External Affairs Manager

External Affairs Manager (Fixed-Term) Salary: £46,698 (London) / £42,373 (National) per annum Hours: 35 hrs per week Contract: Fixed-term contract (until March 2027) Benefits - 27 days’ annual leave + statutory holidays + 3 closures days over the Christmas period - Flexible working for all staff, including working from home/hybrid working, and flexi-time/TOIL scheme - Attractive family-friendly policies - Private healthcare cover - Season ticket loans - Employee awards, and training and development opportunities For more information about our benefits, please visit our website. Office locations: London, Bristol or homeworker The role will involve spending a substantial amount of time in the East of England (including early starts/late finishes and overnight stays where required) and regular travel nationwide for NHF events and meetings. Please note, if office-based, the successful candidate will be expected to carry out two days of in-person working per week on average, which will include attendance at your office location. Flexible working arrangements can be discussed and agreed with the line manager, subject to role and business needs. An exciting opportunity has arisen at the National Housing Federation (NHF) to join our team of External Affairs Managers on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave. The NHF is the voice of housing associations in England. We are the trade body to almost 600 housing associations, who have grown from philanthropic roots to provide 2.6 million homes to around 6 million people. You can find further information about the NHF on our website. Could you be our new External Affairs Manager, working closely with our housing association members across the East of England? This is a unique and varied role which would appeal to someone with a background in areas such as stakeholder management, policy, public affairs, communications, programme management, or a combination of these areas For example, you may be looking to step into a role to further develop your leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, whilst still building on your policy or programme management experience and knowledge. You will operate at the heart of social housing by working with key decision makers across the housing association sector – including managing relationships with chief executives, chairs of boards and executive directors. Strong communication and influencing skills are essential to the role, as well as the confidence to work at the most senior levels. It is crucial that you can work collegiately to lead key programmes of work across the NHF with colleagues in other teams, for example, from our policy, press, events, and public affairs teams. Equally, you will be comfortable working autonomously and shaping your own work programme. The core of the role involves being responsible for engagement with a whole geographic region of our membership; and working closely on or leading one of the NHF’s key themes of work, which include areas such as supported housing; devolution; developing new homes; decarbonising existing homes; ensuring the building safety agenda is delivered; or representing our rural or smaller housing associations. The role is wide-ranging and, in addition to stakeholder management and programme leadership, will include running roundtables between our members and government, chairing sessions at NHF conferences, and presenting political and policy updates to senior teams within housing associations. You will be part of a team of eight External Affairs Managers sitting within the member services directorate, which is there to ensure that we provide excellent value for money for our housing association members. Key elements of the role: - You will build and maintain brilliant relationships with housing association leaders, using your well-developed communication and advocacy skills to maximum effect. - You will develop knowledge, insight and understanding of housing associations to shape our policy, influence work and create structured programmes of member engagement on critical policy and political issues. - You will be the contact point for housing associations in your region, ensuring they receive first-class customer service on the issues which matter to them - In addition to your regional work, you will lead on the strategic planning and delivery of a key NHF policy priority - Your role will be to implement structured member engagement to ensure our policy priorities, positions and influencing work are member-led - You will influence debates at the highest level, spotting risk to our membership in advance and acting strategically to mitigate it - You will work with colleagues in our Commercial and Events teams to maximise commercial opportunities and help shape content at our conferences, as well as chairing conference sessions - To be the face and voice of the NHF with members, stakeholders and the media - To ensure that as an organisation we deliver as a whole team, seamlessly, to members to achieve the greatest impact in line with the business strategy The successful candidate: The successful candidate will be able to demonstrate: - A sound knowledge and understanding of housing associations and issues affecting the wider sector - A sound understanding of the political and policy landscape that housing associations operate in - Demonstrable knowledge and experience of establishing and maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders, demonstrating excellent customer service and value for money - Effective communication skills, in person and in writing, including the ability to credibly and confidently present at meetings and events - Ability to listen to and influence senior stakeholders, demonstrating diplomacy, effective communication and negotiation skills - Clear leadership skills, able to lead complex and strategic programmes of work effectively, including experience of matrix managing and motivating a team - Excellent analytical skills and strategic nous with the ability to summarise complex information effectively to aid decision making - A commitment to excellent customer service - A positive, enthusiastic and agile approach to work Equality, diversity and inclusion We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and are working to increase the diversity profile of our workforce. We are currently under-represented by ethnic minorities, people with a disability or disabilities and LGBTQ+, and would particularly welcome applications from people in these groups. Disability confident employer We are a disability confident employer and, if you are a disabled person who meets the skills and experience we consider essential for the role, we will offer you an interview. We are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process if you have a disability or have a condition that you feel may affect your performance during the recruitment process. Please email our People team with your request or to arrange a time to discuss in more detail. Completing our Application Form To apply for this role, please complete our online application form. The application form is anonymous and will not require you to upload a CV or cover letter. Right to work in the UK/UK VISA sponsorship You must have the right to work in the UK, and it is important to note that the NHF does not sponsor individuals to work in the UK. Closing date for applications: 4 January 2026 Interview date: 14 and 15 January 2026