Biodiversity Conservation Assistant

~ The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is a membership Union uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together. ~

Created in 1948, IUCN has evolved into the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. It harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its 1,300 Member organisations and the input of some 13,000 experts. IUCN is the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it. Our experts are organised into six commissions dedicated to species survival, environmental law, protected areas, social and economic policy, ecosystem management, and education and communication.

Position Overview

Under direct supervision of the European Biodiversity Conservation Coordinator and in collaboration with other staff of the IUCN European Regional Office, the Biodiversity Conservation Assistant will support the work and projects of the IUCN Global Species Programme in Europe. This will include providing support to certain tasks within the project portfolio, as needed.

The workload is expected to be 80% administrative support and 20% technical support, although this proportion could change depending on the real project needs during the time period of this contract. Administrative support includes assistance with project development, contract administration, and event planning and organisation.

Responsibilities

• Assist in the implementation of the European Red Lists of Hoverflies, including: liaising with experts and monitoring their progress in delivering high quality assessments, coordinating all administrative tasks inherent to the organization of assessment workshops, compiling species photos and uploading them to the Red List Species Information System, and contributing to drafting project reports. Providing support to this task will require some training in Red List assessments that will be provided by the team.
• Support the implementation of new projects in the portfolio related to pollinator conservation and invasive alien species management that entail the organization of stakeholder meetings and workshops;
• Support the organization of project meetings and events;
• Support the development of new project proposals;
• Provide a range of administrative support functions on a day-to-day basis transversal to several projects (e.g. processing of invoices, issuing consultancy contracts, etc);
• Will be required to provide support on a range of tasks as delegated by his/her Line Manager.

Note: The above job description contains the main duties and responsibilities for this position. However, in a small organisation such as IUCN, staff members are expected to show flexibility in their approach to work and be willing to undertake other tasks that are reasonably allocated to them but which are not part of their regular job description. Where any task becomes a regular part of an employee's responsibilities, the job description will be changed in consultation with the employee and the Human Resources Management Group.

Qualifications

• Affinity with the vision and mission of IUCN and a strong interest in and good understanding of European conservation initiatives.
• A relevant University degree (environmental science, biology, administration).
• A minimum of 1 year of work experience in the field of nature conservation, sustainable development or a related area of work.
• Complete fluency in the English language, including excellent demonstrated English writing skills; good level of written and spoken French is an asset but not required.
• Experience spearheading administrative supporting tasks is an asset.
• Sound understanding of information technology, with experience in applying Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) as a minimum skill set.
• Proven analytical, conceptual, organization, multitask; Detail- and outcome-oriented;ing, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and on multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Ability to meet tight deadlines without compromising the quality of outputs.
• A team player with a strong interest to work in an international environment.
• EU National or holder of an EU work permit.
• Knowledge of European nature legislation and familiarity with EU funding and policy processes is not essential, but is an asset.

Compensation

• The gross annual salary for this position is in the range from EUR 32'333 to EUR 40'416.