This is a great opportunity for an experienced public affairs professional to take a leading role in shaping LendInvest’s first political engagement strategy.
LendInvest is building its reputation as a company that not only delivers great products and performance, but contributes thoughtful insight and commentary to influence the outcomes of issues affecting the industries in which it works, whether that’s financial services, property, fintech or personal finance. As an integral member of our small and fast-paced PR and Communications team, our Public Affairs Associate/Manager will help us build on this profile among a whole new universe of stakeholders of MPs, peers, civil servants, pressure groups, and other policy advisers or influencers.
The successful candidate will likely have proven experience working for a public affairs consultancy or an in-house public affairs team. Experience in financial services would definitely be a plus; some exposure to policy on property or marketplace lending isn’t essential but would be of additional benefit.
You will be able to point to some great examples of past political engagement and advocacy experience, and it will be very advantageous if you have already established relevant political relationships.
You will be a true government and policy addict, able to monitor and pick out themes and issues that matter to the LendInvest business, and put ideas into action to influence outcomes.
Requirements
The successful candidate will be a natural when it comes to:
- Building out a comprehensive and real-time Public Affairs strategy covering political influencers in financial services, fintech, property and mortgage markets;
- Using your existing network of contacts to map the policy stakeholder universe for LendInvest and rollout a thorough, long-term networking and engagement plan;
- Being an outgoing and informed advocate for LendInvest who enjoys getting out and building our profile with a broad but relevant range of public policy stakeholders;
- Taking a really proactive approach to identifying, pitching and managing political engagement activity, such as stakeholder meetings, responses to consultations or Westminster events;
- Working closely with our PR lead to help inform and align the business’ communications goals according to relevant policy developments;
- Formulating views and writing position papers for senior management buy-in and approval, to be used with contacts as part of the wider communications plan;
- Acting as a central point of contact for relevant stakeholders and a naturally confident company spokesperson on public policy matters;
- Researching and assessing critical policy developments before presenting them back to senior management, as well as communications, legal and compliance teams, in an accessible, informed way;
- Providing LendInvest customers with regular updates on critical policy events and decisions affecting them in approachable language and formats;
- Writing occasionally topical opinion pieces and other thought leadership for media publication on critical policy issues;
- Managing, day-to-day, our external public affairs advisory team who provide a valuable monitoring service.
Does this sound like you? If so, we’d love to hear from you.
Benefits
The opportunity to work in an entrepreneurial, meritocratic yet relatively relaxed team environment (as witnessed by the @LendInvestLife Twitter feed) and a competitive salary and range of benefits including:
- All staff have the opportunity to be granted stock options in the company;
- We have a fully stocked fridge and pantry with more food, beverages & snacks than you could ever eat;
- Bar opens and beer taps flow from 4pm (sharp) on a Friday afternoon, after 5:30pm on other days;
- A selection of breakfast cereals and fresh fruits are available each day;
- A cooked lunch is provided every Friday, from a local restaurant;
- A relaxed open-plan working environment;
- Regular team-building activities and evenings out (recently we've done a pizza-making afternoon, ping-pong tournaments, Foosball and XBOX One FIFA tournaments);
- And of course real potential for career advancement in a fast moving market leading organisation.