Stakeholder Engagement Manager - Renewable Energy

The successful candidate will have contact with a variety of stakeholders including politicians, local community representatives, local residents, council officers and statutory consultees, as well as internal project teams and external PR and digital marketing agencies.

• Work with the Director of Sustainability & Community and other senior leaders to devise regional and national stakeholder engagement activity across England which positions the company as the leading, sustainable energy developer in this market and influences policy in commercial areas, supporting project consents in tandem. This will include events such as site visits to wind farms, producing & launching collaborative reports and other activity which highlights area of common interest with politicians, statutory consultees and civil servants.
• You will also be responsible for embedding social, economic and environmental good practice into the project design to meet and exceed the expectations of key stakeholders and the companies sustainability strategy.
• Organise and attend community meetings, workshops, public exhibitions and surgeries, open days, presentations and community surveys to promote projects, explain the benefits of the proposals, record feedback, seek support and identify opportunities for local economic, environmental and social benefits that could be delivered by the development.
• Promote the community funds in the communities around developments and work with project teams to ensure that tangible economic, environmental and social benefits are delivered in the vicinity of renewables developments.
• Reporting into the Sustainability and Community Director, you will be responsible for stakeholder engagement, public affairs and community activity across England as a brand, and be responsible for the projects in this market, ensuring that each has a marketing and engagement strategy to deliver results, from bringing new projects into the planning system and gaining consent, to their construction and operation.
• Develop relationships through a careful, thoughtful stakeholder engagement strategy, including MPs, councillors and parish councillors, local communities, local businesses, charities and voluntary organisations in the vicinity of renewable energy developments to encourage support for each of the projects and to keep the community informed about our development proposals in their area.
• Investigate and resolve community enquiries, complaints and feedback regarding any energy projects
• Devise, manage and deliver project communications and community engagement strategies in support of new developments, promoting the benefits for the environment, the local community and the regional economy. Where a project is a significant distance from our head office you may be required to hire a community manager or appoint a consultant to manage the consultation activity
• Identify, foster, and cultivate strategic partnerships with organisations which help deliver excellent sustainability initiatives and increase the likelihood of planning consents in tandem.

Based in Cambridge. You will travel extensively throughout England and must be a capable driver with a full UK driving licence. The post involves meeting with a wide variety of people and organisations and will involve attendance at occasional evening events, meetings, workshops, surgeries and exhibitions which may also require overnight stays.

• Experience in dealing with challenging environments where you have employed your influencing skills to deliver commercial results, demonstrating your ability to get people on-board in the face of adversity. This could be through a marketing approach or in other areas such as policy advocacy or sales.
• Educated to degree level and ideally you will have some experience in one of the following areas: public affairs, sustainability, sales, community relations, stakeholder engagement, marketing, and customer relations.
• Experience of working within strategic marketing and communications such as preparing written copy for use in promotional material, including web site, and social media.
• Experience of dealing with communication with local communities and a good understanding of planning and environmental / sustainability issues.
• You must have experience in delivering excellent customer or community care by developing trusting relationships with a variety of different stakeholders. This could include customers, politicians, local community representatives, residents, council officers or statutory consultees.
• Experience in delivering senior stakeholder engagement, event management, corporate affairs, government affairs, policy advocacy and public affairs activity.
• Leadership experience either though managing people or consultants.
• Experience of renewable energy projects and the planning system.
• You will be a persuasive character with strong communication, interpersonal, presentation and negotiation skills and the confidence and credibility to open doors and engage with and influence a wide range of people. To be successful you will also need to develop a good knowledge of local communities and the key stakeholders around each of our projects and be able to translate this into strategies which result in large renewable energy projects getting consent

Salary: competitive salary plus bonus, excellent benefits and car allowance.