Location:

Taiwan
Salary:

$26,315 - $32,162 / YEAR
Job type:

FULL_TIME
Posted:

4 months ago
Category:

Research and Data
Deadline:

26/08/2025

JOB DESCRIPTION

View Vacancy – TW – Senior Political Adviser, EO

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer. We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow. The FCDO operates an agile workforce and to facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time, as we may reasonably require.

Job Category

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)

Job Subcategory

Political

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Main purpose of job:

This role works in the dynamic political section of the British Office Taipei, supporting the Deputy Director Political (DDP) to understand dynamics in Taiwan’s domestic politics and build on the opportunities in our strong unofficial relationship with Taiwan. You will be the team’s expert on Taiwan’s political system and dynamics at local and central government, as well as supporting work across the Office to understand how Taiwan is addressing whole society resilience. You will need to have strong analytical skills and knowledge of Taiwan’s political system as well as an excellent network and networking skills. The successful candidate will also need to be organised, proactive and good at collaborating with others on cross-cutting issues.

You will identify and produce reporting and analysis to explain the impact of political developments in Taiwan; maintain strong networks with stakeholders across sectors including government and legislature, other foreign missions, academics, civil society/NGOs; and provide strategic advice to the Representative and Deputy Representative on political issues and engagements. You will work closely with the Deputy Director Political (DDP) and Political Director, as well as with other parts of the British Office Taipei to promote growth opportunities including our Economic and Trade teams. As part of a small and highly-driven team, you will need to work flexibly to support the team with major events relevant to bilateral relations and wider international relations.

This is an exciting, important and meaningful position that will expose you to a range of colleagues, stakeholders and policy areas. The role is best suited to someone who enjoys acquiring and sharing expertise, able to make sense of complexity, has strong prioritisation skills, communicates effectively in both English and Mandarin, and most importantly, relishes keeping a finger on the pulse of Taiwan’s domestic political developments and conversations.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve:

You will be leading political analysis and engagement for the British office, focusing on monitoring and interpreting Taiwan’s political developments, and advising on senior-level engagements to promote UK objectives. You will coordinate outreach across Taiwan, working closely with colleagues on resilience and values issues to contribute to broader team priorities. The role requires close collaboration with senior colleagues and demands strong analytical, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills to advance UK interests effectively.

You will lead on reporting and analysis of Taiwan’s politics and engagement with political stakeholders (roughly 70% of your role). That will include:

Proactively identifying, analysing and leading on reporting of significant political developments.
Supporting Deputy Director Political and Political Director with engagements.
Advising Representative and Deputy Representative on their political engagements and travel across Taiwan.
Support the British Office to build a strong network, particularly with legislators and political parties, and engage with civil society, academics, and foreign missions.
Working collaboratively with colleagues to understand how political developments affect issues like cross-Strait relations and develop opportunities to secure commercial objectives.
Coordinate political engagement with local authorities and travel around Taiwan to meet with local political contacts.
Success in this role requires deep understanding of the priorities and decision-making processes within the Administration, legislative agenda, party dynamics, and identity politics, along with the ability to communicate insights effectively and promptly, and to spot domestic developments that are significant and relevant to UK interests.

You will work with the other Senior Political Officer in the team to understand developments in Taiwan’s societal resilience agenda, including implementation by local political actors (20%). You will help explain significant developments to a wide audience.
You will have lead responsibility within the team for maintaining our work on democratic values and supporting the Political Section on team or office-wide priorities (10%). The former includes being aware of Taiwan’s continued human rights reforms and democratic development through engagements, and providing advice and briefing materials that help to meet our values-related goals. The latter may involve providing support with key visits and receptions, or covering key absences.

You will be working very closely with the Deputy Director Political (Taiwan), who will oversee your work and provide direction and guidance as well as the wider Political team, including the Director for Political and Communications who oversees all team activities; the Head of Cross Strait and Regional Security; another Senior Political Analyst focussed on cross strait and security monitoring, and our Political and Chevening Officer. There will also be plenty of opportunities to interact with our Head of Mission, Deputy Head of Mission and colleagues from other teams.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

Potential for staff management (1 AO); potential for project management; allocation within team budget for travel and business hospitality.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

Three years’ work experience in policy or government affairs, media, or international relations & law
Existing contacts in politics, government, media, academia and civil society
Very strong written and oral communication skills

Language Requirements:

Mandarin (Level of language required: Expert)
English (Level of language required: Expert)

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

Related postgraduate university degree with research and analysis components
Knowledge of UK political system and British foreign policy
Taiwanese (Level of language required: Proficient)

Required behaviours

Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace, Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together

Application deadline

26 August 2025

Grade

Executive Officer (EO)

Type of Position

Full-time, Permanent

Working hours per week

Region

Asia Pacific

Country/Territory

Taiwan

Location (City)

Taipei

Type of Post

British Office

Number of vacancies

Salary Currency

TWD

Salary

76,143

Type of Salary

monthly

Start Date

13 October 2025

Other benefits and conditions of employment

We offer:

Pro-rated 13.5 month bonus
Access to a global network of experts
Opportunities to travel including to the UK
Annual leave starting at 18 days (Pro-rated) with one additional day added each year up to maximum of 30 days (in addition to UK and Taiwanese national holidays)
Centrally located office, with a modern, spacious and well-lit working space.
Options for flexible working where necessary – e.g. working from home.
Reasonable working hours and respect for your work/life balance.

Learning and development opportunities:

The British Office has a strong commitment to developing staff and supports staff who wish to pro-actively develop their talents and abilities. We encourage individuals to take advantage of the many different learning opportunities open to team members. These include bespoke in-house online training as well as courses provided by the FCDO both in Taiwan and overseas. Setting a development goal will be a key part of your appraisal process, and you will have the opportunity to drive your own developmental needs with the support of your line manager.

Working patterns:

Monday – Friday: 9am – 5pm or 10am – 6pm (1 day a week must start at 9am) with 1 hour lunch per day.

Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. Staff recruited locally by the British Office are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Taiwan employment law. Candidates must have the correct permit to work in Taiwan in order to apply.

No accommodation or relocation expenses are payable in connection with this position. You must have or be able to obtain correct permit to work or work authorisation in Taiwan in order to apply. Any costs related to obtaining or renewing permits and visas are the responsibility of the successful applicant.

Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.

The FCDO also operates an agile workforce. To facilitate this, you may be required to undertake other duties from time to time as we may reasonably require.

Additional information

Please note that the deadline for applications is 23:55 on the day mentioned in the above field “Application deadline”.

Please be aware that the deadline for submitting applications is considered to be the time zone for the country where the vacancy has arisen.

We advise you to allow enough time to complete and submit your full application since only applications completed and submitted before the deadline will be considered.

Note: All applicants are required to mandatorily fill the online application form completely including the employment and educational details, experience, professional skills and behaviour-based questions. We will be thoroughly reviewing the applications and incomplete form in any respect may not be considered while shortlisting for the next stage.

Please ensure that your application is authentically written based on your own experiences. If AI tools are used, their usage must only be limited to specific tasks such as ensuring formatting consistency and keyword relevance. The core content, personal narratives, and responses to behaviour and skill-based questions must genuinely reflect your professional journey, experiences, and achievements. We place great importance on originality and individual effort throughout the application process. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification

Only shortlisted candidates for interview will be contacted. Interviewees will be assessed on the core behaviours/qualifications listed above. Unsuccessful candidates will be notified via the system in due time. Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 6 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate.

To ensure a successful application it is important that you explain how you demonstrate these behaviours, including through your experience. You are strongly advised to read the Success Profiles: Civil Service behaviours which provides detailed guidance on how the behaviours are defined.

Applicants are encouraged to use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) format to prepare specific examples of when they have demonstrated these behaviours in their application. Using the STAR format to provide evidence of your skills and experience in your application and at interview helps to give a structure. You briefly describe the situation in which you showed the behaviour, and then explain your task in addressing the situation, what action you took and the result of this.

For inclusivity and diversity, please remove the following personal information when uploading your CV: name, address, email address, age, date of birth, gender and nationality.

The start date mentioned in the job advert is a tentative start date and the successful candidate will be required to undergo security vetting procedures. Any offer of employment will be subject to the candidate achieving suitable clearance

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.