Parliamentary Affairs Officer

Parliamentary Affairs Officer
Cardiff, Wales (with hybrid working options and travel to meetings and events in Cardiff and London, with occasional overnight stays)

The Organisation

We are the Marine Conservation Society, a UK charity fighting for a cleaner, better-protected, healthier ocean: one we can all enjoy.

Right now, our ocean is at a tipping point. We’re polluting our waters and destroying precious habitats. We're harming the species that live there. This is reducing the ocean's ability to help fight the climate crisis. While a third of UK seas are protected on paper, less than 1% are well managed. We are determined to change this. Using people-powered action and with science on our side, we defend habitats and species, working with communities, businesses and governments to encourage ocean-based climate action solutions across the UK.

We are now looking for a Parliamentary Affairs Officer to join our Parliamentary Affairs Team on a full-time, permanent basis, working 35 hours per week.

The Benefits

- Salary of up to £28,000 per annum
- Annual leave starting at 25 days per year, plus Bank Holidays pro rata (we also close between Christmas and New Year as extra time off)
- 6% employer contributions to our stakeholder pension scheme
- Sick pay at full-pay for 8 weeks, then 8 weeks at half-pay (after probation ends)
- Great work life balance through flexible and in many cases, remote working
- Support for your health and wellbeing with a programme of activities plus an employee assistance programme for you and the people who live with you
- A paid day for you to volunteer to support another charity of your choice
- Cycle-to-work scheme to help you buy a bike

This is an incredible opportunity for an experienced public affairs and government relations professional with excellent relationship building skills to join a team which is passionate about marine conservation and making a real difference in the world.

You’ll have the chance to use your skills to shape policies and drive meaningful change for our environment. What’s more, you’ll be rewarded with an array of exceptional benefits, from hybrid and flexible working and generous annual leave to a plethora of wellbeing support!

Ready to make a splash in your career and join our mission to protect our oceans? Read on and apply today!

The Role

As our Parliamentary Affairs Officer, you will support the development and delivery of our parliamentary affairs strategy to support our Ocean Goals.

You’ll play a vital part in getting the right messages to the right places at the right time. Acting as a vital link across our issue-specific teams, you’ll produce briefings, blogs, speeches and events, identifying opportunities to feed our messages into Senedd business and deliver our evidence-based advocacy.

You’ll build working relationships with Members of the Senedd, Ministers, government officials and Natural Resources Wales, tailoring our messaging to audiences in the Senedd.

Additionally, you will:

- Maintain contact databases of key external stakeholders
- Monitor parliamentary business and outputs from government
- Assist the development of parliamentary and communication briefings
- Support the delivery of events

About You

To be considered as our Parliamentary Affairs Officer, you will need:

- Experience in database management, including an understanding of GDPR/Data Protection
- Proven experience in public affairs, government relations, or lobbying, preferably within the Welsh political landscape
- Experience in developing and implementing advocacy strategies to influence public policy
- Experience in building and maintaining relationships with key stakeholders, including government officials, policymakers and community leaders
- A strong understanding of Welsh political institutions, policies, and decision-making processes
- Familiarity with public affairs tools and techniques such as stakeholder mapping, policy analysis and political intelligence gathering
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, in particular, the ability to convey complex messages and to tailor messages to different audiences
- Good organisational skills
- Excellent attention to detail
- Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills

The closing date for this role is the 28th April 2024.

Interviews will be held on the 2nd & 3rd May 2024.

Other organisations may call this role Public Affairs Officer, Policy & Public Affairs Officer, Campaigns and Public Affairs Officer, or External Affairs Support Officer.

Webrecruit and the Marine Conservation Society are equal opportunities employers, value diversity and are strongly committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and all applicants for employment. Equal opportunities are the only acceptable way to conduct business and we believe that the more inclusive our environments are, the better our work will be.

So, if you’re looking for a unique opportunity as a Parliamentary Affairs Officer, please apply via the button shown. This vacancy is being advertised by Webrecruit. The services advertised by Webrecruit are those of an Employment Agency.