Lead the Financial and Professional Business Services at the Department for Business and Trade at the British Embassy Mexico City. You will work with UK exporters and investors in the financial and professional business services industries to deliver an increase in trade and investment in the sector. You will work across a virtual team (with policy and programme colleagues) to deliver trade and investment objectives as part of a cross-embassy financial services strategy. You will develop excellent relationships with UK and Mexican companies and deliver a programme of activity focused on developing a robust pipeline of UK exports and investment in the financial and professional business services sectors throughout the supply chain, working to overcome barriers to market entry, and to promote Mexico as a destination for UK companies. You will manage relationships with financial and professional business services companies, employing excellent account management and customer service practice, and identifying opportunities to collaborate across sectors and geographies.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) works with UK businesses to support UK exports and bilateral investment in Mexico. Headquartered in Mexico City, DBT Mexico works across priority sectors, with regional offices in Guadalajara and Monterrey.

The ideal candidate should be able to provide excellent leadership related to events and initiatives managed by the DBT Financial and Professional Business Services Team, covering a wide range of subsectors such as Financial Technology (FinTech), Insurance/Reinsurance, Asset Management, Banking, Capital Markets and Professional Business Services. The successful candidate will collaborate and partner with internal and external stakeholders to achieve the team’s strategic activities, including but not limited to promoting UK offer in Mexico, resolving market access barriers, communicating opportunities for UK companies in Mexico, generating business leads, and developing commercial strategies.

The successful candidate will have strong organisation and communication skills, will be able to prioritise flexibly, and will use their own initiative to deliver to deadlines. They will also have a good technical knowledge of the financial services sector, as well as strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work collaboratively with Embassy teams and different stakeholders.

This position reports to the Deputy Director – Trade, based in Mexico City. 

Roles and responsibilities:

Lead on the delivery of account management of the Mexico Financial and Professional Business Services sector (40%):

• Maintain and strengthen the pipeline of UK companies, managing strategic sector accounts, and providing a quality service to help ensure that trade opportunities for British companies in the country are materialised.
• Coordinate the implementation of the sector’s Strategy and Business Plan, including the delivery of priority projects, including high level visits, trade missions, and representing the Department’s sector interests in internal and external events.
• Develop robust networks of contacts and partners to help deliver on commercial and market access objectives.
• Promote UK expertise in Financial and Professional Business Services sub-sectors (Financial Technology (FinTech), Insurance/Reinsurance, Asset Management, Banking, Capital Markets and Professional Business Services, among others) with local decision makers, and work with DBT colleagues in London to promote Mexican business opportunities to UK industry.
• Work with other DBT Mexico and wider Embassy sector teams (e.g. Cyber, Retail, Science and Innovation) to identify overlapping opportunities.

Lead on the Financial and Professional Business Services sector’s Market Access strategy (30%):

• Work with UK companies to identify and overcome barriers to trade, leveraging relationships with government and regulators.
• Work with the Embassy’s Trade Policy team to deliver activity to help establish new market opportunities and/or unblock barriers to trade, particularly on issues pertinent to the Digital Finance ecosystem, such as Open Finance.
• Support the Trade policy and UK teams with sector expertise to leverage new and existing trade agreements between the UK and Mexico, such as the CPTPP.

Lead the regional sector team in the delivery of its Trade Plan and contribute to regional initiatives (20%):

• Lead on the yearly refresh and delivery of the sector’s Regional Trade Plan and its accompanying Business Plan for Latin America, in collaboration with other priority and non-priority markets in the region.
• Represent the sector’s interests and needs in meetings with regional leadership, consolidating the narrative with support from colleagues from across the region.
• Identify and promote regional opportunities for UK businesses, signposting them to the right channels, and offering advice to teams across the region when account management is delegated to them.
• Work closely with the regional International Markets Team when appropriate.

Manage the Financial and Professional Business Services team in Mexico City in line with Embassy values, contributing to the overall Embassy corporate objectives and ensure good financial, project and procurement management (10%):

• Effective line management of 1 x Trade Officer (AO) and 1 x Intern, through SMART objectives, uptake of Learning & Development opportunities and high-quality appraisals.
• Ensure good financial, project and procurement management of work in the team.
• As part of the DBT leadership team, deliver work in line with Embassy Values (Honesty, Professionalism, Inclusion & Respect).
• Contribute to the corporate objectives of the Embassy.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

• 1 Financial Services Trade Officer (AO)
• 1 Financial Services Intern (INDIV)

• Excellent account management, stakeholder management and project management skills.
• Significant experience of business development in financial services and a solid understanding of the Mexican financial services business and regulatory environments.
• Clear motivation and personal commitment to meeting challenging targets with a proven track record of achievement.
• An excellent network of industry contacts in the financial and professional business services sectors in Mexico or the ability to develop such a network, including the ability to develop strategic relationships with key stakeholders.
• Valid passport; the ability to attend official functions outside of office hours; and the ability to undertake domestic and international air travel, including overnight stays.
• Line Management experience.

Language requirements: 

Language: English, Spanish 
Level of language required: 580 TOEFL