General Secretariat of the Council (GSC) assists the European Council and the Council of the EU and their preparatory bodies in all fields of their activities. It provides advice and support to the European Council and the Council and to their Presidents in all areas of activity, including policy and legal advice, coordination with other institutions, elaboration of compromises, supervising as well as attending to all the practicalities that are necessary for the good preparation and running of the European Council and the Council.
The Secretary-General heads the General Secretariat of the Council. She is responsible for the overall organisation of the GSC and for taking all the measures necessary to ensure the smooth running of the General Secretariat. She oversees the provision of services by the GSC to the presidencies of the Council and its preparatory bodies, and to the President of the European Council. She is also responsible for the administrative management of the GSC as to its human and financial resources and is the GSC security authority.
The Secretary-General takes part in Council meetings as appropriate. Her role is essentially to ensure the continuity, progress, and coherence of the Council’s work and to advise the Council and its presidency. The Secretary-General of the Council is also the Secretary-General of the European Council. She attends European Council meetings and takes all the measures necessary for the organisation of proceedings.
The Secretary-General represents the Council at her level in its relations with the other EU institutions and bodies, she may be called to represent the Council before the European Parliament.
The Private Office supports the Secretary-General in her duties of assisting the European Council and the Council, in managing the GSC and in ensuring horizontal coordination between Directorates-General.
The Private Office of the Secretary-General comprises the Head of the Office, two members (AD officials) and three assistants.

We propose

The post of Head of the Private Office of the Secretary-General is a highly challenging position in a politically interesting environment.
You will advise and support the Secretary-General in the performance of her duties, in particular by supporting the President of the European Council (PEC) and the PEC’s Private Office and liaising with the Presidency and other institutions.
You will support the Secretary-General in managing and further developing the GSC, inter alia in her capacity of Appointing Authority and Authorising Officer, and in ensuring horizontal coordination between Directorates-General, in particular meetings of Directors-General.
You will be responsible for the management of the services directly attached to the Secretary-General: Internal Audit, Data Protection Office, Analysis and Research Team (ART), the administrative management of the Office of the Counter-Terrorism Coordinator and the Digital Transformation office.
You will be responsible for the overall management and coordination of the Private Office and of its resources.
You will be a member of the following bodies: the Advisory Management Board, the Audit Committee, the Crisis Management Team and the Steering Committee of the Business Continuity Planning.
The position entails atypical working hours. You and your staff will benefit from the GSC’s flexible working arrangements, including occasional teleworking.

We look for

We are looking for a dynamic and very committed manager with a high level of loyalty and discretion, who has substantial experience in EU policymaking and the EU legislative process and extensive knowledge of the internal structure and functioning of the Council and the European Council as well as of EU institutional issues.
You will have a good political insight and understanding of the current challenges of the EU and the demands they put on the GSC.
Given the wide range of issues to be covered, you should have a high degree of organisational awareness and interest in organisational development.
Due to the nature of the duties, you should also be resilient, flexible and willing to work outside of normal working hours when necessary.
All GSC managers are expected to advise their hierarchy and stakeholders, to manage their staff and financial resources, and to represent the GSC. These expectations are set out in the GSC horizontal manager’s profile (1).
Furthermore, the jobholder will need to possess:






—


the ability to think and plan strategically, to anticipate and identify potential problems and to propose workable solutions and compromises,










—


leadership and the ability to promote a strong team spirit and to guide, motivate and empower staff in a multicultural and diverse environment, with a strong emphasis on staff development,










—


a sense of diplomacy, knowing when to be flexible and when to be firm and maintaining attention to detail without losing sight of the overall picture,










—


the ability to promote and maintain good working relationships with a range of internal and external interlocutors,










—


the ability to reach common agreements or goals by providing targeted advice to stakeholders and by effectively and constructively facilitating discussions,










—


the ability to organise the overall work of the office so as to meet critical deadlines and ensure a fair distribution of workload within the team as well as succession planning,










—


the ability to manage change and support staff through change,










—


excellent communication skills, including interpersonal communication skills.




Given that the GSC has a policy of mobility for its managers, who are expected to have broad experience, candidates should be willing and able to work in different areas of activity during their career at the GSC.

RECRUITMENT POLICY

Applicants must meet the following requirements at the time of applying:






a)



General conditions







—


be nationals of one of the Member States of the European Union;










—


enjoy their full rights as citizens;










—


have fulfilled any obligations imposed by the laws concerning military service.














b)



Specific conditions







—


hold a university degree (2);










—


have at least 15 years of relevant professional experience, out of which they have during at least 3 years effectively exercised management and organisational responsibilities. Three years spent in a post with significant coordination responsibilities would be equivalent to the required management experience;










—


given that English and French are used extensively for communication within the GSC and with other institutions, an excellent knowledge of one of the two languages and a good knowledge of the other is required. Knowledge of other official languages of the EU would be an asset.








NB:






(1)


This post requires security clearance allowing access to classified documents (SECRET UE/EU SECRET level). Candidates applying for the post must be prepared to undergo security screening under Council Decision 2013/488/EU (3). Appointment to the post will only take effect on condition that the selected candidate has obtained a valid security clearance certificate. A candidate without security clearance will be offered a temporary contract until the result of the security clearance procedure is obtained.










(2)


The successful candidate must be prepared to follow the GSC management training.





SELECTION PROCEDURE

In choosing the successful candidates the Appointing Authority shall be assisted by an advisory selection board. The advisory selection board will be supported by an assessment centre, run by external recruitment consultants. Reports established by the assessment centre for the same type of post will cease to be valid 2 years after the date on which the relevant exercises took place or upon termination of the framework contract between the GSC and the assessment centre in question — whichever date is the earliest.
The advisory selection board will initially evaluate and compare the qualifications, experience and motivation of all the applicants, on the basis of their applications. Based on that comparative assessment, the advisory selection board will shortlist those candidates who, in its opinion, are most suitable to be invited to a first interview. As this first selection is based on a comparative assessment of the applications, the fulfilment of the requirements of this vacancy does not guarantee an invitation to the first interview. From among the interviewed candidates, the advisory selection board will pre-select candidates to attend the assessment centre, as well as a second interview with the advisory selection board.
The provisional planning for the selection procedure is as follows:






—


it is expected that candidates selected for the interviews will be informed in the second half of March 2023,










—


the first interviews are foreseen to take place at the end of March 2023,










—


the assessment centre is expected to take place in the first half of April 2023,










—


the second round of interviews is foreseen for the end of April 2023.





NB: The above schedule is purely indicative and can be modified.

LEGAL BASIS

This post is published in all institutions of the European Union and outside the institutions, in conformity with Article 29, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (4).

HOW TO APPLY

The closing date for applications is 9 March 2023 at 12:00 (noon) Brussels time.
Applications will be only accepted by e-mail and must be sent to ‘applications.management@consilium.europa.eu’ (5) no later than the closing date and time. Late applications will not be considered.

The e-mail address indicated above must be used for any correspondence concerning the selection procedure (the e-mail must have the following reference in the subject line: CONS/AD/185/23 CAB).
Before submitting their application, candidates should carefully check whether they meet the requirements listed above under ‘Recruitment policy’, in order to avoid automatic exclusion from the selection procedure.
To be valid, the application file must include the following documents in pdf (NB: locked, password protected or electronically signed documents will not be accepted):






(a)


the application form duly completed and dated (file to be named ‘XXX (YOUR FAMILY NAME) — Application form.pdf’); to download the electronic application form (EN or FR) click on the appropriate link below or copy/paste it into your browser (6):
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/53249/gsc-application_form_senior_management_en.docx
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/53248/gsc-application_form_senior_management_fr.docx;










(b)


a detailed curriculum vitae in English or French (no photographs included), preferably in the Europass format (https://europa.eu/europass/en/create-europass-cv), covering the applicant’s entire career, listing, inter alia, the applicant’s qualifications, language knowledge, experience and current duties (file to be named ‘XXX (YOUR FAMILY NAME) — CV.pdf’);










(c)


a motivation letter, in English or French (file to be named ‘XXX (YOUR FAMILY NAME) — Motivation letter.pdf’);










(d)


copies of diplomas certifying education and copies of documents and certificates relating to professional experience, grouped together in a single pdf document. It is not sufficient to send just the curriculum vitae mentioned under (b). Supporting documents must have been issued by a third party (file to be named ‘XXX (YOUR FAMILY NAME) — Supporting documents.pdf’).





Failure to include these documents will render the application invalid.

All the supporting documents referred to under (d), must be numbered (Annex 1, 2, etc.) and grouped as mentioned above.
Applications that arrive by post or via cloud-based data storage solutions or file-share platforms will not be considered.
The successful candidate will be asked to provide the originals of the above documents.
Candidates will receive an e-mail acknowledging receipt of their application. However, technical difficulties affecting the sending of e-mails can occur. Therefore, if no e-mail acknowledging receipt of the application is received, candidates are asked to contact applications.management@consilium.europa.eu. Since the advisory selection board will begin its work shortly after the closing date for applications, any correspondence about the receipt of the application should be made in the week following that date.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The GSC is committed to diversity and inclusion. For more information please see the relevant statement: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/general-secretariat/jobs/diversity-and-inclusion/.

REEXAMINATION OF APPLICATIONS

For information about the procedures relating to requests for complaints, appeals and referrals to the European Ombudsman you may consult:
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/56631/complaint-en.pdf.

DATA PROTECTION

The rules governing the processing of personal data in connection with this selection procedure are spelled out in the privacy statement: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/56660/jobs-data-protection-083r00-en.pdf.


(1)  https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/53279/gsc-manager-profile-en.pdf.

(2)  Article 5(3)(c) of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union (the Staff Regulations) require applicants to have at least:






(i)


a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma when the normal period of university education is 4 years or more; or










(ii)


a level of education which corresponds to completed university studies attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least 1 year when the normal period of university education is at least 3 years.





(3)  Council Decision 2013/488/EU of 23 September 2013 on the security rules for protecting EU classified information (OJ L 274, 15.10.2013, p. 1).

(4)  Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Union and the Conditions of Employment of other servants of the European Union, laid down by Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom, ECSC) No 259/68 (OJ L 56, 4.3.1968, p. 1), consolidated text available at:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A01962R0031-20220101.

(5)  This e-mail address is linked to a functional mailbox and can only process messages with sensitivity option set to ‘Normal’; e-mails sent with other sensitivity options (e.g. ‘Personal’, ‘Private’, ‘Confidential’ or encrypted mails) cannot be processed. Please therefore select the ‘Normal’ sensitivity option. Your e-mail must not be greater than 25 MB. If your e-mail, together with its attachments, exceeds this maximum size, please split your attachments over a number of e-mails.

(6)  If you need more information and/or encounter technical problems, please send an e-mail to: applications.management@consilium.europa.eu.