Guardian Jobs – Affairs Manager

About the job

SPORT ENGLAND

Sport England is the arms-length body responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport and getting more people active across England. The winner of Sports Organisation of the Year at the 2021 Sports Industry Awards, Sport England aims to change lives for the better in communities across England. Sport England recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds, particularly where we are under-represented. Currently, this includes disabled people and those from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups.

The Senior External Affairs Manager will help to shape and deliver Sport England’s external affairs engagement, working to grow our relationships within Westminster and Whitehall. This will include driving forward our parliamentary engagement, targeted government relations and will help us to collaborate with key stakeholders in and outside of the sport and physical activity sector. Sitting with the Digital, Marketing and Communications directorate, you will work with expert colleagues across Strategy, Press and wider Communications to advocate most effectively for the benefits that grassroots sport and physical activity can bring.

This role will help to shape Sport England’s external affairs engagement moving forward, and will be at the heart of our work to grow strategic engagement with key political stakeholders.

We Are Looking For

• Experience working in public affairs or government relations.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to persuade or influence external stakeholders.
• An ability to manage and prioritise competing workflows in an unpredictable and rapidly changing environment.
• A thorough understanding of the UK political system, its structures, how it operates and relevant engagement opportunities.
• An ability to analyse and translate complex issues, simplifying information into a form which makes sense to a non-specialist audience.
• Experience managing multiple stakeholder relationships and interests.

For more information and to apply, please visit the Sport England website.