Assistant

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING APPLICATION DEADLINE:  Please note that the deadline for applications is indicated in local time as per the time zone of the applicant’s location.

This post is a limited-term fixed-term post.

a.    Organizational Setting

The post is located in the International Classifications and Standards Division, Infrastructure and Platforms Sector.  The Division is responsible for the establishment, maintenance and dynamic updating of international classifications and standards to bridge the gaps between intellectual property (IP) offices working in different systems and languages and to enable efficient data flow.

b.    Purpose Statement

The incumbent is required to perform a variety of administrative, secretarial and office support functions, contributing to the smooth and efficient workflow of the International Classifications and Standards Division's activities.

c.    Reporting Lines

The incumbent works under the supervision of the Director, International Classifications and Standards Division.

d.    Work Relations

The incumbent interacts with a wide range of colleagues within WIPO to provide administrative and office support services and has frequent contacts with national and regional intellectual property offices and other stakeholders to share information and confirm arrangements.

The incumbent will perform the following principal duties:

a.   Provide office, administrative and logistics support for meetings and conferences such as Committees of WIPO principal bodies, including coordinating the implementation of logistics, compilation, editing, formatting, translation request and distribution of working documents, meeting report and other materials, preparation of cost estimates, meeting requests and relevant requisitions, coordination of third party travel;  make travel arrangements and prepare travel authorizations/claims for staff and prepare cost estimates;  draft minutes of internal meetings.

b.   Maintain the work unit's financial accounts and perform operations for authorizing and effectuating expenditures; propose budget revisions;  consolidate budget data, compile statistics and data for reporting purposes;  and work closely with colleagues to help produce the work unit's work plans and monitor the status and completion of work plans.

c.   Coordinate responses to general inquiries, monitoring the work unit's generic email accounts, referring complex queries to appropriate staff for follow up and drawing attention to urgent and important matters, following up on pending actions and deadlines as required;  draft correspondence of a routine nature;  copy, edit and format a variety of documents (internal memos, official correspondence, tables, reports, presentations, publications, etc.);  carry out quality control of outgoing documents for accuracy, grammar and style and ensure adherence to corporate standards;  and prepare documents for web publication.

d.   Manage the lists of information relating to the Division’s work such as mailing list and access rights list and support the administration of IT tools supporting the Division’s work such as Wiki and E-fora as instructed.

e.   Support the maintenance and improvement of web pages for the Division.

f.    Perform other related duties as required.

Education (Essential)

Completion of secondary education.

Experience (Essential)

At least five years of administrative experience, including financial administration.

Experience (Desirable)

Experience working in an International Organization.

Experience working with an ERP system.

Language (Essential)

Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English.

Language (Desirable)

Knowledge of other official UN languages, particularly French.

Job Related Competencies (Essential)

Ability to work within the applicable rules, regulations, policies and procedures.

Good understanding of processes related to budget management.

Organizational skills with the ability to work under pressure and to respect deadlines, high degree of flexibility and initiative.

Good drafting skills in English and ability to work with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail.

Ability to work independently and as a member of a team.

Competent user of Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel (including mail merger and pivot tables), Outlook, Teams, SharePoint and PowerPoint;  ability to work with databases and adapt quickly to new software.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to maintain effective partnerships and working relations in a multi-cultural environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.

Job Related Competencies (Desirable)

Online publication skills with ability to manage relevant tools, including Wiki Confluence, Liferay for web publication and online survey tool(s) such as Alchemer.

1.    Communicating effectively.

2.    Showing team spirit.

3.    Demonstrating integrity.

4.    Valuing diversity.

5.    Producing results.

6.    Showing service orientation.

7.    Seeing the big picture.

8.    Seeking change and innovation.

9.    Developing yourself and others.

Mobility:  WIPO staff members are international civil servants subject to the authority of the Director General and may be assigned to any activities of the Organization. Accordingly, the selected candidate may be required to move from time to time to new functions.

Annual salary (Net of tax):  79,366 CHF

Please refer to WIPO’s Staff Regulation and Rules for detailed information concerning salaries, benefits and allowances.

Additional Information

* Initial fixed-term appointment of one year, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and other applicable conditions.  The selected candidate's appointment will be subject to an overall term of five years in this position, with normally no possibility of renewal beyond that term.  S/he may, however, apply and be considered for other positions at WIPO.

This is not applicable to WIPO staff members on fixed-term, continuing or permanent appointments, who were recruited following a competition under Staff Regulation 4.10 (“Appointment Boards”).

Dependency allowances

7,939 CHF per year for dependent spouse;  6,398 CHF per year for each dependent child.

Language allowance

Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish\: 4,788 CHF per year for two of these languages, and 3,192 CHF per year for one of them.  The allowance is not payable for the mother tongue or the main working language of the staff member.  The grant of this allowance is subject to examination.

General Service posts are generally subject to local recruitment.  Staff in the General Service category is recruited in the host country or within reasonable commuting distance of the Headquarters.

This vacancy announcement may be used to fill other posts at the same grade with similar functions in accordance with Staff Rule 4.9.5.

Applications from qualified women as well as from qualified nationals of unrepresented Member States of WIPO and underrepresented geographical regions are encouraged. Please click on the following links for the list of unrepresented Member States and the list of underrepresented regions and the WIPO Member States in these regions.

The Organization reserves the right to make an appointment at a grade lower than that advertised.

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By completing an application, candidates understand that any willful misrepresentation made on this web site, or on any other documents submitted to WIPO during the application, may result in disqualification from the recruitment process, or termination of employment with WIPO at a later date, if that employment resulted from such willful misrepresentations.

In the event that your candidature is shortlisted, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of your identification and the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. WIPO recognizes higher educational qualifications obtained from institutions accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list maintained by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed here\: http\://www.whed.net/. Some higher educational qualifications may not be listed in WHED, and will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Additional testing/interviewing may be used as a form of screening.  Initial appointment is subject to satisfactory professional references.

Additional background checks may be required.