Campaigns & Public Affairs Officer

Closing date: Wednesday 5 July 2017 at 11.30 pm. Interviews to be held on 12/13 July in Edinburgh

Shelter Scotland is looking for a proactive individual who is used to working with a range of political audiences and influencing policy development to join us a Campaigns & Public Affairs Officer and get our voice heard.

Shelter Scotland’s Campaigns and Public Affairs function sits within our Communications and Policy department. The department leads public campaigning - both nationally and locally - media, lobbying, research, policy development and online communications to achieve change for the thousands who don’t have a home. Our work targets national and local government. But, just as importantly, we target business and consumer behaviour and the general public’s attitudes and beliefs. Our goal? To dramatically increase society’s understanding of, and empathy with, people who live in bad housing.

Benefits include 30 days annual leave (pro rata), the possibility of flexible working and significant opportunities for learning and development.

Your key responsibilities:

• Play a vital role in helping to develop and implement our campaigns and public affairs engagement locally and nationally via our community hubs in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee
• Support public affairs strategy development and implementation and ensure that Shelter Scotland policy proposals are adopted by decision makers
• Identify opportunities to develop innovative ways of reaching political audiences and key local stakeholders
• Advise and support colleagues in their political relationships; produce campaign materials; take part in street campaigning activities and carry out regular parliamentary monitoring

And what you’ll need:

• Knowledge of how the political and policy making system operates and experience of working on campaigns in an agency or similar role within the voluntary sector
• A passion for taking Shelter Scotland’s issues and working on campaigns to make them a major political priority
• Experience of supporting projects that involved multi-functional teams, a flair for translating research and analysis into strong campaigning messages and strong negotiating and influencing skills
• A client focused approach, commercial awareness, lots of creativity and innovation and the credibility to represent the organisation effectively to a wide range of stakeholders

At Shelter Scotland, we welcome and encourage applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. We are facing diverse problems, so need diverse people to tackle them.

Shelter Scotland is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of clients, in particular children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expects all staff, workers and volunteers to share this commitment.

Shelter Scotland helps thousands of people every year struggling with bad housing or homelessness through our advice, support and legal services. And we campaign to make sure that, one day, no one will have to turn to us for help.

We’re here so no one has to fight bad housing or homelessness on their own.

Shelter does not accept unsolicited CVs from external recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.