1,062 Government Relations Managers jobs in the United Kingdom

Government Affairs Adviser

Westminster, London - Hybrid working

Permanent, Full Time

Competitive Salary and benefits package

About Make UK

Make UK is the voice of UK manufacturing. Representing the sector at the highest levels of government, we champion engineering and manufacturing innovation, productivity, and growth. Our members range from blue-chip global brands to cutting-edge SMEs, and we're proud to be a trusted and respected voice within Whitehall, Westminster, and beyond.

As the UK's leading trade body for the manufacturing and engineering sector, we have a long-standing reputation for excellence in policy analysis, thought leadership, and campaigning. Our Government Affairs team plays a pivotal role in driving forward the policy and political engagement strategies that ensure our sector thrives.

We are looking for a
Government Affairs Adviser
to join our dynamic and high-performing External Affairs team. You will support the delivery of our political engagement strategy, helping to shape and influence public policy affecting UK manufacturing. Your role will involve building relationships with key stakeholders in Westminster and Whitehall, drafting impactful political briefings, supporting major campaigns, and delivering high-profile political events.

This is an exciting opportunity for a politically engaged, proactive professional with experience in parliamentary or public affairs work who is looking to take the next step in their career with a high-profile, respected organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Support Make UK's political engagement across a wide range of policy areas, developing and delivering targeted contact programmes with senior politicians.
• Lead on parliamentary monitoring and lobbying campaigns, tracking legislation and influencing key bills relevant to the manufacturing sector.
• Draft speeches and briefing materials for Make UK's senior leadership, including the CEO.
• Prepare parliamentary briefings on topical issues for MPs, Peers, and government stakeholders.
• Collaborate with regional teams to coordinate site visits, roundtables, and meetings with elected representatives across England and Wales.
• Represent Make UK at parliamentary and stakeholder meetings, acting as a professional and effective advocate for the manufacturing sector.
• Organise high-level events such as political roundtable dinners and stakeholder forums.
• Provide secretariat support to stakeholder engagement groups, ensuring well-coordinated meetings and campaign activity throughout the year.

Person Specification

• A graduate with experience in a public affairs, parliamentary, or political role.
• Deep understanding of UK political institutions and parliamentary processes.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience drafting briefings, speeches, and reports.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities and work to tight deadlines.
• A collaborative team player with a proactive, can-do attitude.
• Willingness to travel and work outside normal office hours when required.
• Experience in media relations or social media campaigning would be desirable

With over 125 years of experience, Make UK is a leading provider of essential business support and a champion for manufacturing industry in the UK. Make UK has the close ear of Government and is a trusted provider of essential services for world leading manufacturing companies across the country. Everything we do is designed to inspire British manufacturers to compete, innovate and grow.

Make UK staff enjoy a good benefits package and values a diverse workforce and welcomes applications from all sections of the community. Benefits to include, but not limited to: no bank holiday/weekend work, flexible hours, health cover, matched pension contributions up to 8%, and life assurance.

We are committed to supporting the Armed Forces Community and we recognise the contribution that Service personnel, both regular and reservist, veterans and military families make to our organisation and have pledged to support this by signing up to the Armed Forces Covenant.

Our Values at Make UK: Inclusivity & Diversity, Integrity, Innovation, & Collaboration

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with communities in a more authentic way.

The Community You Will Join
Airbnb's public policy team exists to further the interests of our community of hosts and guests with politicians, regulators, opinion leaders and others who shape the political and legal context for our business, helping them to understand the significant social and economic contributions of our platform. Across the EMEA region, we are engaged in well over a hundred local conversations and negotiations with governments big and small. We engage governments at local, regional and national levels directly and also use innovative advocacy and partnership strategies that actively involve our community and our stakeholders in making the case for fair, progressive home sharing rules and travel affordability.

A Typical Day
The Head of Government Affairs and Public Policy Campaigns (NEMEA), is responsible for developing and executing fully integrated policy strategic engagement plans in the region and leading the local team, under the direction of the Director of Public Policy and Campaigns, EMEA. The successful candidate will use all available strategies, informed by data and insights, that aims to protect and further the legitimacy of Airbnb and our community.

Leadership and Empowerment:
Your primary responsibility is team leadership - line managing an energetic, passionate and diverse group of campaign experts who deliver complementary strands of work to serve the overall strategy. You inspire others to get behind a common vision and you deploy first-rate organisational skills to ensure that your strategy is executed, targets are set, and projects are delivered, on time and on budget.

You create and maintain an inclusive culture and ways of working for your team, in line with Airbnb's Core Values, and you are committed to embracing diversity and fostering belonging. You are accountable for performance management and feedback, and also recruitment and succession planning. You empower members of your team to work on local and regional projects that develop their professional, operational and strategic skills.

Strategy Development:
You determine an appropriate strategy for each priority geography in the region, as determined through close collaboration with the business leader in the territory. You define the ultimate policy goals and priorities, and develop operational plans that deliver measurable progress towards those goals in partnership with your local team. These plans and strategies are always founded on high-quality insights and data analysis, and are well aligned with Airbnb's global approach. You also develop these strategies in close collaboration with colleagues on the wider EMEA team who have expertise in the core campaign functions, and have a regional perspective on best practices and learnings.

Communication and Accountability:
You work with your local Airbnb Leadership (e.g. Country Manager, marketing lead, legal counsel, Comms, etc.) to align Government engagement and campaign plans with other critical business priorities and outcomes. You ensure that internal stakeholders understand the campaign strategy and plans, and that information is flowing smoothly to everyone with a "need to know". You ensure that progress is being reported regularly, and that roadblocks and successes are being flagged appropriately. You are able to confidently communicate with senior leaders about your campaign's priorities, to manage expectations where required and to coordinate with other teams to achieve greater goals.

External Advocacy:
you represent Airbnb at the most senior political levels in your geography, and with the media. You ensure that Airbnb builds and maintains relationships with the widest possible network of contacts in local, regional and national legislative, executive and administrative offices, and also with coalitions who can advance Airbnb's advocacy initiatives.

Your Expertise

• At least 15 years experience working with complex political or regulatory issues in relevant business or non-governmental organisation, or in a political, governmental or regulatory context. Ideally, this experience has been built in travel, urbanism or technology.
• Ability to navigate a complex political or regulatory environment. Advanced knowledge of the political landscape and legislative processes in the UK, the EU and Middle East Africa, is essential.
• Ability to quickly get up to speed on complex technical and regulatory issues, and understand how these can be managed using a broad range of campaigning strategies;
• Senior leadership experience, with track record of managing, supporting and developing diverse multidisciplinary teams; Proven ability in core management skills - effective delegation, empowerment, performance management, coaching and talent development;
• Experience of managing complex projects with multiple stakeholders. Ability to multi-task by prioritizing work and coordinating required support across various functions to achieve project goals and objectives
• Excellent strategist, creative thinker and expert communicator (spokesperson) , with great interpersonal, writing and presentation skills;
• Self-starter with a good sense of humor and the ability to thrive in a fast moving and sometimes stressful environment.
• Candidates must speak fluent English. An additional European language would be an asset. You must submit your application in English.
• This role is located in London but can involve working from home, with frequent travel to countries in EMEA but also our global headquarters in San Francisco.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging
Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

Overview
We are excited to announce an opportunity for an EU Government and Public Affairs Manager.

The EU Government and Public Affairs Manager, based in Brussels, is responsible for supporting our advocacy efforts with the European Union (EU) institutions. The primary policy focus will be EU electrification policies and regulation. Additional policy responsibilities will include: connected and autonomous vehicles, consumer policy, tax and insurance issues.

This position includes analysis of proposed and forthcoming legislative actions to assist the Assistant Vice President of European Government & Public Affairs and the business in assessing the potential impact on the organization, developing appropriate positions and strategies, and implementing them. This position supports all EU advocacy efforts through the prioritisation, planning and preparation of outreach activities whether as Enterprise Mobility or through our sectoral and horizontal business associations, as well as ensuring consistent follow-up to engagements.

The EU Government and Public Affairs Manager is a key member of our Brussels-based team and shall work closely with our Government and Public Affairs teams in our European Corporate Markets, and selected partner markets, to maximise the value of the Brussels-national capital-Brussels engagement programme. The role will also help systematise the sharing of best practices across the European and global GPA teams.

Organization Overview
From a fleet of seven cars, more than six decades ago, to a global network serving consumers, businesses and governments, Enterprise Mobility is a leading provider of mobility solutions including car rental, fleet management, flexible vehicle-hire, carsharing, vanpooling, car sales, truck rental, vehicle subscription, luxury rental, technology solutions and more, to help make travel easier and more convenient.

Privately held by the Taylor family of St. Louis, Enterprise Mobility manages a full portfolio of brands including the Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo brands. Together with its affiliate Enterprise Fleet Management, Enterprise Mobility accounted for $38+ million in revenue for FY '24 through a network of more than 9,500 locations and over 90,000 employees.

Responsibilities

• Advise the business on key political and legislative developments, and support efficient and effective formation of company positions, strategies and action plans.
• Support the EU-Brussels engagement programme on above key strategic initiatives with a particular focus on priority electrification issues.
• Support leadership/executive level engagement activities.
• Support "regular" advocacy activities with scheduling meetings, development of briefings, messaging & materials.
• Develop relationships and progressively lead advocacy efforts with "working level" officials in the European Commission, European Parliament and Council of Ministers.
• Lead day-to-day Enterprise engagement in our industry associations and in relevant working groups and fora within our horizontal business associations.
• Attend association working group meetings, reporting key developments back to the business and ensure Enterprise's positions are clearly understood and advanced.
• Take a day-to-day lead in building out our Brussels-national capitals and MEP constituency programme in 2-3 of our Corporate Markets.
• Ensure methodical follow-through on priority engagements in national capitals and constituencies and ensure impact back into Brussels decision-making.
• Take day-to-day lead on a wider issue portfolio including inter alia Connected and Autonomous Vehicle initiatives, consumer policy, tax and insurance issues.
• Support the coordination of European Government and Public Affairs activities on a regional basis, including the sharing of best practices.

Qualifications

• 6-8 years' experience of working with the European Union institutions in an advocacy role.
• Experience of working directly or indirectly with vehicle rental, automotive and mobility industries preferred.
• Direct experience of policy work with the following Directorate Generals: DG MOVE, DG GROW, DG CONNECT, DG ENER and DG CLIMA preferred.
• Direct experience of policy work with the following European Parliament Committees: TRAN, ENVI, ITRE, IMCO and ECON preferred.
• Must have full competency in spoken and written English.
• Second language: (especially French / German / Spanish) preferred.

Competency-based Qualifications

• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with ability to concisely communicate complex issues to both the business and policymakers.
• Excellent interpersonal relationship skills.
• Ability to develop relationships with individuals from multiple cultures and social backgrounds.
• Ability to develop strategy collaboratively with business partners, plan advocacy campaigns/programmes, deliver, recalibrate as necessary, measure and report.
• Methodical approach to relationship-building, engagement and follow-up.
• Ability to consistently provide high quality work product.
• Ability to self-motivate and work with minimal oversight.
• Ability to prioritize work-flow to achieve maximum results.
• Consistently demonstrates honesty and integrity in all work contexts.
• Supports diversity and contributes to an inclusive work environment.

Additional Information
Please let us know about any accommodations you may need to participate in the recruitment process.

Location
: Brussels, Belgium

Salary
: Competitive