External Affairs Assistant

Description:

Are you looking for a regional external affairs role, where your experience of building relationships with senior external and internal stakeholders will make a real difference? Where you will play a critical role in managing the reputation of National Highways by supporting our engagement with our most influential regional stakeholders?

Our external affairs team is responsible for delivering National Highways’ external affairs strategy in support of our corporate priorities and business plan. We have some exciting opportunities for you to join our team as we look to further strengthen our external stakeholder engagement.

You will work closely with senior leaders and teams across National Highways to connect us with some of our most influential regional audiences, including politicians, industry and business groups. You will be champion for external affairs within National Highways, working with others to drive high quality engagement across the region.

With some previous experience in external affairs, public affairs or strategic stakeholder engagement you will represent National Highways at external events and build a network of external affairs contacts.

We are offering two roles each covering different geographical regions – the North and the South of England. The North role will be based in Manchester or Leeds and the South role in Guildford or Bristol. You’ll be working in a hybrid pattern with regular travel in the region and sometimes beyond required. As part of your application please indicate which role you are applying for.

Key accountabilities

• Manage relationships with key stakeholders and influencers in the region, to protect and enhance our reputation, in line with our External Affairs strategy and wider communications campaigns.
• Manage responses and queries from the project teams to support engagement, advising on engagement plans and sharing actionable stakeholder insight.
• Support the delivery of a regional stakeholder visit programme, working with the press team and others to connect stakeholders with our work.
• Support the delivery of regional engagement events, such as organising roundtables, coordinating policy briefings, tracking engagement and sharing stakeholder insight to inform the wider communications strategy and campaigns.
• Support regional leaders and project teams to manage issues and opportunities effectively, including through provision of a regional issues tracker and risk register.
• Champion best practice and common engagement principles to improve the quality of stakeholder engagement across National Highways.

To be successful you’ll need

• Some experience of External Affairs/Public Affairs/Government Relations or strategic stakeholder engagement.
• The confidence, ability and integrity to develop and maintain relationships with senior leaders and influential stakeholders.
• A commitment to delivering excellent communications and championing best practice stakeholder engagement.
• A flexible team player, with a proactive approach to delivering good outcomes.
• Comfortable working under pressure and to tight and changing deadlines, with an ability to manage complex issues.
• Able to work with high levels of autonomy with the energy and drive to make things happen.