Export Promotion Manager

Palestine Trade Center (PalTrade) is a nongovernmental organization established in 1998. PalTrade’s purpose is to lead the development of Palestinian Export as a driving force for sustainable national economic growth. As the National Export Development Organization with membership of more than 200 Palestinian leading businesses, PalTrade advocates a competitive, enabling business environment and is dedicated to improving trade competitiveness
through trade promotion and capacity building.
PalTrade is seeking candidates for the position of Export Promotion Manager who would be Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer at PalTrade’s office in Ramallah.

Background

Paltrade is the lead national trade development organization mandated by law to develop the full capacity of the private sector to generate wealth and employment through increased exports. The organization is entering a period of renewal, characterized by a lead role in the management and monitoring of the Palestinian national export strategy, an increased enterprise and export development focus, and proactive partnerships with the national trade support network to deliver services to companies. A new strategic plan is being developed which will signal some of these important changes and re-orient the organization away from a project driven strategy to a client driven strategy.

As part of this renewal, we are currently looking to appoint a senior manager to run our export promotion department. The main objective of this department is to identify export opportunities in priority export sectors and to turn these opportunities into export sales. The export promotion manager is responsible for developing and delivering a range of export promotion services to meet the needs of exporters in priority export sectors, and to develop cross-cutting services that provide a solid platform for on-going support to key accounts. Traditionally this department has been involved in supporting new and existing exporters to participate in trade missions and attend trade exhibitions in sectors such as marble and stone, olive oil, processed foods, and textiles and clothing. We are looking to appoint a creative, hands-on manager who can however develop a range of new services to grow the volume and value of exports in priority product-market segments.

As part of the senior management team, the successful candidate will:

Responsibilities/Tasks

-Lead the development of the export promotion strategy, and contribute to a culture change in support of the new Paltrade enterprise focus.
-Identify client needs and customer segments based on the recent Paltrade exporters survey and develop a new & innovative service portfolio to address export promotion objectives.
-Manage human and financial resource effectively and efficiently to deliver department and corporate performance targets.
-Establish effective team working with department staff and co-operation with other PALTRADE departments to ensure a coherent corporate offer to Paltrade’s clients.
-Establish effective working partnerships with senior personnel within the Palestinian trade support network, leveraging the technical capacities of other agencies to deliver added value services to identified client groups.
-Develop business processes to ensure that the new services offered are sustainable and can be administered effectively either by Paltrade or its partners.
-Contribute to the new results based management approach by assisting the CEO and the strategic planning unit to monitor results and report on progress towards the achievement of department/corporate targets.
-Analyze the global market trends for Palestinian products take the necessary strategic decision to coupe up with global market trend.
-Expedites export arrangements and maintains current information on export tariffs, licenses and restrictions.
-Generate all required export documentation; i.e. airway bills, bill of lading, invoices, packing lists and letters of credit when needed

Experience
-Minimum 5 years private sector experience as export manager, export marketing executive or senior management position within an exporting enterprise or export service provider (eg transport, logistics, export finance)
-Additional senior level experience working in a management consultancy, business development service provider or membership based organization.
-Minimum total of 10 years experience working at the intersection of public-private initiatives in enterprise/export/economic development.
-Extensive international experience gained from either business/career related travel or from living and working in other countries.

 
Education

-University degree (BA or BS) in business management, international marketing, international trade or a related field.
-A Master’s degree in international trade or a business related discipline would be an advantage.
-Post graduate vocational training or professional qualification in export procedures, export management or export marketing.


Knowledge and behaviours

-Applied knowledge of economic development principles and the capacity to design and evaluate projects/interventions based on wider development goals.
-Excellent communications and interpersonal skills.
-Good conceptual thinker with the ability to translate ideas into action.
-In-depth knowledge of the Palestinian business community and the realities of trade in the Palestinian trading context.
-Sense of urgency and strong customer focus.

For those who are interested and find themselves qualified, please send your CVs with a cover letter explaining your interest to: [email protected] , addressed by Export Promotion Manager.

Deadline to receive CVs is December 10, 2012. All applications will be processed with confidentiality. Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.