Are you looking for an 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 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 industry stakeholder engagement.
You will work closely with senior leaders and teams across National Highways to connect us with some of our most influential audiences. You will be champion for external affairs within National Highways, working with others to drive high quality engagement across the business.
With a strong track record 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.
Location: The role will be a hybrid mix of working from one of National Highways’ main offices in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Guildford or Bristol.
What you’ll be leading on
- Supporting the delivery of our external engagement strategy to build support and advocacy for our work with influential industry stakeholders;
- Planning and delivering stakeholder visits to build greater visibility and understanding of our work, working with other communications disciplines including press office, as required;
- Supporting the development of briefings on key issues ahead of meetings and events;
- Representing National Highways at external events to keep stakeholders informed on key issues and listen to their views;
- Develop a network of relationships with external affairs / public affairs professionals across influential organisations, enabling partnership working and intelligence sharing.
To be successful
- A strong track record in external affairs, public affairs or strategic stakeholder engagement;
- Politically astute, with the confidence and ability 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 sometimes changing deadlines, with an ability to manage complex issues.
A bit about us
Here at National Highways, we manage and improve the strategic road network to make journeys safer, smoother and more reliable. Our priorities are safety, customers and delivery.
The Customer, Strategy and Communications directorate plays a critical role in National Highways. We set the course for strategic roads, enabling the company to deliver economic and social benefits through meeting the needs of our customers and clients, as well as our regulatory obligations.
We are the focal point within National Highways responsible for providing the corporate strategic planning function for the organisation.
We deliver critical analytical support, provide strategic direction for our customer service imperative, partner with colleagues across the business to devise and deliver communications activities, and we shape, lead and drive the overall transformation of National Highways.