Group Corporate Affairs Director

About the Role:

VMA GROUP, communications specialist recruitment agency, is managing this position on behalf of Manchester Airports Group.

About Manchester Airports Group:

MAG is the UK’s largest airport group operating three UK airports – Manchester, London Stansted, and East Midlands – alongside digital travel services business, CAVU.

Last year 54m passengers flew through our airports, and we contributed more than £8bn to the UK economy. MAG directly employs 7,000 people and supports more than 40,000 jobs across the supply chain.

We understand airports and air travel better than anyone. Our impact spans the length of the UK, with around 70% of the population living within a two-hour journey of a MAG airport. By working with a wide range of airlines to forge long-term partnerships that maximise the choice and value available to passengers, we have grown a large route network that connects people and businesses to the globe.

Looking ahead, we are ambitious and focused on making the future of travel better. We are investing in our airports to launch new routes and give our passengers the best experience. In CAVU, we are using MAG’s decades of aviation experience and industry-leading consumer insights to revolutionise airport travel. And, running through everything we do, we are working confidently towards a sustainable future and achieving net zero for aviation by 2050.

The Role:

Reporting into the Chief Strategy Officer and advising the ExCo, the Group Corporate Affairs Director is responsible for developing and executing the corporate affairs strategy across government relations, public affairs, media relations, customer communications, and external stakeholder engagement.

Leading a large matrix team across all sites, the role is to ensure strong strategic relationships with a full range of key public, policy, media, and wider stakeholders across the public and private sector to build a strong and influential coalition of support across the UK. Strong central government contacts will be a key focus, and the ability to demonstrate a track record of successfully navigating in this area is required.

The Group Corporate Affairs Director will be a part of the wider Strategy Senior Leadership team, shaping and contributing to team development and being a prominent senior leader across MAG.

Required Experience:

The successful candidate will have considerable experience leading teams of over 20 in size, demonstrating strong team development and leadership skills. In addition, they will need to have worked across the full external communications remit:

1. Demonstrate excellent central and regional government contacts and insight

2. Proactive and reactive reputation management with breadth of issues management

3. Leading and modernising customer communications response and engagement

4. Advise and influence at senior level both internally and externally

5. Wider stakeholder engagement with business and community audiences

The ideal candidate will have worked in both a commercial business and within a government department, able to work at pace in an ever-changing environment with the ability to connect the dots, spot opportunities, and address issues quickly.

They will have led large teams across the full external communications remit – government affairs, policy, media, customer, and wider external stakeholder relations.

The role will come with significant travel, based in either Manchester or London three days a week with regular travel across all four sites. Expected to spend significant time within Westminster and often short notice requirement to be on specific sites.

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