Senior Public Affairs Manager

Job Description: Senior Public Affairs Manager

Salary: £50,000 – 60,000pa

Role Type: Permanent – Full Time

Location: Trafalgar Square, London

The Company:

Rail Partners exists to make the railway better, by harnessing the expertise and commercial drive of the private sector. It does this for the benefit of those who use it, our customers, and those who pay for it, including taxpayers, strengthening the economy, and supporting net zero ambitions.

Rail Partners plays a key role in representing its members interests (Owning Groups, Train Operating Companies and Freight Operating Companies) in the national debate about the future of the rail industry and its role in supporting the wider economy, environment, and prosperity of the nation as it transitions to the end state as imagined in the Williams-Shapps Plan for Rail.

Key accountabilities of the role:

Maximising the impact of Rail Partners:

• Supporting the Director of External Affairs in developing and delivering the public affairs elements of the overarching External Affairs Strategy.
• Developing proactive and reactive public affairs executions in support of the overarching organisational objectives.
• Building coalitions of support that can amplify issues and outputs to a wider audience.
• Providing timely, accurate briefings to the senior management team ahead of key meetings and events.
• Acting as the primary relationship holder of some key relationships across governments and Whitehall.
• Writing compelling correspondence, content and speeches as required in support of senior management team.
• Taking part occasionally in an out of hours on call media rota.

Influencing policy outcomes in line with Rail Partners overarching strategic objectives:

• Understanding and utilising Parliamentary tools and processes to secure objectives in the interests of Rail Partners members and in turn, support of the benefits that can be secured for the economy and environment.
• Gathering intelligence, monitoring political events, and feeding that insight into policy development.
• Understanding of the decision-making process, who influences the influencers within government, Whitehall and the regions and developing engagement strategies which support better policy outcomes.
• Monitoring and influencing of relevant legislation.
• Working with colleagues across the organisation to support the delivery of consultation responses to ensure tone and content is reflective of key messages and helps secure positive reception from the intended audiences and is considered. Working with the Head of Communications on how maximum value can be derived from each response.

Engaging members and third parties:

• Developing and maintaining relationships with members’ public affairs leads to ensure consistency of messaging and early intelligence sharing about key events or challenges.
• Supporting the Director of External Affairs with the management and engagement of the Passenger External Affairs Group and Freight Policy and External Affairs Group, as required.
• Working with colleagues to deliver briefings and communications, to the member community on key issues or outputs, that are timely, accurate and add value.
• Developing a network of industry and third-party contacts that can amplify the activities of Rail Partners.
• Distilling, at times, diverse views, to develop positions and communications which meet organisational objectives, and which are representative of members’ views.

Helping to make Rail Partners a great place to work:

• Providing day to day management of the Public Affairs Manager, including, but not limited to, carrying out regular check- ins, annual appraisals, objective setting and review, supporting personal and professional development, agreeing leave etc.
• Personally, demonstrating the attributes of the organisation’s culture.
• Supporting and leading some matrix working on specific projects across the External Affairs team and wider organisation.
• Working alongside the Head of Communications to ensure that the External Affairs team delivers the outputs of the External Affairs strategy.
• Working with third party suppliers to ensure relevant communications and external infrastructure supports the External Affairs team’s work – including but not limited to agency support and monitoring services.
• Ensuring team members keep relevant stakeholder, member and media databases up to date to support in correct audience identification for various projects.

Rewards:

• 26 days holiday + bank holidays.
• Defined Contribution Pension – Employee chooses between 3% and 8% of salary, and employer contributions are twice that amount.
• Private medical insurance.
• 75% discount on national rail travel.
• Rail Partners embraces hybrid working.
• Bonus up to 5% – subject to business and individual performance.
• CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 20th May 2022

Candidates with the relevant experience or job titles of: Cof; Public Affairs, Policy Manager, Senior Policy Manager, Policy Adviser, Senior Policy Adviser, Local Council Policy Manager, Non-Profit Programme Manager, Public Sector Programme Management, ICT Programme Manager, Technology Programme Manager, Technical Programme Manager, Technology Implementation Manager, ICT Business Programme may also be considered for this role.