Supervisor, Documents Control Unit (G6)

Background:

The OSCE has a comprehensive approach to security that encompasses politico-military, economic and environmental, and human aspects. It therefore addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, combating human trafficking, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 57 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis.

The OSCE Secretariat in Vienna assists the Chairpersonship in its activities, and provides operational and administrative support to the field operations, and, as appropriate, to other institutions.

The Office of the Secretary General (OSG) plays a key role in supporting the Secretary General in the effective implementation of his/her mandate and specific tasks given to him/her by the OSCE participating States. This includes primarily assisting the Secretary General in his/her activities, serving as a focal point for liaison and support to the Chairperson-in-Office, and co-ordinating tasks across the Secretariat. It groups horizontal services such as Executive Management, Communications and Media Relations, Legal Services, External Co-operation, Security Management, Gender Issues, Conference and Language Services, Central Records Management, and oversees the OSCE Documentation Centre in Prague (DCiP). The OSG ensures effective co-ordination of policy advice provided to the Secretary General and the Chairpersonship, and management decisions taken by the Secretary General.

Conference and Language Services provides professional support to the decision-making bodies of the OSCE and the respective delegations on matters dealing with the organization of meetings, including interpretation and translation, documents control, editing and text processing services. The Language Services Section co-ordinates linguistic and text processing support for meetings and the OSCE Secretariat. The Documents Control Unit receives draft documents from in-house and outside sources for editing, translation, text processing.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of the Chief Linguist, the Supervisor, Documents Control Unit establishes and oversees document control procedures and standards and organizes and assigns work to the Unit’s staff and Language Assistants. The Supervisor, Documents Control Unit provides guidance and advice to the Unit’s staff and Language Assistants, co-ordinates the Language Assistants’ and Translators’ work with the CAT tool (Trados) and is responsible for the electronic database.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief Linguist, the successful candidate will be tasked with the following duties:

1. Establishing, maintaining and updating procedures and standards for the receipt, text processing and quality control of documents:

- Maintaining and updating the electronic database, including the documentation coding system;
- Determining the appropriate format and layout for documents and revising them as required;
- Establishing and providing reference material;
- In close co-ordination with the Chief Linguist, arranging for additional translating and editing resources, as needed;
- Compiling, maintaining and updating a manual on Documents Control methods, procedures and workflows;
- Maintaining knowledge of documents control procedures and methods used in other international organizations and knowledge of relevant software tools, applications and methodologies;
- Maintaining daily, monthly and yearly workload statistics and providing regular ad hoc reports on editing, translation, document processing and other workload issues.

2. Receiving, registering, analysing, classifing and assigning documents for text processing and translation:

- Receiving, classifing and logging in documents received from the Secretariat, delegations and OSCE institutions for editing, translation and text processing with the CAT tool;
- Assigning job numbers and co-ordinating internal and external deadlines for document preparation;
- In co-operation with the Translators, establishing and re-establishing, as necessary, priorities and deadlines for work; passing on documents to the Editor, Language Assistants and Translators in the various language units for processing; co-ordinating the work of the language units;
- Logging the completion of jobs by the Editor, Translators and Language Assistants and returning the processed documents to their originators;
- Keeping records of editing and translation work in process; keeping electronic files of edited and translated documents.

3. Ensuring that all documents meet established standards:

- Copy-editing texts in preparation for submission to the Editor; marking all changes or corrections in documents submitted to the language units for translation;
- Submitting editorial proposals to the originators of documents for approval and answer related questions; ensuring that editorial changes are correctly incorporated into documents;
- Checking documents for overall completeness, accuracy and compliance with client requirements and verifying the visual and terminological consistency with standards;
- Passing on the final version of documents either to the Meetings Support and Documents Unit for reproduction and distribution or to the originator of the document.

4. Supervising staff and operations:

- Organizing and supervising the work of Documents Control staff and Language Assistants including recruitment and onboarding, providing information and training, in close co-ordination with the Chief Linguist and other relevant staff;
- Evaluating their performance and processing their leave and other administrative requests;
- Co-ordinating and supervising the Language Assistants’ work with the CAT and terminology tools, providing guidance and advice.

5. Assisting in information exchange:

- Providing assistance and advice to the Chief Linguist, and to other Secretariat staff as necessary, on matters related to text processing, translation, layout and publication of documents. Regular information exchange with the Chief Linguist.

6. Performing other related duties as assigned.

For more detailed information on the structure and work of the OSCE Secretariat, please see: www.osce.org/secretariat.

Necessary Qualifications:

• Completed secondary education;
• A minimum of six years of directly related work experience in text processing, documents control, records management or conference services;
• Experience in co-ordinating the work of others;
• Professional fluency in English with excellent communication (both oral and written) skills; knowledge of other OSCE working languages is an asset;
• Demonstrated gender awareness and sensitivity, and an ability to integrate a gender perspective into tasks and activities;
• Ability and willingness to work as a member of team, with people of different cultural, and religious backgrounds, different gender, and diverse political views, while maintaining impartiality and objectivity;
• Computer literate with practical experience in Microsoft applications and CAT tools; Experience with the CAT tool Trados and the terminology tool Multiterm is an asset.

Remuneration Package:

Monthly remuneration, subject to social security deduction, is around EUR 5,098. OSCE salaries are exempt from taxation in Austria. Social benefits will include possibility of participation in the Cigna medical insurance scheme and the OSCE Provident Fund. Other allowances and benefits are similar to those offered under the United Nations Common System.

Please note that appointments are normally made at step 1 of the applicable OSCE salary scale.

If you wish to apply for this position, please use the OSCE's online application link found under https://vacancies.osce.org/.

The OSCE retains the discretion to re-advertise/re-post the vacancy, to cancel the recruitment, to offer an appointment at a lower grade or to offer an appointment with a modified job description or for a different duration. 

Only those candidates who are selected to participate in the subsequent stages of recruitment will be contacted.

Please note that vacancies in the OSCE are open for competition only amongst nationals of participating States, please see https://www.osce.org/participating-states.

The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all religious, ethnic and social backgrounds to apply to become a part of the Organization.

Candidates should be aware that OSCE officials shall conduct themselves at all times in a manner befitting the status of an international civil servant. This includes avoiding any action which may adversely reflect on the integrity, independence and impartiality of their position and function as officials of the OSCE. The OSCE is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. For more information on the values set out in OSCE Competency Model, please see https://jobs.osce.org/resources/document/our-competency-model.

Please note that for this position the OSCE does not reimburse expenses such as travel in connection with interviews, tests, visas and relocation.

Please be aware that the OSCE does not request payment at any stage of the application and review process.

The mandatory retirement age at the OSCE is 65 years for contracted positions at the general service, professional and director level. The Organization shall apply an age limit of 63 years at the time of appointment as the incumbent selected is normally expected to carry out the contractual obligation of two years.