External Affairs Manager - 5434

About Us
The Guinness Partnership is one of the leading providers of social housing and care services in England. We build and manage homes and provide housing services to around 140,000 customers nationwide. Of our 65,000 homes, more than 70% are let at a social or affordable rent, while around 10,000 are owned or part-owned by the people who live in them.

Our vision is to deliver great service, provide great homes, to be a great business and to be a great place to work. Because everything we do is about our customers, our communities and our people, any profit we make is re-invested in new and existing homes and improving services.

About the role
We have a new and exciting opportunity for an External Affairs Manager to join our Guinness Team. This is a permanent , full-time vacancy which is based in London.

Reporting into the Director of External Affairs and Social Investment, you’ll work to enhance Guinness’s external profile and reputation through strategic stakeholder management, including maintaining and building relationships with our key MPs and local authorities. You’ll be a confident communicator with a strong understanding of influencing. Your knowledge of housing will help you to produce effective, evidence-based consultation responses and briefings.

Your key responsibilities will include managing environmental and horizon scanning activities, ensuring short, medium and long-term strategic challenges are anticipated and relevant colleagues are engaged and informed. You’ll be expected to represent Guinness at external events and to help influence policy both within and beyond our sector . You’ll work with the Director to manage a wide range of relationships with relevant sector bodies and groups, always looking for opportunities to add our voice in areas where we have strong knowledge and expertise.

External Affairs Manager - 5434

About Us
The Guinness Partnership is one of the leading providers of social housing and care services in England. We build and manage homes and provide housing services to around 140,000 customers nationwide. Of our 65,000 homes, more than 70% are let at a social or affordable rent, while around 10,000 are owned or part-owned by the people who live in them.

Our vision is to deliver great service, provide great homes, to be a great business and to be a great place to work. Because everything we do is about our customers, our communities and our people, any profit we make is re-invested in new and existing homes and improving services.

About the role
We have a new and exciting opportunity for an External Affairs Manager to join our Guinness Team. This is a permanent , full-time vacancy which is based in London.

Reporting into the Director of External Affairs and Social Investment, you’ll work to enhance Guinness’s external profile and reputation through strategic stakeholder management, including maintaining and building relationships with our key MPs and local authorities. You’ll be a confident communicator with a strong understanding of influencing. Your knowledge of housing will help you to produce effective, evidence-based consultation responses and briefings.

Your key responsibilities will include managing environmental and horizon scanning activities, ensuring short, medium and long-term strategic challenges are anticipated and relevant colleagues are engaged and informed. You’ll be expected to represent Guinness at external events and to help influence policy both within and beyond our sector . You’ll work with the Director to manage a wide range of relationships with relevant sector bodies and groups, always looking for opportunities to add our voice in areas where we have strong knowledge and expertise.

What we’re looking for
We know that how we do things is just as important as what we do, so you’ll not only be highly self-motivated with the rigour to pursue goals, but you’ll also be a confident collaborator, networker and relationship builder with a willingness to go the extra mile to get the job done. You’ll be able to demonstrate: 

Essential:

• Strong understanding and experience of influencing and lobbying.
• Knowledge of housing policy, particularly those areas most relevant to social landlords.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills for writing reports, letters, briefings, consultation responses and presentations.
• Experience of managing policy development work.
• Experience of managing projects including use of relevant tools.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft
• Educated to degree level or equivalent

Desirable:

• Understanding of the role of customer voice in external policy and influencing work.
• Knowledge of the British political system.
• Experience of undertaking or managing research projects that enhance business understanding of key issues.
• Chartered Institute of Housing Certificate in Housing Practice Level 3 or 4.

Essential qualifications: