Senior Manager Stakeholder Management

Atomic Weapons Establishment; Milton Keynes; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 68,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

9-day fortnight

Pension scheme (9%-13%)

270 hours annual leave

Professional development funding

Employee Assistance Programme

Life Assurance (4x salary)

Discounts

Job summary

Atomic Weapons Establishment is seeking a Senior Manager Stakeholder Management to shape and execute strategic engagement with government, regulators, industry, and academia. The role sits in Reading with hybrid working and a 9-day fortnight, and requires British citizenship with UK residence history for security clearance.

You will lead stakeholder engagement programs, advise senior leaders, monitor political developments, and coordinate high-level engagements like briefings and site visits.

Qualifications

• Degree-level education in Political Science, Public Policy, Communications, International Relations, or a related field.
• Extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, public affairs, or external relations.
• Strong understanding of political and regulatory environments, ideally within defence, government, or infrastructure sectors.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deliver a strategic stakeholder engagement plan aligned to business objectives and reputation.
• Build and maintain a stakeholder map for Executives and senior leaders with clear relationship owners.
• Provide strategic counsel on stakeholder engagement, public affairs, and reputational risks.

Skills

Stakeholder engagement

Public affairs

Crisis communications

Regulatory awareness

Education

Degree in Political Science or related field

Tools

Engagement tracking platforms

Stakeholder mapping tools

Job description

AWE is looking for a Senior Manager Stakeholder Management to join the team. Location: Located in Reading, with free on-site parking. Package: Starting from £61,460 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience). Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight, with every other Friday as a non-working day. This role is eligible for hybrid working, meaning employees typically spend three days on site in a long week and two days on site in a short week. We support flexible working where possible, including part-time and varied working hours, so please let us know if you would like us to consider an alternative working arrangement when you apply.

Key Accountabilities

• Develop and deliver a strategic stakeholder engagement plan that supports AWE’s business objectives and reputation, with a focus on government, regulators, industry bodies, academia, and supply chain partners.
• Build and maintain a comprehensive stakeholder map for AWE’s Executive and senior leaders, identifying relationship owners and ensuring timely, purposeful engagement.
• Provide strategic counsel to senior leaders on stakeholder engagement, public affairs, and reputational risks, particularly within the Defence Nuclear Enterprise.
• Monitor and analyse political, regulatory, and industry developments, providing insight and recommendations to inform engagement strategy.
• Lead the planning and execution of high-level stakeholder engagements, including briefings, roundtables, and site visits.
• Collaborate with the Senior Manager Media Relations and Senior Manager Responsible Business Communications and Community Engagement to ensure consistent messaging across all external channels.
• Support crisis communications planning and response, including participation in the 24/7 on-call rota.
• Ensure compliance with transparency regulations and governance standards in all stakeholder interactions.

Skills and Experience

• Maintain confidentiality and integrity in handling sensitive information.
• Adhere to internal governance and reporting protocols.
• Ensure all public affairs activities comply with relevant transparency, and data protection regulations.
• Maintain awareness of and adherence to industry codes of conduct and ethical standards in public affairs.
• Degree-level education in Political Science, Public Policy, Communications, International Relations, or a related field.
• Professional membership (e.g. CIPR, Public Affairs Council) is desirable.
• Crisis communications or stakeholder engagement training is an advantage.
• Extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, public affairs, or external relations.
• Proven ability to advise senior leaders and manage high-level external relationships.
• Strong understanding of political and regulatory environments, ideally within defence, government, or infrastructure sectors.
• Experience in strategic communications and reputation management.
• Familiarity with stakeholder mapping tools and engagement tracking platforms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strategic thinker with strong analytical and planning capabilities.
• Skilled in stakeholder engagement, relationship-building, and influence.
• Confident advisor to senior leaders and spokesperson for the organisation.
• Collaborative, proactive, and resilient under pressure.
• Strong judgement and discretion in sensitive or high-trust environments.

Benefits

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

Important Information

You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE.

The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.

Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.

We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants. Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.

Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.

We are at the start of a once in a generation - possibly two generations - programme to design and produce a replacement warhead for the UK’s continuous at sea deterrent. We will do this while continuing to deliver the Trident programme as well as managing ambitious state-of-the-art capital and construction projects - some of which have never been done before. Find out more on our website.