Senior Community and Patient Involvement and Engagement

Role Overview

The Senior Community and Patient Engagement role will play a key role in building, supporting, and strengthening relationships with people living with lung conditions, carers, patient organisations, and wider community stakeholders across Europe. The postholder will ensure that patient voices are meaningfully embedded in ELF and ERS activities, including research, education, advocacy, and policy. This role requires strong organisational and communication skills, ability to manage and distrbute workload and tasks, cultural sensitivity, and a commitment to inclusive, ethical, and impactful engagement. 

Key Responsibilities

Community & Patient Engagement

• Build and maintain strong relationships with patients, carers, patient organisations and professionals across Europe
• Support the development and coordination of patient advisory groups, community panels, and networks
• Ensure diverse patient perspectives are represented, including underserved and marginalised communities
• Develop innovative strategies and ways of reaching the community

Co-production & Involvement

• Facilitate meaningful patient involvement in research projects, clinical practice guidelines, educational activities, and events
• Support co-creation of materials, resources, and initiatives with patients and community partners
• Provide guidance and practical support to ensure engagement activities are accessible, inclusive, and ethical

Programme & Project Support

• Coordinate patient engagement activities across multiple projects, ensuring timelines and objectives are met
• Work collaboratively with internal teams, ERS colleagues, researchers, and external partners
• Support the evaluation and continuous improvement of engagement activities

Communication & Advocacy

• Help translate complex medical and scientific information into clear, patient-friendly language
• Contribute to the development of engagement content for websites, newsletters, social media, and events
• Support patient participation in conferences, workshops, and policy-related activities
• Plan and deliver online events for patients and the public, including programme management, technical support and content creation

Monitoring, Learning & Reporting

• Collect feedback and data to assess the impact and quality of engagement activities
• Contribute to reports, funding applications, and internal learning documents
• Share best practice in patient and community engagement across the organisation

Person Specification

Essential

• Substantial experience working in patient, community, or public engagement, preferably in health, research, or a non-profit setting
• Strong experience of delivering patient involvement, co-production, or participatory approaches
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• Ability to work collaboratively with diverse stakeholders across cultures and countries
• Strong project management and task assignment skills with proven ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects from initiation to completion
• Sensitivity to ethical issues, confidentiality, and safeguarding in patient engagement

Desirable

• Experience working with patient organisations or people living with long-term conditions
• Knowledge of respiratory or lung health (or willingness to learn)
• Experience working in a European or international context
• Additional European language skills
• Experience evaluating engagement activities or using qualitative feedback
• Experience of organising and delivering conferences and events, ideally with a focus on patient‑facing meetings or patient conferences
• Experience in coordinating and prioritising a team’s project workload, ensuring resources are used effectively and deadlines are met

What We Offer

• The opportunity to make a meaningful impact on lung health and patient involvement across Europe
• A collaborative, mission-driven working environment
• Flexible working arrangements
• Professional development opportunities
• A supportive and inclusive organisational culture

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The European Lung Foundation is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and particularly encourage candidates from underrepresented communities and those with lived experience of lung conditions.