Head of External Affairs

# Head of External Affairs Job Reference
2026-11

HEALocation

Remote/Work from home (in the UK)
Function Conservation & Policy Salary £44,000-£48,000

Status Full Time Job Type Permanent Hours  Of Work
35
** 2026 11 Info Pack
- Head of External **### More details

Head of External Affairs  Remote working within the UK (with regular travel across the UK to external meetings, events and in-person team gatherings)  Salary - £44,000-£48,000    

The Role    Are you an experienced senior public affairs leader with a track record of influencing policy and legislative change? This is a rare chance to lead our external affairs work across all four UK nations, on a mission with real urgency.
From Westminster to Holyrood, the Senedd and Stormont, you'll build the relationships and run the campaigns that secure political, legislative and business change. The aim is simple: change that measurably improves the health of UK seas.
You'll lead our Parliamentary Affairs team and be one of our senior external voices. As a member of our Leadership Team, you'll also help shape how we deliver our Ocean Goals across the whole organisation. You'll work closely with our Head of UK Policy & Advocacy, so our policy positions and influencing work pull in the same direction.
What you'll do
- Set the strategy. Shape our four-nation external affairs strategy with the Director of Conservation & Policy, set clear measures of success and track impact.  - Choose the right route. Decide where, when and how we influence: parliamentary work, coalitions, public campaigns or legal routes.  - Lead on parliaments and governments. Run our engagement with all four parliaments and governments, including campaigns for legislative change.  

- Build business partnerships. Be our lead with business leaders on agreed priorities, and speak for us in the media and in public.  - Oversee legal interventions. Work with legal advisers on challenges and other legal routes where they're the right approach, managing the risks.  - Lead the team and budget. Line manage and develop a remote Parliamentary Affairs team and manage the external affairs budget.  

- Help lead the organisation. Contribute to our strategic direction and champion joined-up working across teams.
About You     We're looking for an experienced leader who can turn ambition into change. You'll be able to show us that you:
- have led senior political or parliamentary engagement that achieved a clear policy or legislative outcome.  - understand how devolution shapes environmental or marine policy across the four nations, and adapt your influencing to match – however you gained that understanding.  - have designed, led and evaluated advocacy campaigns with clear objectives and measures of success.  - have built trusted relationships with parliamentarians, senior officials or business leaders that changed a position or practice.  

- use sound political judgement to spot opportunities and risks, and pick the right tactic.  - explain complex policy in plain English and represent an organisation confidently with the media.  - have led and developed a team, including remote colleagues, and managed a budget.  - can identify and manage legal, financial and reputational risk in high-profile work.
It would be great if you've also worked on strategic legal interventions, engaged business or industry bodies, or know coastal and marine conservation issues. You don't need all of these to apply.
Most of all, you'll share our commitment to ocean conservation and to equity, diversity and inclusion. You'll need to travel regularly across the UK.
The full job description and person specification are in the information pack.
Celebrating difference    The environmental and charity sectors don't yet reflect the diversity of our communities, and we want to change that. We welcome applications from all walks of life. If you'd like an adjustment at any stage of the process, please get in touch – we want to help you shine.