Passport and Consular Services Manager (m/f/d)

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission—Austrade—promotes Australian trade, investment, tourism and education to the world. We deliver services to grow Australia's economic prosperity.

Our purpose is to unlock opportunities that help Australian businesses go further, faster. We have a proud history of helping Australian businesses pursue their global ambitions through our international expertise and trusted networks.

We're experts in connecting Australian businesses to the world and the world to Australian business.

Our global network turns local market connections and insights into valuable export and investment support.

We contribute to Australia's prosperity by:

• linking Australian businesses to global export opportunities
• providing market and industry insights, making it easier for businesses to go global
• attracting international investment to drive local jobs and develop skills
• leading policy and programs for Australian tourism and the visitor economy
• attracting international students to study with Australia.

Classification: Austrade Overseas Performance Level C (AOPL C)

Total cash compensation: Starting from EURO 66,783- 89,044 gross per annum

Location: Frankfurt, Germany

Employment term: 2-year fixed term contract

Reports to: Consul-General Frankfurt

Position number: 4175

Aufgaben

The Passport and Consular Services Manager is an important member of a small client-focused team delivering responsive and high-quality services, advice and support to Australian citizens in Germany. The role requires a highly motivated team member with well-developed client service skills and experience.

The Passport and Consular Services Manager is required to lead and work as part of a small team and with autonomy to provide passport, consular and notarial (legal) services. Operations of the passport and consular work is overseen by the Consul-General. The position also works closely with the Australian Embassy in Berlin and Australian-based colleagues to deliver the range of government services to the public.

This role is varied and dynamic and will include leading on the provision of high-quality passport services, including processing new passport applications, registering lost or stolen passports, issuing emergency passports, and detecting passport fraud. Consular support to Australian citizens and permanent residents will include assistance with welfare issues, whereabouts enquiries, arrest or detention matters and medical emergencies, in accordance with the Australian Consular Services Charter and relevant policies and protocols.

As a client service role within the Consulate-General, it is one of the most publicly scrutinised positions. In addition, this role often encounters difficult or challenging clients and stressful situations. From time to time out-of-hours duty will be required.

Successful applicants need to demonstrate high level of ethics, discretion, tact and diplomacy. Excellent communication skills and the ability to set priorities are necessary attributes to accomplish tasks in a demanding and dynamic operating environment.

Duties include:

In this role you will be responsible for the following:

• Processing applications for Australian passports, including conducting interviews and processing travel documents in accordance with Australian legislation and within processing guidelines and standards.
• Providing informative and accurate responses to Australian passport enquiries via phone, email and counter enquiries.
• Performing legalisation (notary) acts for Australian citizens for use in Australia or Germany.
• Providing consular support and services to Australian citizens who have been imprisoned, hospitalised, are financially destitute, and in cases of death of citizens abroad. Timely reporting of consular activities with a high attention to detail.
• Assisting with accurate reporting, filing, archiving and statistics on activities, including a yearly review.
• Assisting Australian Citizens in Australian State and Federal Elections where required.
• Maintaining after-hours consular and contact information and relationships required to respond to passport and consular cases.
• Supporting crisis or emergency situations impacting Australian citizens in Germany. Note: Crisis or emergency work may require duties to be performed outside of regular business hours from time to time. Travel at short notice may also be required to respond to major emergencies or crises within the consular district.
• Developing productive working relationships with relevant German entities. Engaging with the Embassy and a range of German and Australian Government officials to support the effective and efficient operations of the Consulate-General.
• Complying with Austrade policies and procedures, delegations, and relevant Australian legislation and regulations.
• Coordinating and managing workflow for the team, responsibility for systems compliance, upgrades and changes and identifying and solving problems as they arise.

For more detailed information please view the Job Information Pack.
While we are aware people will utilise AI tools to assist with job applications, we need to see the candidate's authentic responses to help us make a true assessment of the applicants applying.

Profil

To be eligible for consideration and appointment you must have:

• Work Authorisation - to be eligible for employment with Austrade in Germany, candidates must be legally authorised to live and work in Germany at the time of appointment.
• Language - the successful candidate must be a highly motivated team member, highly fluent in English and German (written and spoken).
• Pre-employment checks - your suitability for employment will be assessed through a pre-employment screening process.

The below whilst not essential are considered highly desirable:

• Australian Citizenship holders.
• Australian Government NV1 or NV2 security clearance

What you'll need to be successful

The Passport and Consular Services Manager will possess:

• Demonstrated people leadership capability, with a focus on delivering results and fostering a high-performance culture, knowledge sharing and supporting team wellbeing.
• Client service mindset including the ability to deal with members of the public who may be in distress. Empathy, tact, diplomacy and absolute discretion in handling client relationships and highly sensitive information. Experience in delivering client services or government client service programs is highly desirable.
• Attention to detail, particularly in relation to compliance with relevant legislation and policy. Ability to undertake and advance complex issues and cases.
• Excellent judgement including the ability to provide measured responses while under pressure. Demonstrated ability to adapt and respond to challenges and unforeseen events.
• Ability to effectively manage and prioritize multiple and sometimes competing tasks, including administrative and office organisational skills, showing flexibility where needed. Tenacity and patience to reach agreed outcomes. Ability to assess and manage risk.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to build relationships with peers across the Australian Government and stakeholders relevant to consular services and crisis planning. Experience dealing with crisis management is desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and persuasively, including report writing, negotiation, and the ability to provide timely feedback in both German and English.
• Sound knowledge of local laws, customs, government agencies and local authorities as it relates to providing high quality and responsive consular and passport services.
• Awareness of the digital environment and how to engage with clients in a digital first manner.
• Confidently use digital workplace tools to solve problems, be productive, connect and collaborate with others.

Digital Literacy

• Awareness of the digital environment and how to engage with clients in a digital first manner.
• Confidently use digital workplace tools to solve problems, be productive, connect and collaborate with others.

Wir bieten

Feedback from our staff tells us that Austrade is great place to work for many reasons:

• A global, flexible and diverse organisation making a positive impact
• A supportive working environment including embedded diversity and inclusion employee networks
• A high-performance culture
• Access to flexible work and generous leave provisions

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