Council of Europe is hiring an Office Assistant

Your Team

The Council of Europe Office in Chisinau supports the Republic of Moldova in fulfilling its membership commitments by advancing the Organisation's mission in the country. Our work focuses on protecing human rights, supporting democracy and the rule of law through cooperation projects and programmes. You will join the Office’s core team, providing dedicated support to the Head of Office in their functions and assisting other colleagues.

Your Role

As an Office Assistant, you will:

• assist the Head of Office and Deputy Head of Office in keeping abreast with country developments in all the areas of work of the Council of Europe – human rights, democracy, rule of law - and report on activities in progress; 
• seek and collect information, data and documentation on country developments; prepare thematic notes; 
• process, and after researching, draft correspondence, documents, presentations and assist in preparing reports and other documents (briefing notes, newsletters, etc.); 
• ensure the administrative assistance and the organisational support for the activities of the Office, including the organisation of meetings and visits from the Secretariat (including high-level), as well as preparation of meeting files;
• prepare and carry out the practical and logistical organisation of visits, meetings, official journeys and other events; 
• participate in meetings and follow up on actions agreed; 
• contribute to organisation of project events in close cooperation with the project teams; 
• update and maintain the Office’s agenda and central files; 
• receive visitors, answer and filter telephone calls; 
• co-ordinate input to contributions and correspondence and ensure follow-up; 
• ensure the circulation of pertinent information and documents within the Office, both in writing and during meetings; 
• provide linguistic assistance in translating/summarising texts;
• provide ad hoc interpretation for the Office during meetings; 
• establish solid working relations and work in close contact with other internal and/or external counterparts to ensure the co-ordination of all the activities; 
• promote Council of Europe values internally and externally. 

Requirements to apply

You must:

• have a completed full course of general secondary education followed by a post-secondary qualification corresponding to a minimum of two years of studies;
• have a minimum of three years of relevant administrative experience;
• have an excellent knowledge of Romanian (first language - C2 level) and a very good knowledge of English (one of the two Council of Europe’s official languages);
• be a citizen of the host country or one of the 46 member States of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• be present in the Republic of Moldova;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
• be under the age of 65 years.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework.

Key competencies

• Operational - Planning and work organisation
• Operational - Analysis and problem solving
• Operational - Concern for quality
• Interpersonal - Service orientation
• Interpersonal - Teamwork and co-operation

• Professional and technical expertise:

• • proven practical knowledge and experience of administrative duties;
  • knowledge of the political context in the Republic of Moldova and of developments in the main areas of work of the Council of Europe;
  • sound knowledge and experience in using standard tools in office applications (word processing, presentation software, outlook, spreadsheet, databases, internet publications).

Desirable competencies

• Interpersonal - Resilience
• Interpersonal - Adaptability
• Interpersonal - Initiative

• Professional and technical expertise:

• • experience of working in an international environment; 
  • experience in protocol matters; 
  • experience in translation/interpretation;
  • knowledge of the activities and procedures of the Council of Europe; 
  • good drafting skills in English;
  • knowledge of Russian; 
  • knowledge of French.

What we offer

This job vacancy is for a local external recruitment based on temporary contracts. Employment is limited to 31 December of the current year and may be extended. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance etc.) on the webpage What we offer.

Applications and selection procedure

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process and the webpage  Office Assistant - 975 - Council of Europe. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Rule No. 1234 laying down the conditions of recruitment and employment of locally recruited staff members working in Council of Europe Duty Stations located outside of France. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 Central European Time (CET). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

Important information

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade.At the time of appointment, preference beetwen suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at talents@coe.int, we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will beupdated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at talents@coe.int.