Head of Influencing

Independent Age is the national charity focused on improving the lives of people facing financial hardship in later life. 

Our Helpline and expert advisers offer free, practical support to older people without enough money to live on. Through our grants programme, we support hundreds of local organisations working with older people across the UK.  

We use the knowledge and insight gained from our support services and partnerships to highlight the issues experienced by older people in poverty and campaign for change. 

We believe no one should face financial hardship in later life. We would love to find individuals from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds to join us on this journey. 

Responsibilities and Person Specification: 

Working closely with the CEO, the Director of Policy and Influencing and the Head of Policy and Research, the Head of Influencing will lead a powerful influencing programme. They will ensure that our work is centred around the experiences of older people in poverty, and that we undertake strategic and sustained influencing activity to persuade key decision makers and persuaders to support and act on our policy recommendations across the nations. Alongside providing cross organisational media communications support. The Head of Influencing will provide effective, inspirational, transparent and compassionate leadership and line management to colleagues in the Influencing department. This is one of two new roles in our well established Policy and Influencing Directorate, building on our commitment to drive forward policy change that tackles poverty in later life. 

You should have a passion to tackle poverty in later life, and significant experience leading the development and delivery of overarching influencing strategies across the nations to effectively target decision makers and secure support for our policy calls. It’s also essential to be an experienced line manager and team player, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders across the nations to secure policy change. 

For full details on the role and requirements, please read the job description and person specification.  If your experience doesn’t align perfectly with all of the criteria in the person specification but you do meet most of them and are excited about the role, we encourage you to apply anyway.  

This is a full-time role, 35 hours per week, which you can choose to work over five days or a 9-day fortnight.  

What it’s like to work at Independent Age: 

We celebrate diversity at Independent Age and champion the differences that make each of us unique. We actively support and encourage people from a variety of backgrounds, experiences and skill sets to join us and help shape what we do. We aim to attract and retain a wide range of talent and create an environment where everyone can feel safe, protected, welcome and included.    

We offer great benefits including 28 days annual leave plus public holidays, a generous pension scheme with life assurance, and fantastic learning and development opportunities. We also offer a number of enhanced leave provisions and benefits. 

We know that a good work life balance helps us perform at our best and supports wellbeing. Flexible working hours and hybrid working is standard for all (those contracted to work in the office usually attend 1 day per week). But if you need a different form of flexibility, we are always happy to talk flexible working.  

You can find out more about what it’s like to work at Independent Age on the careers page of our website.

Application Process: 

To apply, please submit a CV and a Supporting Statement, detailing how your skills and experience meet the criteria within the Person Specification, by visiting our jobs website (please do not hesitate to contact us if you have specific requirements and need support to apply in an alternative format). 

To support our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion our hiring managers use anonymous shortlisting. Therefore, please do not include your name, photo, or information to indicate your gender or age in your CV and supporting statement. Please do however include dates of employment. Please ensure the title of any uploads does not contain your name.  

Independent Age is committed to safeguarding and follows Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding those we work with. We therefore ask that you supply your full work history with explanations for any gaps in the application documents you submit and, if offered the post, we will require two employment references including your current or most recent employer. A Basic DBS Certificate will be required for this role. 

Closing Date: 23:59 on Monday 12th August. 

Interview Dates: Interviews to be held in person on 27th and 28th August.