Head Of Strategic Engagement
| Posting date: | 23 March 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £84,566 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 13 April 2026 |
| Location: | London |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 433935/1 |
Summary
You will bridge the gap between high-level policy strategy and frontline delivery, ensuring that Ministers and senior officials engage with the right people, in the right places, at the right time. You will build and leverage strategic alliances with influential stakeholders to establish and strengthen DWP's position as a trusted and influential voice.
You will lead the delivery of a first-class ministerial visits programme, treating each engagement not simply as a meeting but as a multi-channel communications opportunity that generates media coverage, digital content, stakeholder endorsement, and policy validation. You will champion an "integrated campaigning" approach, working with colleagues in other teams to ensure every visit maximises impact across press, digital, and stakeholder channels.
A defining feature of this role is your ability to work in a deeply integrated way across the Communications Directorate and beyond, ensuring external affairs insight informs comms and media strategy, visits generate compelling content, and that stakeholder insights shape policy development.
This is a role for someone who thrives on complexity and ambiguity and who can operate with confidence in the policy, political, and stakeholder spheres, providing strategic counsel while ensuring excellent operational delivery.
Responsibilities will be:
Strategic Advisory and Influence:
- Act as trusted strategic adviser to Ministers and senior officials on external affairs strategy and visits programmes, providing expert counsel on complex stakeholder issues, policy implications, and reputational opportunities and risks
- Attend ministerial meetings and senior leadership forums to provide strategic external affairs perspective and challenge thinking appropriately
- Identify stakeholder information and insight to inform and support communications, policy development and internal DWP decision-making
- Provide early warning of reputational risks emerging from the stakeholder community
Strategic Relationship Building:
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with key external stakeholders including think tanks, sector bodies, local authorities, and civil society organisations
- Draw on and develop your network of contacts to gather information, test policy ideas, and build support for departmental priorities
Visits as Multi-Channel Communications Opportunities:
- Lead the strategic planning and delivery of ministerial visits and events programmes, treating each visit as an integrated content-generation opportunity that creates media coverage, digital assets, stakeholder endorsement, and policy validation
- Oversee all aspects from strategic design through to live operational delivery, ensuring excellence in planning, briefing quality, logistical execution, and risk management
- Act as senior escalation point, making rapid, authoritative decisions
Team Leadership and Integration:
- Lead, inspire and develop a team of specialists, fostering a culture of integration, resilience, and professional excellence
- Ensure seamless collaboration between your team and Press Office, Digital, Private Offices and policy teams
- Create a high-performing team culture that delivers excellence under pressure while maintaining wellbeing
Cross-Government Leadership:
- Lead cross-government coordination on external affairs matters within DWP comms, participating in cross-Whitehall stakeholder forums
- Work with No10, Cabinet Office, and other government departments to ensure joined-up stakeholder engagement and consistent approaches to major stakeholder groups
- Contribute to the development of the GCS profession, share best practice, mentor junior external affairs professionals across government, and represent DWP in GCS networks
Evaluation and Continuous Improvement:
- Establish and monitor evaluation frameworks for external affairs and visits activity, tracking stakeholder sentiment, relationship quality, media impact, and contribution to DWP's licence to operate
- Use evaluation insights to demonstrate value, improve strategy, and inform future communications planning
- Ensure rigorous measurement that goes beyond vanity metrics to capture genuine shifts in stakeholder understanding and sentiment
The role is London-based and requires regular face-to-face engagement with Ministers and Private Offices, stakeholders, attendance at parliamentary events, and accompanying Ministers on visits across the UK.
This is not a standard 9-5 role. Some out-of-hours work is required for ministerial visits and stakeholder engagement, and travel may be required across the UK accompanying Ministers on visits or attending stakeholder events.
Skills needed for the role:
- Exceptional strategic thinking and judgement
- Strong people management and leadership capabilities
- Outstanding stakeholder management and influencing skills at the most senior levels
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with ability to craft compelling narratives
- Ability to operate under pressure and make sound decisions with incomplete information
- Confidence engaging with policy experts and researchers, including those from think tanks and academic institutions Project management and coordination across multiple teams and organisations
- Analytical skills to assess risks, evaluate impact, and use insight to inform strategy
- Negotiation and relationship-building skills across diverse stakeholder groups
- Ability to balance strategic vision with operational delivery and attention to detail
- Resilience and ability to work flexibly including out-of-hours and weekends
- Mature judgment about when to escalate issues versus act independently
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