Head of External Affairs

Job content

Are you an experienced External Affairs professional looking for a new challenge?

Sovereign is a leading Housing Association, committed to providing quality, affordable homes and services within sustainable, successful communities. We’re led by our values and driven by a strong social purpose, placing our customers at the heart of everything we do.

We have a fantastic opportunity to join Sovereign as our Head of External Affairs. This is a key strategic leadership role at Sovereign, where you’ll be developing and delivering a government relations and media strategy that positions Sovereign as an influencer within the housing sector, with political stakeholders in government and parliament, local authorities and other policymakers.

Based from our head office in Basingstoke, you’ll combine home and office working to ensure a positive work / life balance. There may be occasional travel to our other offices or London for meetings so you should have access to transport and be happy to travel.

The role

Reporting into our Corporate Affairs Director, you’ll manage our Press Officer and Stakeholder Engagement Lead. You’ll be an ambassador for Sovereign, building and enhancing Sovereign’s reputation through thought leadership, public affairs, events and awards. You’ll protect Sovereign’s reputation on and offline, managing the communications element of the business continuity and disaster recovery.

Responsibilities include:

• Developing and implementing the influencing and public affairs elements of the Corporate Affairs strategy to ensure delivery of objectives as set out in the Corporate Plan and wider business strategy and objectives
• Delivering a media strategy that generates positive coverage of Sovereign in the trade press, national and local media
• Leading on research, thought leadership and policy development
• Developing well-written content, including helping to draft the annual report and ESG report
• Developing a process for political and media monitoring and horizon scanning to ensure Sovereign’s leadership are informed of key political developments. You’ll provide analysis of the impact of political developments on Sovereign and develop action plans to address them
• Drafting responses to government consultations and developing policy positions for Sovereign and advocating those to the sector and beyond
• Oversight of the press office, including media monitoring, media output, responses to journalists and the strategic communications forward look

What we’re looking for

You should have proven experience working in a similar senior role in External Affairs, with a track record in developing a strong public affairs strategy. You’ll also have:

• Good working knowledge of government, parliamentary processes and political trends and a willingness to understand and learn more about them
• Strong writing skills
• Excellent verbal communications skills, including giving presentations at a senior level
• Experience in managing a small team, providing guidance and encouraging ongoing development
• The ability to build effective working relationships both internally and externally with strong networking skills
• Experience in housing would be beneficial, but not essential provided you bring transferrable skills from other sectors and strong appetite to learn

Equality and Diversity is fundamental to creating an inclusive culture at Sovereign and we embrace and understand the importance of diversity of thought, especially in our leadership positions. We welcome candidates with a growth mindset who imbue these values and are excited to be part of an organisation that is leading change.

What you’ll receive from us

We have some fantastic benefits on offer at Sovereign, including:

• £450 flex-pot annually, discounted shopping & cycling scheme
• 25 Days Holiday + Bank Holidays (with an extra day every year up to 30 days)
• Company pension scheme matched up to 12%, life cover at 4x your salary
• Flexible working - we’re committed to giving people flexibility as widely as possible
• Options for private medical insurance, dental insurance & critical illness cover

It’s an exciting time to be joining Sovereign as we continue through our transformation journey and work towards achieving the goals in our ambitious corporate plans. If you’re looking for a new opportunity, then we’d love to hear from you!