CORPORATE AFFAIRS DIRECTOR

JOB OVERVIEW

The British Retail Consortium is partnering with Vox Partners, to lead the search for a new Corporate Affairs Director.

This is a senior and strategic appointment at a pivotal time for the retail sector, offering the opportunity to shape and lead the BRC’s campaigns, public affairs, communications, and stakeholder engagement. Vox Partners is supporting the BRC in identifying experienced, influential candidates who can champion the industry and help drive meaningful change.

The BRC is seeking a highly experienced and dynamic Corporate Affairs Director to lead its campaigns, public affairs, communications, and stakeholder engagement efforts. This is a pivotal role, working closely with the CEO and the Executive team, to shape and amplify the BRC's message, influence government policy, and champion the industry. This position offers a close working partnership with the CEO and the wider Executive Team on strategic initiatives. The role is based at the BRC’s London office, The Form Rooms.

This a challenging role given the breath of regulatory issues that affect retail. At any point in time, the BRC will have two or three high profile campaigning objectives, other important influencing objectives and a plethora of other areas being dealt with by the policy teams which may require public affairs and/or communications input.

In this role, you will: 

Campaigning:

• Shape, lead and deliver high profile outcome driven campaigns on the priority issues that industry faces, identifying key stakeholders, mobilising members around the strategy, clearly set objectives and narrative and forward plans.

Public Affairs & Policy Advocacy:

• Lead/co-ordinate the BRC's ongoing engagement with government, policymakers, and parliamentary bodies on high impact retail issues to drive the BRC's advocacy efforts to promote policies that support retail investment, growth, job creation, and a fair-trading environment.
• Build and maintain strategic political engagement through ongoing lobbying and influential relationships with government ministers and departments.
• Collaborate with internal teams and external partners to leverage research, data, and industry insights in policy discussions.
• Support internally on other policy influence outside campaigns/high priority issues.

Strategic Communications & Executive Profiling:

• Develop and execute comprehensive communication strategies to advance the BRC's agenda and enhance the profile of the CEO and the BRC across various platforms, including traditional media, social media, and public speaking engagements.
• Work closely with the CEO on her messaging, preparing her for media appearances, and supporting her in influencing government and other key stakeholders.
• Oversee the BRC's digital presence, ensuring effective use of platforms like LinkedIn for thought leadership and dissemination of key messages.
• Develop a strategic approach for the BRC's engagement to monitor discussions, amplify messages, and engage with key political figures in real-time.

Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Management:

• Own, develop and maintain strong relationships with corporate affairs, comms, and public affairs leads at our members, with editors and journalists, political advisors, network of parliamentarians and other relevant stakeholders.
• Represent the BRC in the media, at key industry events, roundtables, and discussions.

Reputation Protection:

• Proactively identify and manage potential reputational risks and challenges facing the industry, including issues like retail crime and cybersecurity incidents.
• Develop and implement crisis communication plans as needed.

Leadership & Management:

• Lead and mentor a corporate affairs team, fostering a high-performance culture focused on achieving the BRC's strategic objectives. This team includes four colleagues in the Devolved Nations.

To be successful in this role, you'll have:

• Proven ability in campaigning, influencing government, regulatory bodies, and policymakers at senior levels to deliver regulatory change/change government policy
• Ability to translate complex policy issues into compelling campaign narratives
• Expertise in designing and leading high impact, multi-channel public affairs and advocacy campaigns
• Comfortable leading and influencing collaborative campaigns
• Excellent knowledge of the workings of the UK government
• A deep understanding of political processes, legislative cycles and policy development
• Interest in and awareness of current business issues and related policy areas.
• Strong understanding of reputational drivers and ability to navigate sensitive public and/or political issues
• Experience managing reactive and proactive strategies around issues impacting the retail sector
• Skilled at integrating public affairs with corporate communications, media relations, and brand positioning and aligning messaging across external audiences
• Knowledge of media strategy, digital campaigning, and stakeholder CRM tools
• Ability to advise and influence C-suite leaders, Boards, senior members and partners
• Experience of leading a high performing team
• Outstanding project management, ability to prioritise and attention to detail.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Degree or postgraduate qualification in politics, public policy, communications or related field
• The successful candidate will have a background in a similar role, either in-house or within a consultancy environment, preferably within a related sector

THE BRC 

The BRC is the trade association for UK retail. The industry is diverse, dynamic and includes retail brands, brand manufacturers who sell direct to consumers, and covers many innovative business models, from in-store and digital to rental, repair and re-use. 

Retail is the ‘everywhere economy’, a vital part of the socio-economic fabric of the UK. It’s 5% of GDP, our largest private sector employer with 3 million direct jobs and 2.7 million more in the supply chain and through its scale and reach, helps support delivery of government policy. 

Over 200 major retailers and brands are members of the BRC, with thousands of smaller retailers represented by our trade association members. Together, these businesses operate across all channels and categories and deliver over £450 billion of sales per year.  

Our mission is to make a positive difference to retail and its customers and the community, today and in the future. We do this by influencing change and delivering value to our members. We care about investment and innovation, a thriving workforce and reducing the industry’s environmental impact. 

As the voice of the industry, we use our expertise to influence government policy, develop exceptional retail leaders and provide insight and market intelligence through our communities and networks. Our work helps retailers trade competitively, ethically, legally, safely and sustainably. 

Why work for us?

We offer a wide range of benefits including: 

• Competitive salary and discretionary bonus.
• An excellent range of employee benefits, including a private pension scheme, a medical cash plan, private medical and dental insurance, cycle to work scheme & an exercise allowance.
• Investment in your professional development as well as a range of health & wellbeing programmes.
• Flexible ways of working. The BRC operates core hours from 10am-4 pm, we operate a hybrid working model that reflects our commitment to flexibility, collaboration and wellbeing. Our team is primarily based at our lovely Covent Garden office, which serves as a hub for connection, creativity and shared purpose. While you’ll have the flexibility to work from home, this is subject to agreement with your line manager to ensure it supports both individual and team needs. We also ask all colleagues to be present in the office for team meetings, events and key collaborative moments. Our approach is grounded in trust and mutual respect, and we believe that hybrid working should empower you to do your best work—wherever that may be. 

TO APPLY 

If you are interested in applying for this position, please click here. 

 For more information, please download the job pack here.

The BRC encourages applications from all backgrounds and communities and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our team. If you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process or the role please let us know and we will be happy to discuss.     

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Monday 28 July @ 9AM.

For external applicants: if you have not received any feedback within 14 days of your application, please assume that your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. May we thank you for your interest and wish you every success in your ongoing job search.