European Union of the Deaf - SIGNSPEAK Project Officer 

Job Description

Reports to:            Executive Director

Salary:                  Part-time 19.000€ per annum (110 days per annum)

Contract:               1 year self-employed contract (renewable on yearly basis)

Based at:               Brussels, Belgium

1            Main purposes of the job

He/she shall carry out the tasks that will be assigned to him/her, in particular:

Co-operate with other members of the SignSpeak consortium;

Create reports in preparation for the consortium meetings;

Attend consortium meetings on behalf of EUD;

Co-operate with Radboud University Nijmegen in the annotation of the Corpus NGT and in carrying out linguistic studies;

Coordinate and manage the EUD ICT Working Group;

Co-operate with all European National Association's of the Deaf (NAD);

Contribute to the design framework of the software with feedback from the European Deaf Community;

Contribute to the design of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) with feedback from EUD ICT Working Group;

Contribute to the overall System Validation with feedback from the EUD ICT Working Group;

Develop Specifications and analyse the Communication Platform Architecture Design with feedback from EUD ICT Working Group;

Integrate SignSpeak with in the Communication Platform and testing it with end-users in the European Deaf Community.

Qualifications and experience required

A level of education which corresponds to: completed university studies of at least three years attested by a diploma and appropriate professional experience of at least one year;

Thorough knowledge of at least two sign languages and written languages of the European Union; and

Proven abilities to use electronic office equipment (word processing, spreadsheets, email, internet, etc.).

In addition, in order to be eligible a candidate must:

be a national of a Member State of the European Union;

be entitled to his or her full rights as citizen;

meet the character requirements for the duties involved; and

be physically fit to perform the duties linked to the post.

B. Selection criteria

Essential

• Knowledge and understanding of Deaf culture and Deaf issues;
• Knowledge of other EU languages and Sign Languages;
• Experience relevant to the tasks described above;
• Proven ability to deliver results, proactive and business-focused approach;
• Good analytical skills;
• Solid project management skills;
• Excellent (can we include ‘sign' as well as ‘oral/written'? to encourage deaf people to apply. As they may see ‘oral' as their communication style)oral/written communication and negotiation skills; and
• Fluency in Sign Languages and English.

Advantageous

• Knowledge of the institutional framework and functioning of the European Union.
• A good command of the English language to College standard or equivalent;
• A background and knowledge of European policies and terminology (advantageous but not essential);
• To be able to work on own initiative;
• Commitment to EUD's vision, Deaf/Hearing Working Together, Confidentiality;
• Experience in office administration;
• Ability to communicate at a high standard to a wide ranging audience; and
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

Application procedure

For applications to be valid, candidates must submit:

a detailed curriculum vitae, in EU CV format;

a letter of motivation.

All documents must be submitted in Microsoft Word or Acrobat (pdf) format. The application will be rejected if the dossier is incomplete.

Supporting documents showing evidence of the information given in the application documents may be requested at a later stage.

No documents will be sent back to candidates.

Candidates are invited to apply in English, to facilitate the selection process.

Applications must be sent to mailbox "mark.wheatley@eud.eu" by Wednesday 9^th December 2009 at 23:59 (Central European Time) at the latest, clearly indicating the vacancy reference title in the subject line. Candidates are reminded that a surge in last-minute applications may overflow the mailbox, putting those applications at risk.