Public Affairs and Influencing Manager

Full time (flexible working options available)

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 3rd August

Ref 6991

Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a strategic and politically minded individual with extensive Public Affairs experience to join us as our Public Affairs and Influencing Manager where you will work in the Northern Ireland team with colleagues across Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, and Europe.

The home office for this role is located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but this post can be based anywhere in Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Please note: Salary will be offered in GBP or Euro equivalent, depending on the candidate's location.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. Around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.  When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave.  We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

In Northern Ireland and Ireland, we work alongside children, families, and partners to influence policy, practice, and systems so they better reflect local needs and priorities. Together with colleagues and partners across Northern Ireland, Ireland, the UK, and Europe, we aim to shift resources closer to national and local partners, ensure the meaningful participation of children and families in decision-making, and strengthen collective impact through strategic partnerships, networks, and coalitions.

About the role

As Public Affairs and Influencing Manager, you will lead our political engagement work in Northern Ireland and Ireland. You will know how policy change happens — and how to bring the right people along. This isn't just about having the right contacts (though that helps). You will play a key role in helping us to build on our well established position in Northern Ireland, and develop our approach in Ireland, shaping our strategies, partnerships, and our approach to making change happen. This role is for someone who can map the landscape, identify who holds power and influence, and design smart, creative strategies to get us to impact — all while staying grounded in the voices and needs of children and families.

In this role, you will: 

• Build and manage relationships with political and policy stakeholders to raise Save the Children's profile and influence key decisions.

• Develop and deliver public affairs strategies rooted in a clear analysis of power, opportunity and pathways to change.

• Design evidence-based policy proposals that reflect the realities of children and families and translate them into action for decision-makers.

• Collaborate with colleagues across media, participation, and partnerships to align influencing efforts and amplify our collective impact.

• Represent Save the Children to politicians, officials, coalitions and media, with confidence and credibility.

• Support engagement with children and families to ensure their voices inform and drive our advocacy.

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Experience developing public affairs strategies to influence political agendas and deliver policy change.

• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills — you can identify who matters, why they matter, and how to influence them.

• Ability to turn evidence and insight into compelling policy positions and clear, accessible communications.

• A collaborative mindset, with experience working across teams and sectors and excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills.

• Understanding of the political systems in Northern Ireland and/or Ireland — or the ability to quickly get up to speed.

• Willingness to travel across Northern Ireland and Ireland with notice.

• Commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.

• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. 

Closing date: Midnight on Sunday 3rd August

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter).  This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building. 

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be "Free to Be Me". We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. 

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.