Are you passionate about transport, local government and providing an excellent service to clients?
Do you want to take the next step in your Public Affairs career by gaining valuable experience in a complex political environment supporting the transformation of Greater Manchester's transport system and the creation of the Bee Network?
Your Role
The Public Affairs Officer is a crucial part of Transport for Greater Manchester's Public Affairs Team. Working closely with teams across TfGM and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, your focus will be on building the relationships, systems and processes to ensure that an excellent briefings service is provided to the Greater Manchester Mayor, Transport Commissioner, Active Travel Commissioner and other key political clients and stakeholders. You will also use your knowledge, expertise and political instincts to make recommendations to teams across the organisation on managing political stakeholders, and you will help to maintain a suite of political intelligence tools and products to ensure we plan effectively and based on insight.
For more information, please see the role profile at the bottom of the advert.
Who are we?
You will be working in Transport for Greater Manchester's Public Affairs Team, one part of the Policy, Insight and Public Affairs team in the Transport Strategy Directorate.
The Public Affairs team has an important role to play in directly contributing to the work of the Mayor and their team, and in helping TfGM navigate successfully through all tiers of politics: we are dedicated to ensuring TfGM and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority have the political relationships, campaigning strategies and political insight in place to deliver an ambitious transport agenda which supports the political remit set out by the Mayor and the Leaders of the Combined Authority and Greater Manchester's wider objectives around jobs, homes, economic growth and the environment.
Our work is varied and often unpredictable. It includes ensuring the Mayor and other political leaders are well-briefed on key issues, shaping and communicating policy positions to Government, delivering political visits and events, managing local and national political relationships, providing political intelligence, monitoring and horizon-scanning services, advising on interactions with legislation, working with MPs on parliamentary activity, and executing integrated multi-channel communications campaigns.
As a small team of three, there are opportunities for team members to build subject matter expertise in multiple areas of transport and to continue to develop as public affairs professionals.
What you’ll bring
What you do and how you do it is important whatever type of role you work in at TfGM and even small behaviours and actions can have a really big impact. At TfGM, our behaviours bring to life our values of Deliver, Care and Adapt.
We are looking for a dedicated team-player who is energetic, keen to roll up their sleeves and learn new things, and who is excited by the prospect of building a better transport system for Greater Manchester.
You'll be an excellent written communicator with a keen eye for detail, task-orientated and able to manage the pressures of a deadline-driven environment. You’ll have experience in coordinating the production of briefings for senior leaders and politicians, on time and to a high standard.
You will have experience working in public affairs or politics, communications, stakeholder engagement or policy, and a sound understanding of the national and local political landscape.
What we can offer you
This is an exciting opportunity to join us at a critical time, with a new Government in place, the start of a new Mayoral term, and as we work to deliver an integrated transport network across Greater Manchester over the next five years. If you think you have what it takes and want to join a dynamic organisation at the heart of the city-region we would really like to hear from you!
Our benefits include:
A salary of £31,915 - £36,683 per annum depending on skills and experience
- 28 days holiday per annum (plus bank holidays)
- Flexible and hybrid working options to promote and support a good work/life balance
- Free bus, rail or Metrolink travel to and from work within the Greater Manchester boundary
- Local Government Defined Benefit Pension Scheme which includes life cover of 3x your salary and options to increase your pension contributions
- Commitment to learning and personal development and upskilling with reimbursement of professional fees, where essential to the role
- We promote good physical and mental health and can provide additional support to staff via our employee assistance programme when required
What's next?
If you believe you have the skills and experience required, we’d really like to hear from you. When completing your application, please ensure that you provide clear examples against the criteria questions, all appointments will be based on merit.
TfGM is proud to be an equal opportunities employer that encourages and celebrates diversity. We want to recruit and retain a workforce that reflects the communities we serve and welcome individuals from all backgrounds by committing to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. We will offer support and reasonable adjustments if required and we also have a Guaranteed Assessment Scheme which you can find out more information on here.
For this opportunity, you must be able to prove you have the right to work in the UK - if in doubt please visit the following link Employers' right to work checklist - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Please note we are not a licensed sponsor.
Please note we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.
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