Job opportunities

Accreditation Officer

 Background

The British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums is a charity and goverened by the BIAZA Board of Trustees in its mission to provide support and services to the members towards a sustainable future for all species. THe BIAZA staff works to support and provides services to the membership and is responsible for the day to day running of the Association, strategy development and implementation, coordinating and facilitating the work of the standing committees, internal and external stakeholder engagements.

Job Description

THe position of BIAZA Accreditation Officer is a full time, permanent role. The Accreditation Officer will report to the Head of Learning, Research & Accreditation and works closely with the Membership Officer, other colleagues in the BIAZA Executive Office, and the Membership and Licencing Committee (MLC). This role is responsible for the coordination and delivery of BIAZA's accreditation programme for prospective and existing members, demonstrating BIAZA members are the best in the sector.

Responsibilities

•  Coordinate and deliver BIAZA's accreditation programme to meet with the agreed targets.
• Organise all aspects of start-to-end accreditation of members, including facilitating the pre-screening documentation, organisaing the screening visits, communication, all associated administration and any other coordinating activities.
• Act as the impartial rapporteur during the accreditation process while collating the evidence of the pre-screening questionnaire, during the screening visits and for the compilation of the report and ongoing communication with the member before, during and after accreditation.
• Coordinate and complie all outputs of the accrediation process in reports to the organisations, the MLC and CEO.
• Act as the main point of contact to the screened organisation in convening the outputs of the pre-screening questionnaires, the finding of the screeners and other communications in facilitation of the accreditation process.
• Prepare reports and documentation for the aspects of accrediation for consultation and discussion with MLC, progress monitoring etc as required.
• Maintain up to date records of the progress of the accrediation programme porgress overall (i.e. budget, timelines, schedule of number of organisations accredited etc.)
• Maintain and manage the accreditation programme budget in consultation with CEO
• Identify, maintain and ensure appropiately skilled panel of accreditation screeners from the membership.
• Provide regular reports to line manager and CEO on progress of accreditatiion programme (cost, milestones, challenges) and work with colleagues to develop communication and publication or related information to the membership.
• Attend relevant events to represent BIAZA and the accreditation programme where requested to do so by CEO.
• Provide support with development of relevant Guidelines and policies where requested.
• Where relevant, assist with preparations related to conference and other general tasks in the office

Working Arrangements

The Accreditation Officer Role is a full-time permanent post, ideally starting in June 2024. The BIAZA Executive Office is wholly remote, therefore this post will be home based. However, there is a requirement for a significant amount of travel and overnight stays related to this post as the post holder will be performing 2 or 3 screening visits per month to our members across the UK and Ireland. There is also a requirement to attend in person team meetings in London twice a month for which travel expenses (up to a limit) will be paid. It would be expected that, where practicable, the majority of travel would be undertaken by public transport. However, overtime would only be paid in exceptional circumstances.

Hours of work are flexible to some degree, however, core hours, weekend and out of hours work may be required. Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) will be given when travelling is in addition to normal working hours, however, overtime would be paid in exceptional circumstances.

Person Specification

BIAZA is a small team working on a diverse range of projects and issues to further BIAZA's purposes, advocate for the sector and support our members. While the main responsibilities of this role are described above, there will be the requirement to get involved in all aspects of BIAZA's work. The sucessful applicant will be a critical thinker, good communicator, adept at working well in teams and alone, and self-motivated.

Essential Skills and Expertise

• At least five years of experience of working in the zoo and aquarium community
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent organisational, project management and prioritisation skills
• Ability to work collaboratively to gather data and perspectives, to compile and produce reports to given specifications
• Ability to remain impartial and deal sensitively and appropiately with confidential information
• IT literacy, particaularly use of Microsoft Office including MS Teams, Sharepoint etc. and online forms
• Ability to work effectively to deadlines and under pressure

Desired Skills and Experience

• Experience or working with a membership-based assosciation