Strategic Communications & External Affairs Lead (Handforth, CHE, SK9 3RN) presso Pets at Home Group

Role:                                   Strategic Communications & External Affairs Lead, 12 months Contract

(maternity cover)

Team:                                 Communications

Reporting to:                    Head of Communications

Location:                            Hybrid role with weekly presence in our Handforth office

Salary:                                Up to £65k, plus comprehensive package

Hours:                                 39 hours per week (we welcome enquiries regarding flexible working options)

About Us:

“We put pets first” is our number one value at Pets at Home. Every colleague has a part to play to ensure that we deliver on this value every day. Our love and understanding of pets led us to develop our long-term goal to improve the life of every pet in the UK. 

This covers not only the pets in our care, the pets of owners that use our products and services but also the pets that we can help through our charity work and through educating and advocating for change in society and the wider pet care and veterinary industry. 

We are on a journey to build the world’s best petcare platform, with a clear purpose to create a better world for pets and the people who love them. 

Click here to read our Values & Behaviours

About your role:

Although this role is a fixed-term contract, it isn’t purely a ‘holding’ role, but one in which you will drive progression within our external communications agenda.

Working at a Group level, this role ensures all external communications and public affairs activity, across both our retail and veterinary businesses, both meet our purpose, and wider business objectives.

A key support to the Head of Communications to help lead the development and delivery of Pets at Home’s overarching communications and public affairs strategy, you will manage the external communications team, working closely with internal communications colleagues.

You’ll play a key role in guiding the business in ensuring all announcements, initiatives, and strategy updates, are delivered in a way that fits with our wider narrative and objectives. Managing the wider team to ensure an efficient and smooth-running press office, creating a cadence of impactful proactive communications activity, and delivering regular political engagement in line with our policy priorities through public affairs activity.

About you, your Skills and experience:

The successful candidate will have significant expertise in developing communications strategies for large organisations and advising business leaders on best-in-class communications approach.

A strategic thinker with excellent political nous; able to work closely with our political advisors to provide tactical insight on how UK Government and Parliament operate with a particular emphasis on pet care, animal welfare and the veterinary industry; and ensuring our relationships with politicians and Government representatives are well thought through and have clear purpose.

Experience and skills required for this role include (but not limited to):

• Significant experience in corporate communications and public affairs, especially in strategy development, ideally with 8+ years from either agency or in-house.
• Demonstrable experience of strategy and narrative development for large organisations.
• Excellent understanding of the UK media, latest trends in audience habits and curiosity about the news.
• Excellent understanding the UK’s public affairs landscape and ability to recognise policy risks and opportunities.
• Excellent all-round communication skills – including written communications and proof-reading skills - particularly the ability to communicate clearly and concisely to a range of internal and external audiences.
• A real passion for best-in-class communications planning and execution.
• Experience in managing teams and matrix working is essential. 

• Retail sector experience is a plus. An ability to show understanding of the space if you have not worked in it before, however, is a must. 
• Agency management, but more important is understanding how to work collaboratively across teams in multiple locations with a shared aim.
• Budget management and experience in procurement processes is helpful, but not essential.

If this sounds like a remit you would relish, we would love to hear from you.

We take our inspiration from pets in embracing people from all walks of life, and we value, respect and celebrate difference. We encourage our people to be their best selves so that we can create a better world for Pets, our Planet, and People. Our ambition is to reflect the diversity of the communities we operate in, and we are intentional in addressing and removing barriers to create opportunities for the exceptional talent and potential in our communities. Even if your skills and experience don’t perfectly align, if you think you can make a unique contribution through your values and behaviours, we want to hear from you!