Job details

Job title: Policy and External Relations Manager

Directorate: External Relations

Reporting to: Head of Policy, Partnerships & Impact

Responsible for: No direct line reports, but the role requires significant partnership working.

Based: Remote working or office based. Our Head Office is based in London, but we have an agile working policy enabling people to work at another UK location up to 4 days/week (this is currently a trial policy and subject to review). We welcome applications from people based in other parts of the UK. Travel to London is required for Parliamentary events.  

Terms: Full-time (35 hours per week), permanent. Requests for part-time or flexible working will be   considered.

Salary: £29,583-37,906

Download the candidate pack for this role as a pdf or view our text-only version of the pack here.

Role overview

The Policy and External Relations Manager will play a key role in making the British Science Association’s vision of science being more relevant, representative, and connected to society to its key stakeholders, such as leaders in business, research, and policy.

Key responsibilities 

The main responsibilities of this role are to: 

• Manage the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Diversity and Inclusion in STEM, including seeking funding, liaising with members of Parliament and leading inquiries;
• Develop partnerships and activities for the BSA’s For Thought events, which will include curating discussions between senior leaders in research, business, and policy, and creating outputs such as discussion summaries;
• Contribute to research on public views and values on science and technology in society, as part of the BSA’s role in the Sciencewise public dialogue consortium;
• Monitor relevant policy debates and ensure the BSA’s views are represented (for example, by submitting evidence to inquiries or representing the BSA at events);
• Undertake stakeholder mapping and help identify new potential partnerships;
• Ensure equity and inclusion is embedded in BSA policy projects and approaches;
• Collaborate with colleagues from across the organisation and share learnings from different activities with stakeholders to ensure the delivery of BSA’s strategy.

In addition, the post-holder will be expected to:

• Support colleagues across the organisation especially at busy times or on specific areas of expertise;
• Other duties as reasonably required by the line manager.

About you

The Policy and External Relations Manager role would suit someone who is thoughtful, engaged in societal issues, and is an excellent networker. You will need to be comfortable with convening diverse groups of professionals (typically from science, business, policy, and civil society) to create structural change.

The Policy, Partnerships, and Impact team are committed to ensuring that  groups who are traditionally underrepresented  in science and research are included in all our discussions and activities.

You are likely to work on policy-facing projects such as:

• Leading the Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group of Diversity and Inclusion in STEM
• Supporting the BSA’s role in the Sciencewise consortium
• Supporting on delivery of the BSA’s For Thought programme.

Person Specification

Below is a summary of essential and desirable criteria needed for this role, as well as how we will assess a candidate’s suitability.

Essential criteria 

Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview	Task at interview
Experience of developing and maintaining effective policy partnerships in a professional or policy setting	Y	Y		Y
Verbal and written communication skills including the ability to act as an effective ambassador for the organisation		Y	Y	Y
Planning and strategic thinking skills including experience of managing projects to deliver successfully, on time and on budget	Y	Y	Y
Experience of tracking outputs and outcomes of partnerships – including experience of how different research methods can support projects	Y	Y	Y	Y
Knowledge of the British political landscape and an awareness of big societal debates around science and/or equality, diversity and inclusion.		Y	Y	Y
A self starter, able to work on their own initiative and manage their own time effectively		Y	Y
A passion for equality, diversity and inclusion		Y	Y	Y

Desirable criteria

Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview	Task at interview
Experience of convening senior stakeholders to discuss policy issues		Y	Y	Y
Knowledge of the key stakeholders in either science policy or science engagement		Y	Y
Ability to work effectively between strategic and operational activities		Y	Y
Experience of fundraising and/or influencing internal or external policy change.		Y	Y

Benefits 

• Agile working policy enabling you to work at home or in another UK location up to 4 days per week, if office-based, and to vary your working hours outside our 10am – 12pm and 2pm – 4pm core hours, subject to the needs of the BSA;
• 27 days holiday per annum plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time employees); 
• Up to two days paid leave per year for significant voluntary commitments in support of professional and personal development, such as being a trustee of a charity or a school governor;
• Auto-enrolment pension scheme (4% paid by employer);
• Up to five days’ unpaid leave per year (this is down to the Manager’s decision and ensuring it does not affect work); 
• Life assurance from your first day, subject to scheme rules;  
• Occupational sick pay: up to six weeks’ full pay per year (pro-rata for part-time employees); 
• Confidential telephone counselling service, offered by our legal insurance;
• Interest-free loan for season ticket, bike to work, and assisted study;
• Discounts may be offered on Science Museum tickets and in the shop.

To apply

Please send a CV and covering letter (each of no more than two A4 pages) that summarises your interest in the role and details your ability to match the criteria.

Applications should be made via this link: https://recruit.smb.co.uk/vacancy.aspx?id=UZMQ5CvsUuR7smDL

The closing date for applications is 23:59 on Wednesday 13 July 2022. 

Interviews are due to take place on Thursday 21 July 2022. 

You will be informed as soon as possible after the application deadline whether you have been selected for interview.

As part of the British Science Association’s commitment to being a Disability Confident employer, all disabled* applicants who meet the ‘essential criteria’ for this vacancy will be offered an interview under our guaranteed interview scheme.

If you wish to apply under the guaranteed interview scheme, you will be asked to indicate this when you submit your application by selecting ‘yes’ in the relevant box when asked during the application process. Applicants do not need to state any further information or declare their disability at the application stage.

The BSA follows government advice in that it is important to note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in certain recruitment situations (such as a high number of applications), we may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

In these circumstances, we could select the disabled candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria, as we would do for non-disabled applicants.

Whether you are applying under the scheme or not, if you are successful in being shortlisted, we will ask candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions to let us know if they need any adjustments during the recruitment process.

If you have further questions or would like this information in a different format, please contact: [email protected]  

Terms & conditions

From time to time the job entails working extended hours and occasional weekends, for which no overtime payments are made. The BSA operates a time off in lieu policy for weekend working and some other out-of-hours instances.

Only applicants who have a legal right to work within the UK will be considered. You will be asked to bring along proof of nationality and/or proof of ability to work in the UK.

You will also be asked to declare any previous convictions in line with your rights under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975.

This is a description of the job as it is presently constituted. It is the practice of the Association to examine job descriptions from time to time and to update them to ensure they relate to the job as then being performed, or to incorporate whatever changes are reasonably required, in discussion with the postholder.

It is the policy of the BSA to offer starting salaries at the bottom end of the salary band where appropriate.

A copy of our Privacy Notice is available on the vacancies page of our website.

*The Disability Confident scheme’s definition of disability is in line with the Equalities Act 2010: “a physical or mental condition which has a long-term and substantial effect on your daily life”.

Further information about our Disability Confident commitments can be found on the Disability Confident page of our website.