Public Affairs Officer Westminster - The Guardian : Job Details

PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER (WESTMINSTER) 

Salary: £36,225 per annum

Reports to: Public Affairs Manager (Westminster)

Department: Policy, Information and Communications

Contract: Permanent

Hours: 35 hours per week. We are open to compressed hours in this role.

Location: Stratford, London w/ high-flex (1 – 2 days per week in the office)

Closing date: Sunday 2 February 2025, 23:55.

Please note: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

We have an exciting opportunity for you to join us as a Public Affairs Officer. The Westminster & Local Public Affairs team communicate Cancer Research UK’s policy messaging to parliamentarians in Westminster and local government across England to achieve policy change. We want the new UK Government to make this Parliament a turning point for cancer, using key milestones such as the upcoming national cancer plan to help deliver longer, better lives for cancer patients.

The successful candidate will lead our programme of influencing activity to make this agenda happen. This will include regularly briefing and meeting elected members; monitoring parliamentary activity and sharing intelligence; organising events and visits at research sites across the UK; working closely with the campaigns and policy teams, and other departments across the organisation; developing stakeholder engagement plans for senior staff; and representing the charity at external meetings and in external coalitions.

What will I be doing?

• Delivering and reporting on a programme of activities aimed at ensuring that Cancer Research UK has a high profile in Westminster, and our policy priorities remain on the parliamentary agenda, including managing a rolling contact programme for MPs
• Leading a programme of influencing activity to help us achieve change for the health agenda, and support public affairs activities on other policy areas
• Organising events in parliament, at party conferences, at research sites and at a constituency level as required
• Reacting swiftly and expertly to parliamentary business, briefing as appropriate and understanding how procedures such as  parliamentary debates and questions can be instigated and supported for maximum impact
• Proactively seeking opportunities to meet, brief and work with wider networks including Peers, coalitions such as One Cancer Voice and sector experts
• Promoting the charity’s wider work, including events such as Race for Life, our research successes and engaging MPs on how cancer impacts their constituency and community.

What skills will I need? 

• Demonstrable political interest and judgement, with commitment to neutrality and ability to work across the political spectrum 
• Ability to quickly understand, summarise and analyse complex policy and political issues and distil for a range of internal and external audiences 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to adapt style to different audiences 
• Strong organisational skills and experience of managing a complex workload, with tight deadlines and often changing priorities 
• Good influencing skills and confident managing challenging stakeholder relationships, including in coalition 
• Adaptable self-starter with the ability to work remotely and in a self-directed way as part of a larger team.

What will I gain?

Each and every one of our employees contributes to our progress and is supporting our work to beat cancer. We think that’s impressive.

In return, we make sure you are supported by a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools, policies and processes to enable you to do your job well.

Our benefits package includes a substantial retirement plan, a generous and flexible leave allowance, discounts on anything from travel to technology, gym membership, and much more.

We don’t forget people have lives outside of work too and so we actively encourage a flexible working culture.

Our work – from funding cutting-edge research to developing public policy – will change the world. It’s exciting to be part of our team.

How do I apply?

We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.