Experience and technical skills
The employee will be able to demonstrate the following experience and technical skills:
Essential:
- A proven track record in senior public affairs, government relations or stakeholder engagement, ideally within a regulated or public-interest sector
- Experienced leader of strategic teams and proven experience of having led and facilitated action in matrix environments, ideally with investment professionals or within financial services
- A proven strategic leader, credible across the organisation, with the Executive and the Board, and with external stakeholders
- Ownership of stakeholder engagement strategies and approaches
- Significant strategic partnership management and partnership development expertise; experience of having built partnerships from scratch, and having used these to unlock value or solve societal problems
- Deep contextual awareness, honed through having operated in externally-changing, highly visible roles and environments
- Stakeholder management, public relations or public affairs experience in the pensions or financial services or an adjacent sector
Desirable:
- Familiarity with ESG frameworks, stewardship codes and impact reporting standards.
- Experience of having worked in strategic and/or leadership roles in Government, Arms Lengths Bodies, Public Corporations or other public-sector adjacent organisations
Personal attributes required
The role will require someone with the following personal attributes:
Collaboration will be key to the success of this role, we’re looking for someone who can bring people together on a journey and lead through influence. This role will suit someone who:
- Comfortable with being highly visible, internally and externally
- Curious and always keen to learn and grow; wants to build new kinds of organisations which have purpose and positive social impact at their core
- Wants to be part of a changing organisation, and is able to coach and lead others through change
- Is proactive, resilient and adaptable and enjoys seeking out opportunities to add value, and building new relationships and ways of working in the process
- Can build communities of practice, both internally and externally and seeks opportunities to learn from other environments and apply that in new contexts
- An effective communicator; not just in terms of out-bound communication, but also able to hear what isn’t being said, and think critically about the options and approaches available to us
- Unphased by obstacles and is a natural builder of the networks and relationships required to solve problems not just within the organisation, but with wider external stakeholders
- Creative and commercially minded; trained to seek opportunities, identify risks and take swift, sensible, action
Education, qualification and professional membership requirements
- Experience and aptitude are more important than professional qualifications