Job title: Senior Policy Manager

Job salary: £55,000 - £58,000 per annum

Job location: London, Edinburgh or Cardiff

Deadline: TBC

Purpose of the job

You will be instrumental in the delivery and quality of Smart Energy GB’s policy development, including coordinating the work of the Policy team and reporting to the Head of Policy and Public Affairs.

Within Smart Energy GB, there are 2 primary elements to the policy function. The first is to work with government and industry to identify potential barriers to the installation of smart meters, and any missed opportunities for their promotion. We want this role to bring forward well-designed and evidenced proposals for the reform of these barriers.

The second element is to understand the complex and ever-changing energy sector and the role of smart meters as an enabler of a net zero future. Building on this understanding, we want to support industry and government, with a focus on coordination of messaging and approach. These policy areas are expected to include (but not necessarily be limited to) those relating to the smart meter rollout, and wider energy and consumer energy policy which, if shaped correctly, could further extend the benefits that can be gained from smart meters.

To support this, you will work in collaboration with the Head of Policy and Public Affairs providing strategic advice on policy impacts and approaches. You will undertake the day-to-day management of the policy team and contribute to the management of the policy budget. You will also have responsibility for the policy team’s output and act as an external spokesperson for the organisation.

Key tasks and responsibilities

• Support the Head of Policy and Public Affairs in advising the Director of Corporate Affairs and the Senior Leadership Team on Smart Energy GB’s policy programme and the organisation’s responses to relevant policy events. This includes a specific focus on identifying areas of energy market reform that will impact smart meters and coordinating innovative and accurate cross-industry approaches to message development and dissemination
• Ensure that Smart Energy GB applies high-quality methodologies to develop evidence-based policy views
• Ensure that Smart Energy GB is able to communicate its policy views with clear and compelling arguments and supporting evidence; sometimes managing the communication of these views directly via the policy team and on other occasions supporting others in the organisation (such as the public affairs team or the members of the senior leadership team including the Chief Executive and the Chair) with the materials and arguments that they need to be advocates for Smart Energy GB’s policy aims
• Work across SEGB, and especially with the Industry Relations team, as well as government and Ofgem to identify, and design, ways in which the smart meter installation environment can be improved through a policy approach
• Attend Smart Energy GB and third-party events for political and stakeholder audiences
• Line manage 1- 2 members of the Policy team at the Manager level
• Support the Head of Policy and Public Affairs in the management of the policy budget
• The role will involve a certain amount of travel within Great Britain and occasional evening and weekend working

Skills, experience, and competencies

Essential

• Experience developing policy positions, in particular those which are based on a strong and/or sophisticated evidence base
• Experience in leading and managing policy projects and people
• Experience in leading the communication of complex policy aims through clear and compelling materials and argument
• Appreciation for the diversity of the people and communities of Great Britain and embrace this diversity in your approach to work
• Creativity and innovation when communicating technical topics for varied audiences
• Excellent communication skills (verbal/writing)

Desirable

• Knowledge of the policy landscape governing the smart metering rollout
• Experience in line management and developing others
• Ability to act as external ambassador and public platform and media spokesperson for Smart Energy GB
• Appreciation of the objectives and activities of Smart Energy GB

Welcome to Smart Energy GB. It’s our task to engage everyone in England Scotland and Wales with the national rollout of smart meters - and we are all thrilled to have this once-in-a-career chance to communicate with the whole of our diverse nation.

Every British home and microbusiness has the opportunity to upgrade to new gas and electricity smart meters, which will utterly transform the way we all buy and use energy and pave the way to a smarter, more energy efficient future. It’s one of the biggest technological and infrastructural investments of our time, the smart meter rollout has already converted just over 50 per cent of British households. The goal for this voluntary technological upgrade is to engage every household in Great Britain, and so there is a continuing critical role for Smart Energy GB in the years ahead (government has recently indicated that Smart Energy GB’s campaign should continue until at least 2025, and potentially beyond).

Our campaign is one of the most far-reaching of any campaign in the country. We are talking to consumers from all backgrounds, across the whole of Great Britain. Our legal duties mean that we have a particular need to make sure that consumers who are harder to reach or need greater support are not left behind (already an important part of our responsibilities and likely to be an increasing focus over the period leading to 2025).

It’s an exciting time to join one of the most talented and creative teams in the country. We have an exciting mission, and we pride ourselves on having a fully inclusive working environment.

We love what we do. We are flexible, eager to learn and hugely motivated by this chance to be part of one of the biggest-ever behaviour change campaigns, which brings with it benefits for both individual households and the environment.

We’re looking forward to meeting you, and hope you’ll be as fired up about the challenge ahead as we are.

The Smart Energy GB team

Smart Energy GB is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We actively encourage applications from currently under-represented groups in the marketing and communications sector. We have identified ethnic minority, disability, gender and lower socio-economic background as the key areas we would like to focus our recruitment efforts in. Therefore, we are keen to hear from female applicants, applicants that belong to the ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities and applicants from a lower socio-economic background.

We collect and analyse equal opportunity information to make our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible. As such, we will require you provide us with information relating to our equality monitoring mission as part of your application.

We’re building a team that is able to understand the needs of and effectively communicate with the whole of our diverse nation. So, if you’re applying for a job with us, we’d like to hear how you can help us do this.

Disability Confident Scheme

We have the Disability Confident Leader status and we are committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive and fair as possible for all applicants. Disability Confident is a government scheme designed to help us make the most of the talents of those with disabilities and/or health conditions in the workplace.

All disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements of the job as set out in the job description and person specification will be guaranteed an interview. If there’s anything we can do to make our interview process or working environment more inclusive and to meet your particular needs please let us know. Our offices have full wheelchair access.

We consider our commitment to the Disability Confident scheme in many aspects of our work life, including our offices. We moved to a new London office in September 2021, and having an accessible layout was a high priority in this search.

All In Champions

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels like they belong. That’s why we’re proud to be one of the first organisations awarded All In Champion status, as part of the Advertising Association, ISBA and IPA’s initiative. To achieve this, we provided evidence that we have adopted the first six actions from the All In Action Plan – improving the experience and representation of:

• Black talent
• Disabled talent
• Working-class talent
• Women
• Asian talent
• Older talent

You can read more about how to become an All In Champion and what it means here.

Rooney Rule

We are building a team that is able to understand the needs of and effectively communicate with the whole of our diverse nation. We want our team to reflect the diversity of the wider population. This includes the representation of people from ethnic minorities and lower socio-economic backgrounds. We apply the Rooney Rule to achieve this.

Subject to consent, out of the candidates who meet the essential selection criteria for the role and who are from ethnic minority or lower socio-economic backgrounds, at least one will be shortlisted for the next stage in the recruitment process, which is usually an interview.

Every member of our team goes above and beyond, helps one another out and contributes to the achievement of our ambitious goals. We think it’s only right for us to reward them accordingly:

• Competitive pension scheme
• 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• Gym memberships
• Private medical insurance
• Annual health check
• Annual eye test
• Season ticket loan
• 5 annual volunteer days
• £1,000 (net) work anniversary gift
• Local discounts with Better Bankside Buzz Offers
• Option to buy additional annual leave
• Option to take out a personal loan
• Cycle to work scheme
• Free standard breakfast and healthy snacks provided in the office
• An in-house wellbeing programme, Thrive

Thrive

We take our role as an employer seriously and work hard to create a great place for people to work. But we also have an opportunity to support our employees outside work. In order to do so, we’ve rolled out Thrive; a programme to help our people live healthier, feel better and deal with life’s curveballs.

Through our employee assistance programme we’re all able to, anonymously and confidentially, access financial, medical and mental health advice if we would ever need it. We’ve even extended this offer to our employees’ immediate families. Throughout the year we also invite various experts, such as mental health and wellbeing coaches to help us live life a little smarter.

Alongside this, we also have the ‘Thrive Room’ in our London office, which is used as a private and comfortable space. It can be used for people to take time out, meditate, pray, or for new mums returning to work who may be breastfeeding and need to express milk.