Senior Engagement Specialist

Role Overview

We seek a Senior Engagement Specialist to support the Flood Investment Programme by ensuring alignment with commercial frameworks and contractual requirements. The position demands collaboration, relationship building, influencing workplace practices, and maintaining extensive networks. The environment is dynamic and occasionally ambiguous, thus requiring a curious, resilient, and self-directed individual.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish engagement standards and set expectations for suppliers involved in the programme.
• Identify, report, and manage risks related to stakeholder engagement.
• Assure compliance and monitor engagement performance across the programme.
• Develop and implement engagement guidance and tools to encourage consistency.
• Facilitate collaboration and network building among stakeholders to share best practices and resolve challenges.
• Act as a liaison connecting delivery teams, suppliers, and leadership by interpreting and sharing engagement data to inform decision-making.
• Apply strategic oversight to identify and reduce engagement risks on a national scale, implementing mitigation strategies.
• Participate actively in incident response and business continuity support, including availability during such events, with training and alternative work arrangements provided.

About the Team

The Strategic Engagement Team operates within Flood and Coastal Risk Management, leading engagement oversight and assurance. The team promotes community and environmental benefits through strategic planning, network development, and data-driven decision support concerning flood and coastal assets and nature-based solutions.

Qualifications and Experience

• Proven expertise in strategic stakeholder engagement with the ability to lead discussions ensuring integration of stakeholder management and collaborative advantages into projects.
• Capability to utilize evaluations to enhance engagement effectiveness, innovation, and quality.
• Skillful identification and communication of engagement risks and opportunities to leadership and governance bodies, assisting in decision-making on risk mitigation.
• Strong interpersonal skills to establish and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders, competently facilitating meetings and networks while managing expectations and operating within defined boundaries.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to understand broader contexts and interdependencies before action.
• Collaborative decision-maker comfortable working within existing processes.
• Resilient and adaptable, capable of thriving in uncertain, changing environments.

Additional Information

This national role offers a combination of office and home working, with occasional travel required. Employment conditions include competitive pension and leave packages, supportive flexible working, and development opportunities. Applicants must work from within the UK and may require sponsorship if appropriate documentation is available.

Diversity and Inclusion

The organisation values diversity reflecting the UK population and encourages applications from underrepresented groups. Flexible and part-time working arrangements are supported. A Guaranteed Interview Policy applies for candidates with disabilities meeting minimum criteria.

Competencies Assessed

• Influencing and persuading others to adopt plans effectively even when logic alone isn't sufficient.
• Planning, executing, and reviewing stakeholder engagement using structured approaches.
• Making timely, well-informed decisions by analysing information and collaborating with others to solve problems.

Important Notes

• This organisation is not part of the Civil Service; therefore, appointments do not come with Crown Servant status or associated continuous service benefits.
• Applicants currently working in local government or similar may retain continuous service benefits for redundancy purposes.
• Use of artificial intelligence is permitted for application support only when all personal examples are truthful and original; plagiarism may lead to disqualification.
• The organisation follows government frameworks for recruitment and does not engage with external market suppliers directly.