Information Management Assistant, FGIII. FRONTEX, Warsaw. Open until 29 April 2011

Vacancy notice – 11/CA/FGIII/7.1
(Agency’s Contract Staff)
Post:
Information Management Assistant
Sector/Unit/Division:
Frontex Situation Centre/Operations Division
Grade :
FGIII
Location:
Warsaw, Poland
Starting date:
as soon as possible
Level of Security Clearance:
CONFIDENTIAL
Closing date for applications
29 April 2011

1. BACKGROUND
Applicants are invited for this position at the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (Frontex), established under the Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004 of 26 October 2004.
Frontex is located in Warsaw, Poland and its main tasks are the following:
a) coordinate operational cooperation between Member States in the field of management of external borders;
b) assist Member States in the training of national border guards, including the establishment of common training standards;
c) carry out risk analyses;
d) follow up the development of research relevant for the control and surveillance of external borders;
e) assist Member States in circumstances requiring increased technical and operational assistance at external borders;
f) provide Member States with the necessary support in organizing joint return operations.
For more information, please refer to our webpage: http://www.frontex.europa.eu

2. THE FRONTEX SITUATION CENTRE
Background
The Frontex Situation Centre is a new Unit in the Frontex Operations Division. The Unit has taken up its functions in basic scope at the beginning of 2009. However the full operational functioning of the Unit depends partly on the availability of specific (software) tools for which development is currently ongoing.
The Information Management Assistant is expected to play a supporting role to the Unit’s business area of information exchange, in particular to the Central Frontex Point of Contact and to the Information Exchange Platform, as well as to the area of Open Sources monitoring and creation of media related products.

Mission
The Frontex Situation Centre seeks to provide – to Frontex, its clients and partners - a constantly updated picture, as near to real-time as possible, of the illegal migration situation at the external borders of the EU with a view to facilitate the management of the reaction capability of coordinated operational activities.

Business functions
As the central point of contact for Member States and other partners and customers, the Frontex Situation Centre provides a 24h/7days capability in the area of Monitoring, Information/Communication and Support to coordination. More specifically the processes relate to:
 information exchange & correspondence management;
 media monitoring;
 facilitation of the coordination of operational activities;
 emergency/crisis management support;
 mission awareness & back-up support for officers in the field;
 situation monitoring.

3. DUTIES
Reporting to the Information Management Officer in charge of ‘Communications‘, the Information Management Assistant will be responsible for:

3.1. Information Exchange Support:
As the Central Frontex Point of Contact:
 managing the day-to-day information exchange with Frontex’ co-operation partners and liaising with internal and external customers;
 inserting and reviewing of data into the Situation Centre’s data-bases;
 running cross-checks on data against the available internal and external systems;
 creating statistics and reports on the use and contents of the Situation Centre’s data-bases;
 assisting in financial and procurement-related issues.
Product Management support (Information Exchange Platform):
 performing full support to product life cycle management for the information exchange portal;
 performing access management for internal and external customers;
 supporting in structure and content management for various customers;
 supporting in creation and updating of related business documentation;
 supporting to requirements collection & management for initiating product updates.

3.2. Media Monitoring Support:
Reporting to the Information Management Officer in charge of ‘Media Monitoring’, the Information Management Assistant will support:
 media monitoring (Open Sources) and creating media related products;
 supporting in the maintenance of the Frontex Media Monitor portal.
The recruited Contract Agent must be flexible and be prepared to work in rotation, including during weekends and from home.

3.3. On a punctual basis, the Information Management Assistant may be required to:
 assisting in the administrative management within the Unit;
 performing any other supporting tasks assigned to the Unit.

4. QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

a. Eligibility criteria:
To be eligible, a candidate must have:
 a level of post-secondary education attested by a diploma, or;
 a level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education, and appropriate professional experience of at least three years;
Professional experience shall be taken into account from the date on which the person fulfils the minimum qualifications for engagement.
ANY GIVEN PERIOD MAY BE COUNTED ONLY ONCE (in order to be calculated as eligible, years of studies or professional experience to be taken into account shall not overlap with other periods of studies or professional experience)!
In case of part-time work the professional experience will be calculated pro-rata in line with the workload stated by the candidate.
 produce evidence of thorough knowledge of one of the languages of the Community and of satisfactory knowledge of another language of Community to the extent necessary for the performance of his/her duties;
 be a citizen of one of the Member States of the European Union or the Schengen Associated Countries;
 enjoy full rights as a citizen;
 have fulfilled any obligations imposed on them by the laws of their home country concerning military service;
 be physically fit to perform their duties3.
For reasons related to the Frontex working requirements, be available at short notice for the job.

b. Selection criteria

(1) Professional competencies
The candidate will be required to demonstrate that he/she has:
 relevant knowledge and experience in working in the area of Information/Correspondence Management;
 experience in monitoring Media (Open Sources), journalism and perform related reporting;
 IT proficient in MS applications – Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharePoint, as well as in Internet tools.
Besides the following attributes would be an asset:
 knowledge of the EU legal framework;
 relevant knowledge and experience in law-enforcement co-operation and the use of databases;
 experience in applying business procedures.

(2) Personal qualities
The candidate will be required to demonstrate that he/she:
 has a high level of capability to organise and manage work, including the ability to cope with stress in relation to demanding tasks, heavy workload and time pressure;
 has a constructive, positive and service oriented attitude;

3 Before the appointment, the successful candidate shall be medically examined by a selected medical service in order that Frontex may be satisfied that he/she fulfils the requirement of Article 28(e) of the Staff Regulation of Officials of the European Communities
 has a high level of initiative and creativity;
 has very good team working skills;
 is able to cooperate with various internal and external customers from different cultural backgrounds.

5. INDEPENDENCE AND DECLARATION OF INTEREST
The Information Management Assistant will be required to make a declaration of commitment to act independently in Frontex` interest and to make a declaration in relation to interests that might be considered prejudicial to his/her independence. The candidate will therefore be required to include confirmation of their willingness to make such declarations with their applications.

6. EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
Frontex applies an equal opportunities policy and accepts applications without distinction on grounds of age, race, political, philosophical or religious conviction, sex or sexual orientation and regardless of disabilities, marital status or family situation.

7. SELECTION PROCEDURE
The selection procedure includes the following steps:
 after registration, each application is checked in order to verify whether it meets the eligibility criteria;
 all the eligible applications are evaluated by the Selection Committee based on the selection criteria defined in the vacancy notice;
 the best-qualified candidates, who obtained the highest number of points within the evaluation, are short-listed for an interview;
 the interview will be held in English;
 during the interviews session, the Selection Committee examines the profiles of candidates and assess their relevancy for the post in question. In order to support the evaluation via interview, shortlisted candidates may be required to undergo written competency tests and complete part of the process in their second EU language;
 candidates invited to an interview will be requested to present, on the day of the interview, originals of their diploma(s) and evidence of their professional experience, clearly indicating the starting, finishing dates and workload;
 as a result of the interviews, the Selection Committee recommends the most suitable candidates for the post in question. The list of suitable candidates established by the Selection Committee may also be used for the recruitment for a similar post depending on the needs of Frontex and shall be valid until 30th June 2013 (the validity period may be extended). Each candidate will be informed by letter whether or not he/she has been placed on the reserve list. Candidates should note that inclusion on a reserve list does not guarantee employment.
Please note that the Selection Committees work and deliberations are strictly confidential and that any contact with its members is strictly forbidden.

8. APPOINTMENT AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT
The Information Management Assistant will be appointed by the Executive Director, upon recommendation of the Selection Committee, following the selection procedure.
Successful candidate will be recruited as a Contract Agent pursuant to article 3a of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities (CEOS). The Contract Agent post in question will be placed in group FGIII.
The pay of staff members consists of a basic salary in EUR weighted by the correction coefficient (for Poland currently 77.1%) and paid in PLN according to a fixed exchange rate (currently 4.1603).
The final net calculation is as follows:
Grade FGIII
Grade 8
Grade 9
Basic net salary
(without any allowances)
1 631 EUR
1 845 EUR
Household allowances
169 EUR
174 EUR
Dependent child allowances for each child
287 EUR
287 EUR
Expatriation allowances (depending on family situation)
390 – 468 EUR
390 – 509 EUR
Preschool allowance
70 EUR
70 EUR
In addition to the basic salary, staff members may be entitled to various allowances, in particular an expatriation (16% of basic gross salary) or foreign residence allowance (4% of basic gross salary)– depending on particular situation, and family allowances (depending on personal situation) such as: household allowance, dependent child allowance, pre-school allowance, education allowance.
Staff pays a Community tax at sources and deductions are also made for medical insurance, pension and unemployment insurance. Salaries are exempt from national taxes.
For further information on working conditions of temporary staff please refer to CEOS: http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/toc100_en.pdf
The employment contract will be offered for a period of three years, with a probationary period of nine months. The contract may be renewed.
Frontex requires selected applicants to sensitive posts to undergo a security screening procedure and obtain a positive national opinion. The level of the latter depends on the specific post. For this one, the required level of clearance is CONFIDENTIAL.
Applicants who currently hold a valid and positive security clearance at the above-mentioned level do not need to obtain a new one. They shall then provide a copy of the security clearance to Frontex and specify the issuing authority, level and date of expiry. In case the validity of the security clearance expires within six months, the renewal procedure shall be initiated expeditiously.
In case selected applicants do not currently hold a valid and positive security clearance at the above-mentioned level, Frontex will request such from the National Security Agency of the applicants’ state of nationality.
Failure to obtain the required security clearance certificate before the expiration of the probationary period or in case such agency issues a negative opinion at the above-mentioned level after the signature of the contract of employment, Frontex has the right to terminate the latter.

9. PROTECTION OF PERSONAL DATA
Frontex ensures that applicants' personal data are processed in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (12.1.2001, OJ, L 8). Please note that Frontex will not return applications to candidates. This applies in particular to the confidentiality and security of such data.
The legal basis for the selection procedures consists for the Contract Agents in the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants of the European Communities4.
The purpose of processing personal data is to enable selection procedures.
The selection procedure is conducted under the responsibility of the Human Resources Sector of the Administrative Services Unit, within the Administration Division (HR Sector). The controller for personal data protection purposes is the Head of HR Sector.
The information provided by the applicants will be accessible to a strictly limited number of staff members of the HR Sector, to the Selection Committee, and, if necessary, to the Legal Affairs Unit.
Almost all fields in the application form are mandatory; the answers provided by the applicants in the fields marked as optional will not be taken into account to assess their merits.
Processing begins on the date of receipt of the application. Data storage policy is as follows:
- for applications received but not selected: the paper dossiers are filed and stored in archives for 2 years;
4 CEOS, in particular the provisions governing conditions of engagement in Title IV, Chapter 3.
- for applicants placed on a reserve list but not recruited: data are kept for the period of validity of the reserve list + 1 year;
- for recruited applicants: data are kept for a period of 10 years as of the termination of employment or as of the last pension payment.
All applicants may exercise their right of access to and right to rectify personal data. In the case of identification data, applicants can rectify those data at any time during the procedure. In the case of data related to the admissibility criteria, the right of rectification cannot be exercised after the closing date of candidatures' submission.
Should the candidate have any query concerning the processing of his/her personal data and has substantiated request, he/she shall address them to the HR Sector at hr@frontex.europa.eu.
Applicants may have recourse at any time to the European Data Protection Supervisor (edps@edps.europa.eu).

10. APPEAL PROCEDURE
If a candidate considers that he/she has been adversely affected by a particular decision, he/she can lodge a complaint under Article 90(2) of the Staff Regulations of Officials of the European Communities and Conditions of employment of other servants of the European Communities, at the following address:
Frontex
Human Resources Sector
Rondo ONZ 1
00-124 Warsaw
Poland
The complaint must be lodged within 3 months. The time limit for initiating this type of procedure starts to run from the time the selection procedure for this post is declared as closed on the Frontex webpage (http://www.frontex.europa.eu).

11. APPLICATION PROCEDURE
In order for an application to be considered eligible, candidates are requested to submit their applications signed by the candidate in 1 original and 3 copies, using Frontex Standard Application Form uploaded under the reference No of the post and posting them in a simple A4 format envelope.
Applications shall be accompanied by 1 original Eligibility Checklist (see the last page of Vacancy Notice) duly completed and signed by the candidate. In the Eligibility Checklist the candidate verifies his/her compliance with the eligibility criteria for the specific post.
Applications delivered via e-mail will not be accepted and treated as non-eligible.
Please send your applications, duly completed in English, to the following address:
Rondo ONZ1, 00-124 Warsaw, Poland
Telephone +48 22 544 95 00 Fax +48 22 544 95 01
You will be requested to supply documentary evidence in support of the statements that you make for this application. Do not, however, send any supporting or supplementary documentation with your application, until you have been asked to do so by Frontex. Additionally, do not submit the references or testimonials, unless they have been requested for the sole use of Frontex.
Please do not spend money on expensive bindings for your papers as they are usually separated and the bindings thrown away.
The closing date for the submission of applications is 29 April 2011 with the
postmarked date serving as a proof.
Incomplete applications or sent to Frontex after the above deadline will be disqualified and treated as non-eligible.
Moreover, the candidates who use the same application form to apply for more than one post will be disqualified.
Due to the large volume of applications, Frontex regrets that only candidates selected for the interviews will be notified. The status of the recruitment procedure could be found on our webpage.
Please note that the time period between the closing date for applications submission and the end of the short listing candidates for the interview may take up to two months.