Professional Development Specialist

Who You'll Work With

As part of the Staffing and Professional Development team in the Middle East Office (MEO), you will work closely with consultants, partners, and other team members while supporting our consultants’ professional development.

In this role, you will develop a professional relationship with consultants from the region, building an in-depth understanding of the consultant’s professional aspirations, experience, strengths and development needs. You will provide coaching and guidance on staffing, skill development and career progression.

Moreover, you will build and maintain trusted relationships with the office leadership to ensure staffing decisions are taken effectively and in accordance with both our clients’ needs and our consultants’ development needs. On top of this, you will manage the information flow in our system and work on special people-related projects as needed. This role will be based either in Riyadh or Doha office and will report to the MEO Associate Director of Professional Development.

What You'll Do

In this role you will coordinate the staffing process including (but not limited to) take end-to-end ownership of the staffing of consultants across Middle East Office, ensure consultants are appropriately staffed to teams and provide guidance on staffing, you will monitor also each consultant's development, career progression, and other topics as they arise and provide consultants with formal and informal feedback related to their staffing and evaluations.

You will deal directly with partners where you will obtain detailed information from regarding possible studies and likely staffing needs across MEO. You should recommend best available team of consultants for each study, balancing team and individual needs. You will manage also accurate entry of staffing-related information in relevant systems; maintain and share up-to-date consultant profiles.

Furthermore, you will work with different teams and functions, you will liaise with Professional Development Managers in other cells to facilitate inbound/outbound staffing assignments, you will coordinate with recruiting and learning departments regarding recent hires and training needs and you will liaise with finance department on staffing-related billing arrangements (e.g., per diem changes). You will help create supply and demand forecasts and reports for local client service professionals’ leadership.

In addition to staffing, you will also be responsible for coordinating MEO-based consultants’ professional development-related processes and activities which may include (but are not limited to) developing an understanding of consultants’ professional aspirations, strengths and development needs or relevant personal circumstances. You will monitor consultants’ development and satisfaction as to provide counsel on specific assignments and general skill development and guide them on the development path, work-life questions, and other matters.

You will be responsible for building a strong, trust-based relationship with consultants including an in-depth understanding of professional aspirations, experience, strengths, development needs, and relevant personal skills. You will of course also coordinate evaluation and feedback processes, including managing logistics, collecting materials, and managing relevant databases and you will support other PD projects, including proactively identifying and contributing to process improvements.

Qualifications

• University degree
• 4+ years of professional development/HR experience, ideally in a professional services environment
• Strong interest in professional development and coaching individuals
• Creative problem-solving capability combined with good project management skills to lead and structure end-to-end project work
• Ability to adhere to the highest professional and process standards and stand firm on decisions; strong integrity, maturity and fairness in dealing with people and confidential information
• Ability to work under pressure, multi-task and deal with shifting priorities and create structure from ambiguity
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written) at all levels; strong influencing capabilities; ability to listen