Senior External Affairs Manager

• Would you like to lead the political and government engagement strategy for the largest membership body representing the NHS? This includes exploring new relationships across both central and local governments, as well as how we can deliver consultancy support to our members and partners?
• Do you have a high degree of political awareness, a deep interest in current affairs and strong networking skills?
• Can you demonstrate excellent project management skills, with the tenacity to drive forward projects from inception to completion?

We would love to hear from you if have:

• significant experience in public affairs, either in-house, for an agency, or having worked in government or Parliament
• strong experience of providing communications counsel to senior colleagues, including the ability to deliver this advice autonomously and at short notice
• the ability to consistently horizon scan, model best practice and learn from success and failure to drive continuous improvement
• experience in line management and developing team performance.

About the role

The Senior External Affairs Manager is responsible for overseeing the NHS Confederation’s strategy for how it engages with central government, parliamentarians, political parties and national stakeholders so that the organisation can effectively influence on behalf of its members.

This post will support the expansion of the organisation’s political and cross-Whitehall connections and its public affairs ambitions following the 2024 UK General Election. The NHS is a major priority for the new government and we will increasing our political engagement on behalf of our members – both nationally and regionally as we respond to the government’s devolution agenda. 

This is a rare and exciting opportunity to be influence changes that could be in place for a generation. As such, we are looking for someone with experience in steering Parliamentary discourse, and on engaging constructively with the Government.

About us

The NHS Confederation is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive environment for our staff. A place where we can all be ourselves and succeed on merit. We offer a range of inclusive employment policies including family friendly policies and flexible working and we have range of channels to support staff from different backgrounds including our staff networks and a staff forum.

The NHS Confederation is committed to being a flexible employer. We understand the value and benefit to our employees being able to work flexibly to respond to changing circumstances and we want to ensure we do as much as possible to help support a work life balance and take care of employee health and wellbeing.

You will receive an excellent benefits package, including 30 days annual leave, pension scheme, flexible working, salary sacrifice schemes and travel season ticket loans.