View Vacancy – ROK – Chevening & Alumni Officer, AO

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

Public Diplomacy

Job Description (Roles and Responsibilities)

Main purpose of job:

The main purpose of this exciting role is to lead work on the UK Government”s Chevening scholarship scheme in the Republic of Korea and to develop our relationships and networks with graduates of UK universities.

This role requires the jobholder to build a wide ranging network across the Korean government, business community, academia and alumni networks, to promote the Chevening scheme and then run the process to find the best quality candidates.

The role also requires the jobholder to be able to identify and establish relationships with Korean alumni of UK universities. To ensure that on return to the Republic of Korea that alumni become ambassadors for UK objectives and are part of a community which is engaged with and supports Embassy priorities.

Reporting to the Head of Climate, Energy and Enables the jobholder, the jobholder will also be expected to provide support to the team leader to manage the surge of effort required to support high level visits and multilateral objectives.

The jobholder will need to be flexible and able to balance a number of competing priorities. They will need to be comfortable with outreach work and on occasion deliver activity outside of routine working hours.

The British Embassy is an exciting and rewarding place to work, where you can make a real difference to developing the relationship between the UK and Korea. The working environment is supportive and friendly and there are lots of opportunities for learning and development.

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

Chevening Scholarship (60%)

• Lead on Chevening Scholarship schemes by completing all interviews by Chevening deadline.
• Manage and improve the bilateral relationship with four government partners through regular discussions.
• Administer both Bilateral and Core scheme scholarships including by frequently communicating with the Chevening Secretariat and Scholarship Unit in London.
• Use alumni funds to organise events related to promotion of Chevening scholarship and alumni engagement, particularly amongst disadvantaged groups.
• Actively seek new partnerships to ensure that the Embassy is able to grow the Chevening Scholarship offer within the Republic of Korea.
• Develop and manage networks to help deliver Chevening alumni engagement objectives – with Chevening Alumni Korea, UK’s higher education bodies and etc.
• Update and maintain the Chevening databases.

Alumni Engagement (30%)

• Actively engage with UK university alumni associations in the Republic of Korea and lead Embassy engagement activities.
• Actively establish innovative new alumni forums to promote thematic issues and UK-Korea exchanges.
• Update and maintain the alumni database.

Corporate (10%)

• Play a full role in the life of the Embassy, providing support to x-organisation initiatives.
• Support the Head of Climate and Energy to deliver wider team objectives.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure):

Management of small Chevening alumni engagement funds.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

• Strong communication skills
• Ability to work with a wide variety of stakeholders and to take initiative
• Attention to detail
• Flexibility and able to balance competing work priorities
• Languages: fluent written and spoken English and Korean

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

• Experience with outreach activity and events
• Experience of UK higher education
• Budget management experience
• Experience of conducting interviews

Required behaviours

Communicating and Influencing, Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing a Quality Service, Seeing the Big Picture

Application deadline

15 December 2025

Grade

Administrative Officer (AO)

Type of Position

Full-time, Temporary, Fixed Term

Working hours per week

36

Duration of Post

12 months

Region

Asia Pacific

Country/Territory

South Korea

Location (City)

Seoul

Type of Post

British Embassy

Number of vacancies

1

Salary Currency

KRW

Salary

3,919,543

Type of Salary

monthly

Start Date

10 February 2026

Other benefits and conditions of employment

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 based on disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law.

Learning & development opportunities:

The British Embassy takes L&D seriously and provides a range of L&D opportunities, from learning sets to speaker events, group learning to job shadowing opportunities, as well as an extensive suite of online learning materials. Where job-specific training is identified the British Embassy will provide access to appropriate courses.

Working Patterns:

Monday – Thursday 09:00 – 17:15, Friday 09:00 – 17:00

Other Information:

Candidates must currently hold the right to live and work in the Republic of Korea.

Any costs related to obtaining or renewing permits and visas are the responsibility of the successful applicant.
Staff who are recruited by the British Embassy Seoul are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law.

Employment offers are subject to successful clearance of pre-employment checks. Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Seoul are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Korean employment law.

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

This is a temporary, fixed term role of 12 months.

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 clearances.

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.