Occupational Psychologist

Your Team

The occupational health team provides medical, psychological and social support to staff. This team, which includes the Medical Service, is part of the Directorate of Human Resources (DHR) within the Directorate General of Administration (DGA).

As an Occupational Psychologist, you will work under the supervision of the Head of the Medical Service and collaborate closely with two doctors, four nurses and a social worker, as well as with other relevant stakeholders.

You will also participate in the Organisation’s Well-being Network, which brings together those involved in staff well-being (mediators, medical team, Human Resources team, etc.), and may be required to collaborate with the Commission on Health and Safety at Work (CSST) as well as with the Committee on Medical and Social Protection (CPMS).

Your Role

As an Occupational psychologist, you will:

• advise and support managers in identifying and addressing staff well-being issues, including crisis management (e.g., death, critical incidents, conflict, etc.); advise and support staff members in difficult circumstances, and if needed, their families;
• organise and deliver training, conduct webinars, group sessions, and produce internal communication materials related to mental health, well-being, and crisis response with the aim to promote a healthy, inclusive, and diverse work environment;
• provide guidance on stress prevention and effective responses to challenging situations within teams; identify sectors and teams at risk of stress or burnout using absence indicators, staff survey data and occupational health feedback; implement preventive actions and provide targeted individual support; alert the management to corporate risks related to psychological stressors affecting the workforce;
• offer confidential psychological time-limited assessment (one or two sessions) and warm referral to facilitate access to mental health care for staff;  build and maintain an external referral network, with stated quality criteria;
• advise Medical Service management and colleagues on psychological care strategies; help identify recurring workplace risk factors (review patterns within teams, suggest preventative measures and contribute to the risk register); 
• participate actively in return-to-work processes for staff on long-term leave and follow cases of frequent short sick leaves;
• stay abreast of developments in psychology, in particular as applied to international and multicultural work environments; develop and maintain a professional network for exchanges and benchmarking on good practices; assist with other well-being support activities as may be required.

Please note:

• this post is offered at 50% of full-time working hours. The precise arrangements will be agreed in consultation with the successful candidate
• you will be required to comply with the code of ethics and professional confidentiality obligations inherent in your role.

Requirements to apply

You must:

• hold a higher education degree or qualification equivalent to a master’s degree (2nd cycle of the Bologna process framework of qualifications for the European Higher Education Area) in psychology;
• be entitled to use the title of psychologist in your country of qualification and hold (or apply within one month to hold) the right to use the title in France. If the request for registration is not made within the given time limit, the contract will be considered null and void. If the registration is ultimately refused by the relevant authorities, the contract will be terminated; 
• have at least 6 years of relevant professional experience, preferably within international or multicultural environment;
• have a proven track record of individual and group counselling, crisis intervention, and support for critical life events; 
• have a very good knowledge of both official languages (English and French) in oral and written communication;
• exercise discretion, diplomacy and sensitivity in view of confidential issues.

You must also:

• be a citizen of one of the member states of the Council of Europe and fulfil the conditions for appointment to the civil service of that state;
• have discharged any obligation concerning national service (military, civil or comparable);
• not be the parent, child, stepchild or grandchild of a serving staff member of the Council of Europe;
• be under the age of 65 years.

Your application must demonstrate to what extent you have the competencies listed below. To help you doing so, feel free to consult our competency framework.

Key competencies

• Interpersonal - Service orientation
• Interpersonal - Teamwork and co-operation
• Interpersonal - Relationship building
• Interpersonal - Communication

• Professional and technical expertise:
  • familiarity with psychosocial risk assessment methodologies and data literacy;
  • familiarity with psychometric and assessment tools;
  • strong awareness of, and commitment to the well-being and diversity culture preferably within international organisations;
  • knowledge of standard IT tools (Microsoft Office) and ability to learn how to use new software quickly.

What we offer

This job vacancy is for an international external recruitment. You can consult the conditions of employment (salaries, allowances, pension scheme, social insurance, etc.) on the webpage What we offer.

Applications and selection procedure

For more information on how we recruit, you can consult the page Our recruitment process. This recruitment is carried out in accordance with Article 490 of the Council of Europe Staff Rules. The deadline for applications is indicated in the General information section of this vacancy notice (see above) and is fixed at 23:59:59 (CET/CEST). When applying, make sure your motivation shows how your competencies make your profile the best for the role.

Important information

As an equal opportunity employer, the Council of Europe welcomes applications from all suitably qualified people, irrespective of sex, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, disability, religion or belief. Under its equal opportunity policy, the Council of Europe is aiming to achieve gender parity in staff employed in each category and grade. At the time of appointment, preference between suitable people shall be given to the person of the gender which is under-represented in the relevant grades within the category to which the vacancy belongs.

Applicants with specific needs are encouraged to request reasonable accommodations at any stage during the recruitment process. Please contact us at [email protected], we will ensure that your request is handled.

The information published on the CoE’s careers website regarding working conditions is correct at the time of publication of the vacancy notice. Any changes to these conditions during the recruitment process will be updated on our Portal and will apply at the time of the job offer. Our career's website is not intended to be exhaustive and may not address all questions you would have. Should you have remaining questions, please contact us at [email protected].