External Affairs Manager (fixed-term)

National Housing Federation; Bristol, Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 42,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

A representative organization in housing is seeking an External Affairs Manager to oversee engagement with housing associations, particularly in the East of England. The successful candidate will manage senior stakeholder relationships, develop policy strategies, and lead various member engagement initiatives. This fixed-term role offers flexible working arrangements and aims at enhancing NHF's influence in the sector. Candidates should possess strong leadership and communication skills, plus a commitment to excellent service.

Benefits

27 days annual leave

Flexible working arrangements

Private healthcare cover

Employee awards and development opportunities

Training and development opportunities

Qualifications

• Sound knowledge and understanding of housing associations and wider sector issues.
• Experience in establishing and maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain relationships with housing association leaders.
• Develop insights to shape policy and engagement strategies.
• Implement structured member engagement to ensure member-led policies.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Policy development

Public affairs

Communication skills

Leadership skills

Job description

Overview

Salary : £46,698 (London) / £42,373 (National) per annum

Hours : 35 hrs per week

Contract : Fixed term contract (until March 2027)

Benefits :

• 27 days annual leave + statutory holidays + 3 closures days over the Christmas period;
• Flexible working for all staff including working from home / hybrid working, and flexi-time / TOIL scheme;
• Attractive family friendly policies;
• Private healthcare cover;
• Season ticket loans;
• Employee awards, and training and development opportunities.

For more information about our benefits please visit our website.

Office locations : London, Bristol or homeworker

The role will involve spending a substantial amount of time in the East of England (including early starts / late finishes and overnight stays where required) and regular travel nationwide for NHF events and meetings.

Please note, if office based, the successful candidate will be expected to carry out two days in-person working per week on average which will include attendance at your office location.

Flexible working arrangements can be discussed and agreed with the line manager subject to role and business needs.

An exciting opportunity has arisen at the National Housing Federation (NHF) to join our team of External Affairs Managers on a fixed-term basis to cover maternity leave. The NHF is the voice of housing associations in England. We are the trade body to almost 600 housing associations, who have grown from philanthropic roots to provide 2.6 million homes to around 6 million people. You can find further information about the NHF here : https : / / www.housing.org.uk / about-us /

Could you be our new External Affairs Manager, working closely with our housing association members across the East of England?

This is a unique and varied role which would appeal to someone with a background in areas such as stakeholder management, policy, public affairs, communications, programme management or a combination of these areas! For example, you may be looking to step into a role to further develop your leadership and stakeholder engagement skills, whilst still building on your policy or programme management experience and knowledge.

You will operate at the heart of social housing by working with key decision makers across the housing association sector including managing relationships with chief executives, chairs of boards and executive directors. Strong communication and influencing skills are essential to the role, as well as the confidence to work at the most senior levels.

It is crucial that you can work collegiately to lead key programmes of work across the NHF with colleagues in other teams, for example from our policy, press, events, and public affairs teams. Equally, you will be comfortable working autonomously and shaping your own work programme.

The core of the role involves being responsible for engagement with a whole geographic region of our membership; and working closely on or leading one of the NHF’s key themes of work, which include areas such as supported housing; devolution; developing new homes; decarbonising existing homes; ensuring the building safety agenda is delivered; or representing our rural or smaller housing associations.

The role is wide ranging and in addition to stakeholder management and programme leadership, will include running roundtables between our members and government, chairing sessions at NHF conferences, and presenting political and policy updates to senior teams within housing associations.

You will be part of a team of eight External Affairs Managers sitting within the member services directorate, which is there to ensure that we provide excellent value for money for our housing association members.

Key elements of the role

• You will build and maintain brilliant relationships with housing associations leaders, using your well-developed communication and advocacy skills to maximum effect.
• You will develop knowledge, insight and understanding of housing associations to shape our policy and influencing work and to create structured programmes of member engagement on critical policy and political issues.
• You will be the contact point for housing associations in your region, ensuring they receive first class customer service on the issues which matter to them. Working closely with NHF members you will facilitate the organisation of regional chief executive or leaders forums and sounding boards.
• In addition to your regional work, you will lead on the strategic planning and delivery of a key NHF policy priority. This will require collaborative working with colleagues from across the organisation and working with members across every region and specialism. You will play a leadership role, creating structured engagement strategies to ensure members are able to influence policy as well as engaging key NHF stakeholders and sharing best practice.
• Your role will be to implement structured member engagement to ensure our policy priorities, positions and influencing work are member-led. This will include working directly with members to inform our policy positions and lead our influencing work.
• You will influence debates at the highest level and you will spot in advance and act strategically to mitigate the risk to our membership. As such, this role requires a high degree of political and organisational acumen and the ability to horizon scan.
• You will work with colleagues in our Commercial and Events teams to maximise commercial opportunities and help shape content at our conferences, as well chairing conference sessions.
• To be the face and voice of the NHF with members, stakeholders and the media.
• To ensure that as an organisation we deliver as a whole team, seamlessly, to members to achieve greatest impact in line with the business strategy.
• To maintain high quality standards and follow NHF policy and process.

The successful candidate :

• A sound knowledge and understanding of housing associations and issues affecting the wider sector.
• A sound understanding of the political and policy landscape that housing associations operate in.
• Demonstrable knowledge and experience of establishing and maintaining relationships with senior stakeholders, demonstrating excellent customer service and value for money.
• E ffective communication skills, in person and in writing, including the ability to credibly and confidently present at meetings and events.
• Ability to listen to and influence senior stakeholders, demonstrating diplomacy, effective communication and negotiation skills.
• Clear leadership skills, able to lead complex and strategic programmes of work effectively, including experience of matrix managing and motivating a team.
• Excellent analytical skills and strategic nous with the ability to summarise complex information effectively to aid decision making.
• A commitment to excellent customer service .
• A positive, energetic and agile approach to work.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

The NHF has published its equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, which was co-created with staff https : / / www.housing.org.uk / about-us / transparency / who-we-are / . We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and we value the contribution each individual makes to our work.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and are working to increase the diversity profile of our workforce. We are currently under-represented by ethnic minorities, people with a disability or disabilities and LGBTQ+, and would particularly welcome applications from people in these groups.

Disability confident employer

We are a disability confident employer and if you are a disabled person who meets the skills and experience we consider essential for the role, we will offer you an interview.

Please note : there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume of applications, we may be required to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

In these circumstances the NHF will 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. This is in line with the Disability Confident guidelines.

We are happy to consider reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process if you have a disability or have a condition that you feel may affect your performance during the recruitment process. Please e-mail the People team at [e-mail] with your request or to arrange a time to discuss in more detail.

Our role profile and job advert can also be requested in large print or in accessible format via this email address

Completing our Application Form

To apply for this role, please complete our online application form. The application form includes your employment and education history plus you will be asked to answer questions in relation to your knowledge, skills and experience, why you are applying for the role and questions in relation to our values. The application form is anonymous and will not require you to upload a CV or cover letter. This will help us to shortlist candidates for interview based solely on their knowledge, skills and experience.

Right to work in the UK / UK VISA sponsorship

You must have the right to work in the UK and it is important to note that the NHF does not sponsor individuals to work in the UK.

Closing date for applications : 4 January 2026

Interview date : 14 and 15 January 2026