Deputy Country Director SEO, Department for Business and Trade
Deputy Country Director
Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Deadline: 19 April 2026
Job Description
Main purpose of job:
You will work with the Country Director as an integral part of the British Embassy commercial team in Addis in pursuit of the objectives set out in UK Department for Business and Trade’s (DBT) Regional Trade Plan for Africa and the Embassy’s Country Plan, but with the overriding aim to help UK business to secure commercial opportunities in Ethiopia. As Deputy Country Director, you will provide leadership to the team’s commercial work, building and managing the pipeline of projects, advising UK investors and exporters to help them realise their ambitions, leading ambitious awareness-building campaigns among UK businesses in priority sectors, holding key relationships within the Government of Ethiopia and supporting UK companies already in the market to continue to operate successfully.
Context
Bilateral trade between UK and Ethiopia was worth £667m in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2025. The UK has investments in major sector including telecoms, financial services and mining, and has a close development partnership focused on economic reform. DBT in Ethiopia is based at the British Embassy in Addis Ababa. We are a core part of a wider economy focused team alongside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), who are working to alleviate poverty, improve economic development and enhance trade and investment between the UK and Ethiopia. Priority projects for the DBT team’s work include airport infrastructure and aviation, and investments in renewable energy.
DBT Ethiopia is part of the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) Africa Network, one of nine international regions, which is led by His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner (HMTC). The Department’s role is to increase prosperity in the UK and overseas through increasing trade and investment. The Trade Commissioner’s role is to lead the pan-African trade and investment team to increase the value of the commercial relationship between Africa and the UK with country teams focusing on these activities within their area.
Roles and responsibilities:
The primary objective of this role is to encourage UK businesses to trade and invest with Ethiopia. You will provide leadership to the embassy’s commercial agenda, working with the Country Director to unlock economic growth and job creation by unblocking flagship investor issues, identifying emerging opportunities for UK companies to trade with Ethiopia and bringing private sector investment to Africa. You will work in support of Ethiopia and the UK’s growth agenda and report to the Country Director. The role is subject to change as opportunities evolve. As a credible interlocutor with businesses who understands how companies make decisions, using that knowledge to guide the Embassy’s work, your role will have a number of objectives:
- Deliver robust and professional commercial support and expertise: You will proactively facilitate the development and execution of a pipeline of UK investment and UK export deals to Ethiopia, and will be responsible for devising and executing strategies to drive this pipeline forward in order to achieve ambitious KPIs, reporting to the Country Director and sharing insights with the wider DBT East Africa team. Of particular focus in your role will be positioning UK financiers and aviation supply chain strongly to participate in Ethiopian Airlines’ plans to build a new $12.5bn greenfield airport. Other workstreams will include pursing commercial opportunities as they arise, including those from COP32 requiring you to be flexible and adaptable to market conditions. You will map key UK investors’ presence in Ethiopia and manage key investor relationships, facilitate their dialogue with the Ethiopian authorities and regulators to expedite resolution of challenges to more mutually beneficial investments. You will collaborate with the Trade Policy and Market Access regional team to overcome business environment challenges and address key market access barriers including a lack of a level playing field in telecoms and digital payments sectors and customs procedures preventing UK exports, feeding insight into broader work including WTO negotiations to support resolution.
- Network and collaborate widely to identify and progress opportunities in wider Embassy work to advance DBT objectives and trade: You will build important client-facing relationships with important investors and British businesses that want to trade with Ethiopia and the opportunities available. You will work to develop a deep understanding of the suite of HMG programming in Ethiopia to ensure DBT priorities and interests are considered and aligned with HMG programme planning, working closely with the joint DBT-FCDO Climate, Economy, Trade and Investment Team. As part of this you will work closely with colleagues across Government (including British International Investments and UK Export Finance) to identify synergies and opportunities for collaboration on areas of mutual interest that will deliver the Embassy’s Country Business Plan.
- Lead the team’s senior visits work: Critical to our success is that we leverage departmental ministers, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa, senior civil servants and business delegations to the cause of the team. You will design, pitch for and execute senior visits into the Ethiopian market, as well as inward visits to the UK by Ethiopian delegations.
- Deputise for the Country Director: You will also be the Deputy to the Country Director, providing support and working together to ensure that Ethiopia is well embedded into the wider pan-Africa DBT region and East Africa sub-region, sharing good ideas and best practice to gain a clear understanding of business drivers across the market. You will be expected to cover in the Country Director’s absence.
As the successful candidate, you will be a proactive dynamic leader with good communication skills, able to build strong relationships with businesses, collaborate with other embassy colleagues, and engage credibly with senior people in order to represent interests of the DBT Ethiopia team and its people. You will be good at thinking strategically and planning for the future. You will be able to demonstrate the capability to deliver stretching KPIs; and have a proven ability to build good relationships with stakeholders and clients. You will also be comfortable drilling down into the detail to resolve blocks
Resources managed (staff and expenditure):
The role holder will formally manage the team’s country budget, which will be determined as part of annual business planning.
Essential qualifications, skills and experience
- Postgraduate degree and/or undergraduate degree and other relevant professional qualification
- Experience of supporting businesses to win commercial opportunities.
- Relevant professional work experience in the private sector, or within a private-sector orientated part of Government or International Organisation
- Experience of working in or with government departments, NGOs, and similar institutions
- Proven track record of leadership as well as cross-team collaboration
- Proven client-facing experience, for example with an investment promotion agency or professional services firm.
- Fluency in the language of business and investment
- A positive, resilient, flexible and adaptable “can-do” attitude that can see way through challenges.
- Strong interpersonal and leadership skills, ability to work successfully in multicultural teams and across boundaries, to build networks across the region
- Excellent drafting skills
- Fluency in English and Amharic.
Desirable qualifications, skills and experience
- Experience of the following: business development, understanding issues and developing and pursuing strategies together, investment appraisal, deal pipeline preparation, deal brokering, advisory
- Knowledge of the UK and Ethiopian economic and business environment.
- Experience in managing budgets
- Knowledge of the investment services contract and delivery mechanisms
- Knowledge/experience of international development, or a willingness to learn.
Required behaviours
- Communicating and Influencing, Leadership, Seeing the Big Picture, Working Together.
Learning and development opportunities:
This role provides enormous opportunities to grow and develop given its thematic leadership and the cross-Embassy responsibilities. You will have access to the full suite of DBT and FCDO learning and development opportunities including the FCDO’s Diplomatic Academy, training in the UK, and will be encouraged to join DBT’s trade profession. We also provide regular in-house learning opportunities and are committed to supporting further academic opportunities. Our staff who demonstrate great leadership potential are encouraged to apply for the FCDO’s pan-African Emerging Leadership Programme. Overseas Development Aid training will be provided. The British Embassy has a strong commitment to learning and development and all staff are required to agree a learning and development plan with their line manager.
Additional information
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.
- The British Embassy will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position
- The base salary is subject to tax and other statutory deductions
- Employees recruited locally by the British Embassy in Addis Ababa are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Ethiopia.
- All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit
The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to:
1.Obtain the relevant permit
2.Pay the fees for the permit
3.Make arrangements to relocate
4.Meet the costs to relocation - 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.
- Information about the Civil Service Success Profiles can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
- Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates
- Please log into your profile on the application system on a regular basis to review the status of your application
- Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 12 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate
