Background:

This position is open for secondment only and participating States are kindly reminded that all costs in relation to an assignment at the Secretariat must be borne by their authorities.

Candidates should, prior to applying, verify with their respective nominating authority to which extent financial remuneration and/or benefit packages will be offered. Seconded staff members in the OSCE Secretariat and Institutions are not entitled to a Board and Lodging Allowance payable by the Organization.

The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses politico-military, economic and environmental, and human aspects. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, combating human trafficking, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 57 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis.

The OSCE Secretariat in Vienna assists the Chairpersonship in its activities, and provides operational and administrative support to the field operations, and, as appropriate, to other institutions.

The OCEEA deals with economic and environmental issues, including energy, operating under the premise that promoting economic prosperity and co-operation on environmental problems can contribute to international security and stability. The Energy Security Team implements the OCEEA’s mandates in the field of energy security, in particular with regards to the protection of critical energy infrastructure, the promotion of sustainable energy and energy efficiency and the facilitation of dialogue on energy security issues.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

As Programme Officer, Energy Security, you will support OCEEA’s energy security dialogue, analysis and project activities in the areas of energy security, renewable energy, energy efficiency, protection of critical energy infrastructure from natural and man-made disasters and other aspects of energy security and related challenges.

You will develop, implement and administer projects and activities in the field of energy security by performing a variety of operational activities and conceptual analyses fundamental to the formulation, administration and evaluation of projects and activities, by holding responsibility for project deliverables and team supervision, and by overseeing the work of external experts and negotiating activities with partners.

You will report to the Senior Energy Security Adviser, while the Deputy Co-ordinator/Head of Environmental Activities will act as the second-level supervisor. You will oversee other staff members of the Energy Security Team, including JPOs and interns, including distributing workload, managing performance and guiding development.

More specifically, you will be tasked with the following:

1. Analysing current and emerging security related energy issues across the OSCE area including national and regional policies, energy markets and political trends to identify priorities and design effective regional activities and projects to address them;
2. Leading the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Extra-budgetary (ExB) projects and Unified Budget (UB) activities; preparing project proposals; defining implementation modalities; forecasting and monitoring expenditures; providing progress reports to donors; and fundraising;
3. Exchanging information and negotiating on energy security related issues with government officials in planning, finance, donor input co-ordination and sectoral functions, as well as with representatives of multilateral and bilateral donor agencies;
4. Appraising, reviewing and adjusting the programme and project outputs and activities to ensure consistency with national, regional and sectoral priorities in energy security, and with available resources; formulating and presenting such proposals on the basis of technical and substantive input in accordance with required format; developing schedules, arrangements and methods for the management of the implementation of programme and project activities, in consultation with the supervisor, technical, substantive and administrative service units;
5. Organizing meetings, technical seminars, and conferences in the area of energy security to support information sharing, dissemination of best practices and exchange of lessons learned, handling technical and logistical arrangements, partner coordination, drafting of agendas, briefs, speeches and meeting reports, and compiling background information and presentations;
6. Preparing briefing papers, reports and drafting speeches and statements to be delivered by the OCEEA senior management, the Secretary General and representatives of the Chairmanship-in-Office on these issues and other relevant areas as required;
7. Providing inputs into the Economic and Environmental Committee and the Economic and Environmental Forum processes and to follow-up activities, including OSCE Ministerial Council negotiations and processes;
8. Performing other duties as assigned.

For more detailed information on the structure and work of the OSCE Secretariat and the OCEEA, please see https://www.osce.org/secretariat and https://www.osce.org/oceea

Necessary Qualifications:

• Second-level university degree in Economics and/or Business Administration, Law, Geography, Natural or Social Sciences or International Relations, preferably with a focus on energy; a first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of relevant experience will be accepted in lieu of the second-level university degree;
• A minimum of five years (seven years with a relevant first-level degree) of progressively responsible professional-level experience in the area of energy security and/or economic-environmental development, preferably in an international environment and covering the OSCE region;
• Demonstrated experience in planning, implementing and managing donor-funded projects;
• Recognized project management certification would be an asset;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English; knowledge of other OSCE region languages would be an asset;
• Proven knowledge in project management, writing of speeches and reports;
• Digital literacy and proficient use of Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint), internet;
• Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, and an ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;
• Ability and willingness to work as a member of team, with people of different cultural, and religious backgrounds, different gender, and diverse political views, while maintaining impartiality and objectivity.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE’s online application link found under https://vacancies.osce.org/. If your participating State does not provide the option to apply online for seconded positions, you are kindly requested to submit your offline application form available at https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/offline-application-form to the respective OSCE delegation whose address can be found at https://www.osce.org/contacts/delegations.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration.

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

Please note that vacancies in the OSCE are open for competition only amongst nationals of participating States, please see https://www.osce.org/participating-states.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages the nomination of qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds.

The OSCE is a non-career organization committed to the principle of staff rotation; therefore, the maximum period of service in this post is 10 years.

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please apply to your relevant authorities well in advance of the deadline expiration to ensure timely processing of your application. Delayed nominations will not be considered. The OSCE can only process Secondment applications that have been nominated by participating States. For queries relating to your application, please refer to the respective delegation as listed here: https://www.osce.org/contacts/delegations.

Please be aware that OSCE appointments are subject to medical clearance.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.