Head of Public Affairs - London, United Kingdom - The Royal Society

Description

Job Scope

Background

The Royal Society is the independent science academy of the UK. It is a Fellowship of many of the world's most distinguished scientists drawn from all disciplines. The Society's fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science for the benefit of humanity.

The Society has played a part in some of the most fundamental, significant, and life-changing scientific discoveries in history. We recognise scientific excellence through our Fellows in academia and industry. We support research and innovation through extensive national and international funding programmes, publish across all areas of science, and bring scientific ideas to wide public audiences.

Our policy activities address global challenges such as pandemic responses, climate change, energy, food and water security, while making the case for long-term investment in research and innovation and developing STEM education. We also set out the potential for emerging areas of science and technology such as data science, AI and genetic technologies.

The Role

The Head of Public Affairs plays a vital role in the Society's mission to influence policy and science decision-making for the better. The successful candidate will work with Fellows, the senior team, and teams across the Society to develop products and influencing plans, and to build partnerships and alliances to ensure that the Society's scientific evidence and expertise has impact and influence. You will ensure that there is strategic coherence to our political engagement, through effectively influencing parliamentarians, and the instruments of parliament including select committees

The Public Affairs team is agile and responsive. The successful candidate will oversee the team's work in influencing the science, education and skills system (for example on Spending Reviews, Budgets, and other fiscal and parliamentary events), and in policy areas where science is fundamentally important (for example on climate, biodiversity and emerging technologies). You will be responsible for promoting and supporting interactions to ensure that scientific evidence and the Society's expertise informs and influences policy actors to use science to benefit humanity.​

The Head of Public Affairs works closely with the senior team and is at the heart of our dealings with politicians across the UK. You will shape and deliver public affairs strategies and programmes. You will support the Chief Science Policy Officer, President and Vice-Presidents and the Executive Director in meetings with politicians and will also represent the Society in your own capacity. You will also use the Society's convening power to establish and maintain external networks to support the Society's public affairs goals and contribute to the overall management of the Royal Society.

Reports to : Chief Science Policy Officer

Line manages : Public Affairs team - x1 Senior Public Affair Adviser, x1 Public Affair Adviser (team is currently 4 people)

Location : 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG.

Hours : 35 hours per week, with some flexibility about working hours given the nature of the role

(The Royal Society also has flexible start/finish times around a core working day 10am to 4pm)

Pay Band : F

Salary : £61,506-£76,882 per annum

Contract Type : Permanent

Closing date: Sunday 21 January 23:59pm.

First round interviews to take place 5 February 2024.

Second round interviews to take place 12 February 2024.

All Royal Society roles are office based at our Piccadilly premises, although some hybrid working is available depending on the role. No fully remote contracts are offered. Please ensure you are able to come to our central London offices on a regular basis, whenever you are needed, and at your own expense before applying. We do not offer any relocation allowance or travel subsidy.

Responsibilities

Key Knowledge and Skills Required

Education

A degree (or equivalent) Essential

Knowledge/skills/abilities

A good understanding of science policy and wider policies where science is key Desirable

Expertise in working with UK Parliamentary processes in the UK and devolved Parliaments. Essential

Knowledge of Parliamentary functions overseas, particularly Europe Desirable

Able to convey complex scientific, technical and policy-related ideas effectively Desirable

Skilled oral and written communication with a range of audiences Essential

Effective interaction with people at all levels of seniority Essential

Assessment and reporting of technical information in a clear and concise manner Desirable

Self-organisation and management of several tasks simultaneously Essential

An enthusiastic team player, with experience of collaborative working Essential

Leading, managing and developing staff Essential

Experience

Leading a public affairs function within an organisation Essential

Working with senior politicians in an effective manner Essential

Demonstrable outcomes from influencing Essential

Establishing and maintaining an influential senior network Essential

Working with committees Desirable

Circumstances

Able to be flexible about working hours on occasions Essential

Able to undertake national and / or international travel on occasions Desirable

Competencies

Self-management

· Identifies difficult situations

· Recognises stress in others and takes steps to reduce it

· Controls pressurised situations

· Effectively enthuses those in the team

· Proactively sets goals and targets for own work

· Embraces new opportunities, responds to new risks and takes on new responsibilities

· Encourages others to seize opportunities

· Recognises when it is appropriate to resist the objections of others and remain committed to a sound course of action

Working with others

· Actively seeks ideas and criticisms from within the team

· Resolves conflicts within and between teams

· Embeds feedback processes within the team

· Seeks out new networks that will create opportunity for the Society

· Able to present complex issues simply

· Uses discretion, tact and empathy when negotiating with and/or seeking to influence others

· Understands the need to manage expectations and to only promise what is deliverable

· Demonstrates compassion in delivering hard messages

· Leads and facilitates group discussions, surfaces and clarifies issues and keeps conversations focused, productive and constructive

· Enlists champions to keep key messages alive and make them real

· Acts as a role model, continuously demonstrating communication excellence and regard for the value of building shared vision and direction

· Remains calm in front of challenging audiences, never diminishing others

· Looks for opportunities to assemble a diverse group to discuss respective views

· Keeps people at the table by articulating an outcome or goal that engages and encourages active participation

· Shares resources across organisational boundaries to meet Society needs

· Uses negotiation skills and adaptability to encourage recognition of joint concerns, collaboration, and to influence the success of outcomes

Resource management

· Determines strategy and deployment of resources, balancing cost and benefit; risk and potential for maximum impact across significant business areas

· Manages complex cross-cutting projects to time, budget and specification

· Ensures others accept responsibility towards results or quality

· Sets the quality standards for own business areas in accordance with strategy and contributes to the formulation of quality standards across the Society

· Sets and monitors priorities

· Identifies and manages risk effectively

· Analyses potential for surplus or loss, risks and/or return-on-investment of various courses of action

· Demonstrates a solid understanding of the culture and recognises limitations in order to ensure that plans, actions and timelines will be effective.

· Directs the creation of forums and discussion opportunities to generate innovative and breakthrough ideas, exposing others to experts and ideas to stimulate new thinking

· Translates vision/knowledge to others to enable shared understanding and rapid execution

· Facilitates the team to assess the viability of ideas based on a number of likely scenarios

· Has patience and allows time for appropriate planning and engagement to take place in projects and day-to-day deliverables

Critical thinking

· Uses questioning, analytical and probing skills to 'dig deeper'

· Knows when enough information has been obtained and adapts presentation of information to the needs of the audience

· Evaluates the benefits, practicalities and value for money of ideas and obtains feedback

· Makes sound decisions in a complex or ambiguous environment and is able to gain support and manage challenges confidently

· Directs the creation of forums and discussion opportunities to generate innovative and breakthrough ideas, stimulates new thinking

· Sees issues and mitigates as necessary the implications of a proposal.

· Justifies key results and procedures, explains assumptions and reasons.

· Correctly evaluates the credibility of sources and correctly judges the strength of an argument

· Fair-mindedly follows where evidence and reasons lead

Adaptability

· Actively seeks the input and opinions of others, often outside his/her section and accommodates and incorporates this thinking into any output.

· Actively seeks new challenges and projects; leads discussions surrounding new ideas, approaches and projects

· Anticipates need for innovation and seeks new ideas, approaches and solutions

· Demonstrates courage by deciding and acting in the face of uncertainty

· Works in a balanced fashion, managing tough calls by being adaptable and flexible to ensure needs of competing stakeholders are fairly and equitably met

· Acts with foresight to anticipate and analyse many different scenarios

· Acknowledges ambiguity and works with team to identify understand and manage polarities and other complex situations

Managing people and relationships

· Sets expectations of others and ensures they deliver

· Demonstrates a positive attitude towards work, celebrating success and instilling confidence, which encourages the same from others

· Encourages others to share ideas and participate in the discussion and decisions of the team

· Assesses needs of clients/stakeholders/staff and makes plans to meet these needs

· Avoids micromanagement by delegating fully and giving latitude to others to do tasks in own way, including opportunity to make and learn from mistakes

· Acts as a talent builder by challenging people with questions and assignments that will grow their capabilities

· Coaches and mentors' others, providing career guidance and perspective

· Demonstrates compassion in delivering hard messages

· Establishes personal relationships with customers, building an understanding of broader needs, issues, and aspirations beyond those solely applicable to the Society products or services

· Uses knowledge to develop appropriate longer-term relationship management strategies

· Assesses the long-term value of various types of external customers and manages each type appropriately

· Ensures 'one-customer' mindset and offers customer exposure to the full breadth of products and services, as appropriate