About the job

Job summary

As the UK’s regulator for the energy industry, Ofgem works on behalf of energy consumers to ensure that every household in the UK can rely on a safe and environmentally sustainable energy supply.

Within the role of Senior Stakeholder and Communications Manager you will be responsible for developing and delivering stakeholder engagement and communications strategies for key Ofgem policies. You’ll be a project manager, influencing relationships with key stakeholders and coordinating engagement at a senior level. This role entails the development of best practice and guidance for internal policy teams, as well as improving communications with key external parties such as consumer groups, trade bodies, energy market participants and innovators.

You will have significant experience in stakeholder engagement and be able to leverage this experience to develop a comprehensive best practice program, and effectively train and develop your colleagues.

An independent thinker, you’ll be able to absorb, analyse and communicate complex information to a range of audiences. You’ll also have experience of writing and implementing engagement strategies for complex, high profile policy areas.

We are looking for a dynamic and driven individual with a proven track record in leadership, effective communication, and decision making. You will have a strong vision for seeing the bigger picture, and the ability to think strategically while being able to deliver at pace to drive change and improve processes.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to drive communications strategies with key stakeholders in the energy sector and beyond, and provides the chance to gain widespread exposure, both across the organisation and externally. You’ll be working on high profile policies in a fast-paced organisation, where no two days are ever the same.

Ofgem provides a flexible work environment, enabling individuals to effectively balance their professional and personal commitments. We also offer exceptional opportunities for professional and personal development.

If you are a strong communicator, and a driven worker who is able to use initiative to drive strategic engagement and communications, then we would love to hear from you.

Ofgem offers a culture of inclusion that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our colleagues. It fuels our innovation and helps ensure we can best represent the consumers and the communities we serve. Everyone is welcome - as an inclusive workplace, our employees are comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work.

Job description

The Markets Stakeholder Engagement team provides strategic and tactical stakeholder guidance, advice and expertise to the Consumer Protection & Retail Markets, Financial Resilience & Controls and Enforcement & Emerging Issues directorates. The team also drives best practice in Ofgem’s day-to-day engagement with stakeholders in Markets and - through the stakeholder engagement profession – across Ofgem.  

The Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Communications Manager will develop and deliver stakeholder engagement plans and strategies; work closely with central communications team to deliver communications plans for key Ofgem announcements; and act as the voice of the communications profession within the Markets group (and vice versa). They will also use their leadership skills, experience and expertise to support the Head of Markets Stakeholder Engagement in driving high-performance across the team.  

Key Responsibilities 

• Develop and deliver stakeholder engagement and communications plans for key Markets workstreams. 
• Act as key a link between policy and communications teams, ensuring that key milestones are captured on tracking tools and the significance to stakeholders is made clear early in the lifecycle of a project. 
• Gather external stakeholder views and insights – both through engagement and monitoring - and share them with relevant colleagues in Markets and Communications  
• Manage relationships with key stakeholders, and coordinate engagement at senior level. 
• Drive high standards and best practice in the day-to-day engagement between policy, compliance and regulatory finance teams and their counterparts at external stakeholders. 
• Support the delivery of regular engagement channels in Markets, such as the quarterly supplier CEO call or monthly regulatory directors’ call. 
• Work with central stakeholder team to develop engagement plans for senior colleagues, including the Markets Director General and Directors. 
• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge of policy areas and stakeholders in your portfolio, capturing and sharing actionable insight with relevant colleagues. 
• Support the Head of Markets Stakeholder Engagement in delivering the team’s objectives. 

Person specification

Key Outputs and Deliverables 

• Developing and delivering stakeholder engagement and communications plans for key Markets workstreams. 
• Ensuring tracking tools, such as the Markets Plan on a Page and Communications Tracker are kept up to date with milestones for the workstreams you are responsible for. 
• Sharing insights from external stakeholders with relevant colleagues. 
• Developing relationships with key internal and external stakeholders. 
• Delivering group forums with stakeholders, such as supplier CEO calls, round tables and workshops. 

Key Stakeholder Relationships 

• CEO and Markets Director General, Directors and Deputy Directors. 
• Policy, compliance and regulatory finance teams in Markets. 
• Communications teams. 
• External stakeholders – senior and working level contacts at retail energy market participants, with a focus on energy suppliers and consumer groups & charities. 

Essential Criteria

• Experience of leading writing and implementing strategic engagement strategies and communications programmes for complex, high profile policy areas (Lead criteria). 
• Experience of leading a team and working with many different internal contacts to deliver results. 
• Ability to actively develop and nurture excellent external relationships from board level in Ofgem to working level contacts. 
• Ability to absorb complex information quickly, and to communicate it to a non-expert audience in a concise and engaging way. 
• Experience of working independently and using initiative to drive work forward. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,650, OFGEM contributes £11,785 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), your career history and qualifications.  

You will then be asked to provide a 1250 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential and desirable skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your supporting statement, how you meet each of the essential and desirable skills and capabilities. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.