Senior Public Affairs Officer

Age UK is currently looking for a Senior Public Affairs Officer to take forward our Public Affairs work, influencing and changing public policy, to improve the lives of older people.

You will design and deliver public affairs strategies which grow Age UK's profile in Westminster and Whitehall and build support for our policy and campaigning priorities. Highly attuned to the political environment, you will identify key political targets, building new and deepening existing relationships.

You will line manage the Public Affairs Officer and oversee public affairs work done by the team's Support Officer.

For more information about the role, please review the job description below and apply to join our collaborative and passionate External Affairs team.

This role is offered on a Hybrid / London contract and there is a requirement to attend team meetings once a week in the office. There will also be occasional travel to support at events across the country.

Age UK Internal Job Grade - 6L

Must haves:

* Excellent knowledge and understanding of local and national government structures, the UK Parliament and our political, policy and campaigning context, and experience of influencing them.
* Substantial experience of working in a political campaigning/public affairs environment, developing influential relationships with Parliamentarians and other national organisations.
* Strong track record of influencing on social policy issues.
* Experience of project-managing complex influencing activities, leading project teams and managing workloads.
* Excellent all round communication skills, particularly the ability to communicate clearly and concisely to a range of audiences.
* Experience of writing high quality briefings, articles and other materials to communicate complex policy and political issues to stakeholder audiences.
* Experience of running effective events for political audiences.
* Experience of representing an organisation to political audiences and other national stakeholders.
* Experience of working in coalition and partnership with other organisations.
* Experience of engaging with senior stakeholders including Parliamentarians.
* An understanding of how to work in a politically balanced way.
* Knowledge and understanding of what equal opportunities means in relation to this post and the ability to incorporate equality practices into all aspects of the work.
* Experience of working collaboratively with others to achieve results.
* Strong interest in UK politics and passion for social justice.

Great to haves:
* Understanding of policy issues affecting older people.
* Experience of influencing change from a voluntary sector perspective.
* Experience of working in a political environment.

What we offer in return

• Competitive salary, 26 days annual leave + bank holidays + annual leave purchase scheme
• Excellent pension scheme, life assurance, health cashback plan and EAP
• Car Benefit Scheme, Cycle to Work Scheme and Season Ticket Loan
• Techscheme - buy any tech from Apple or Currys, up to £1000, and spread the cost over 12 months, interest free
• Blue Light Card Scheme
• You Did It Awards - recognition awards from £100-250.

Additional Information

Must be able to travel easily into central London to attend meetings, sometimes at short notice. Required to be in the London office at least one day a week.

There is an occasional requirement to travel and stay overnight (e.g. party conferences); some out of hours working (e.g. occasional evening Parliamentary events).

For a full list of benefits please click here https://about-us/jobs/employee-benefits/

All CVs will be anonymised by our recruitment system when you apply for a role at Age UK. Please note that our system is unable to anonymise cover letters, and we would therefore ask that to support the work we are doing on making our recruitment selection process fairer and more unbiased, that you remove any personal information from your cover letter/supporting statement, including your name before uploading this. All equalities monitoring information is also anonymised and not shared with the hiring panel. Your name and address will only be known to us once you are invited for an interview.

Age UK is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. We guarantee an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria under the Disability Confident Scheme. Please note that on occasion, due to high numbers of applications, Age UK reserves the right to limit the overall number of interviews offered, and therefore, it may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job.

Age UK is committed to safeguarding adults at risk, and children, from abuse and neglect. We expect everyone who works with us to share this commitment.

Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.

Age UK politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.