24 Oct
Financial Conduct Authority
Edinburgh
Job description
External Affairs Lead
Salary : National ranging from £48,900 £64,000 and London from £53,700 £70,000 per annum
Do you want to join a diverse team responsible for developing stakeholder networks with firm and consumer groups and representing the FCA across the devolved nations?
The team / department
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Lead Associate to join our External Affairs team, which sits within our Communications Directorate at the FCA.
You will lead our Devolved Nations and Firm and Consumer Groups teams. The Devolved Nations team is responsible for building and maintaining stakeholder networks across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, relaying key information, and assisting to influence policy.
It also promotes the devolved perspective in the FCA’s work across the UK. Our Firm and Consumer Groups team will work with internal and external stakeholders to build deeper relationships with trade associations and consumer groups.
What you will be doing (the role)
Internal duties :
Use information from networks across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and national in the financial services environment and trade body and consumer landscape, and effectively interpret political developments
Gather intelligence from internal networks, identify emerging risks and opportunities. Provide guidance to the Head of Public Affairs and other senior management, ensuring that risks are considered at an early stage
Act as a briefing function, working closely with colleagues from across the organisation to prepare senior management for Parliamentary meetings / receptions;
issue-specific meetings, etc
In all aspects of the role, work closely with devolved nations / public affairs colleagues and,
where appropriate, link with other areas of the organisation
External duties :
Develop and maintain an informed knowledge base on the financial services industry, consumer bodies, and other organisations, across the devolved nations
Build and enhance networks across the political environment and the wider public affairs world to gather intelligence and identify emerging risks and opportunities
Attend external events / round tables / forums etc
Understand the FCA's priorities and key messages; use influencing skills to explain and promote these priorities to stakeholders both in-person and in writing
- Relationship-manage a portfolio of influential stakeholders. This will include : developing relationships with politicians,
their staff and other stakeholders;
- explaining FCA policy and action to politicians, their staff and other public affairs stakeholders; listening to the concerns of stakeholders and ensuring that intelligence is relayed to colleagues in the wider FCA and that the FCA responds appropriately;
maintaining accurate records to ensure that we recognise stakeholder priorities
Line management duties :
Reporting to the Head of External Affairs, you will manage two teams, our engagement across the devolved nations and with firms and consumer groups
For the Devolved Nations, this consists of three Senior Associates each accountable for external affairs activities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
For the Firms and Consumer Groups team,
this consists of managing directly two Senior Associates and indirectly two Associates, you will be accountable for delivery of the team’s work and all aspects of people management
What you will get from the role
An opportunity to take on a high-profile, wide-ranging and interesting role which helps to ensure that the FCA is a regulator for the whole of the UK
A unique chance to help shape financial regulation across the devolved nations through stakeholder management and intelligence gathering
An opportunity to engage with senior stakeholders from across different sectors including financial services, politics, consumer organisations and others
Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package,
tailored to suit your lifecycle.
You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.
Core benefits that you will receive as standard are :
25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
Private healthcare with Bupa
A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
Income protection
We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.
The skills and experience you will have
Minimum
We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.
Knowledge of the political landscape and parliamentary procedures (some or all of the devolved nations), gained in a relevant environment such as public affairs consultancy, in-house public affairs function, UK / devolved Parliament etc
Experience in gathering of intelligence from multiple sources to identify risks and trends within the political environment
Essential
Excellent verbal communications skills to brief senior colleagues
Strong knowledge of the political landscape and parliamentary procedure
Ability to build strong relationships with a range of stakeholders
Experience of leading project teams to deliver outcomes
Experience in gathering of intelligence from multiple sources to identify risks and trends within the political environment
Experience of working on a number of areas of policy simultaneously
Sound judgment, effective decision making and personal accountability
About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive.
We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.
The FCA's Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences.
We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
We particularly welcome applications from men, disabled, and minority ethnic candidates, as under-represented groups.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.
We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multi-location
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.
This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
This role is graded Lead Associate Corporate.
Applications for this role close at 23 : 59 on Thursday 4th July 2024.
Got a question?
If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact :
For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at k
For external applicants, please contact Ifrah Azam at k
What to expect from our interview process
The process will be over two stages where your key competencies will be assessed.
Application support
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further.
Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.
▶️ External Affairs Lead
🖊️ Financial Conduct Authority
📍 Edinburgh