Africa And Middle East Trade Specialist

State of Illinois•Chicago, IL

10d•Onsite

About The Position

This position serves as the Africa and Middle East Trade Specialist for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s Office of Trade and Investment (OTI). The Africa and Middle East Trade Specialist (PSA option 1) will cover a designated geographic territory and counsel Illinois businesses in export opportunities and strategies to successfully navigate export growth in a market(s) within the territory. The Africa and Middle East Trade Specialist manages all program responsibilities to execute annual group trade missions to international trade shows; presents OTI programs and services to business representatives, associations, and government audiences; and acts as the content expert on the Africa and Middle East region for the Bureau. Africa and Middle East include: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Congo (Republic of the Congo), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia (Republic of the), Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Swaziland (Eswatini), Tanzania (United Republic of), Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Requirements

Requires knowledge, skill, and mental development equivalent to completion of four (4) years of college, preferably with courses in business or public administration.
Requires prior experience equivalent to three (3) years of progressively responsible administrative experience in a public or business organization, preferably in the field of international marketing.

Nice To Haves

Prefer three (3) years or more experience working as an international trade consultant performing duties such as market research or business lead generation with focus on Africa and Middle East.
Prefer three (3) years or more experience in sales, marketing, business development or business counseling with a focus on international markets.
Prefer two (2) years or more experience collecting and analyzing data, developing recommendations, and presenting to executive leadership.
Prefer two (2) years or more experience in sales, marketing, business development or business counseling with a focus on domestic markets.
Prefer two (2) years or more experience with end-to-end trade show management including planning, managing and executing programs and budgets.
Prefer two (2) years or more experience with end-to-end accountability (owning, managing, and delivering) for multiple projects simultaneously.
Prefer two (2) years or more experience in public facing role that includes presenting or promoting both in domestic and international settings.
Prefers intermediate-level experience in the utilization of spreadsheet software, document creation, email, and cloud-based platforms, including Data analysis, dynamic formatting, workflow tracking, and file collaboration.

Responsibilities

Confers and connects with regional market staff to identify Illinois industries and services that have the greatest export potential in the assigned region.
Maintains current Africa and Middle East market and industry information, economic trends and international trade policies in order to develop and advise management on long term strategies and goals for marketing and promoting Illinois products and services.
Provides international marketing expertise to Illinois companies to export their products and services to Africa and Middle East regions.
Represents the OTI, DCEO and the State of Illinois at both public and private organization meetings and at international events with foreign dignitaries and representatives from Illinois’ international community.
Maintains and tracks client/company information and program activity data in order to measure program results, activities, goals and objectives.
Performs other duties as required or assigned which are reasonably within the scope of the duties enumerated above.