External Affairs and Policy Manager in Hayes

The Guinness Partnership is one of the leading providers of affordable housing in England. We build and manage homes and provide housing services for nearly 160,000 residents nationwide. Our vision is to deliver great service, provide great homes, to be a great business and to be a great place to work. Because everything we do is about our residents, our communities and our people, any profit we make is re-invested in new and existing homes and improving services.

The Guinness Partnership is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all colleagues, and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

About the role

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced External Affairs and Policy Manager to join our External Affairs team. We operate a hybrid working model with 3 days from our central London office and the remaining 2 remotely. Reporting to the Head of External Affairs, you will play a key role in shaping and delivering our external affairs and influencing activity. Working closely with colleagues across the business, you will help enhance our external profile and reputation with a detailed understanding of housing policy to support consultation responses, research, stakeholder engagement, and intelligence gathering. You will support the development of evidence-based positions on a wide range of social housing policy issues, ensuring our voice is heard by key decision makers and sector stakeholders. Through horizon scanning, research and relationship building, you will help identify emerging opportunities and challenges and support our influencing activity at both a local and national level.

What we are looking for

We know that how we do things is just as important as what we do, so you will be highly motivated with excellent attention to detail and a proactive approach to delivering results. You will be an effective relationship builder who thrives on collaboration, building strong relationships with colleagues and senior leaders across the organisation as well as external stakeholders.

• Essential
• Understanding of the current housing and related policy environments, or experience of working in the housing or voluntary sectors.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills for drafting briefings, reports, correspondence and other documents for internal and external use.
• Experience of undertaking or managing research and/or analysis to enhance business performance and understanding of key issues.
• Be able to quickly understand and explain the links between government policy changes and day-to-day operations.
• Able to manage competing short and long-term priorities effectively and systematically.
• Highly self-motivated and will pursue goals with rigour and to time.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

• Desirable
• Experience of managing and/or using stakeholder management systems.
• An understanding of how to influence policy making and knowledge of the British political system.

Essential qualifications:

Educated to degree level and/or relevant professional qualification or experience.

To find out more about the key responsibilities and to view the essential and desirable criteria, please review the role profile.

We will be holding face to face interviews for this role at our Euston road office on 6th and 7th August 2026. Please apply with a CV and a covering letter (maximum 500 words) detailing how you meet the essential criteria.

Benefits

• Holidays: We offer 25-27 days holiday a year, plus bank holidays. We will also give you the opportunity to buy up to an additional 5 days. You will also receive additional holiday in line with your length of service (1 extra day per 5 years service, capped at 4 days).
• Competitive Pension Scheme: We will help you save for your retirement through our workplace pension scheme. Guinness match your contribution up to 9%. To help you get the most out of your pension contributions, we operate a salary sacrifice arrangement that means you will pay less National Insurance contributions.
• Benefits Portal: We have a lifestyle benefits scheme, pulling together a range of special offers and great deals. You can make some great savings on everyday shopping from fashion and electronics to travel, leisure and days out and weekly supermarket shopping.
• Performance Pay: Annual Performance Score bonus subject to eligibility.
• Life Assurance: For peace of mind Guinness provides three times salary life cover in the event of your death.
• Health Plan Options: There are a couple of health care schemes available depending on the post grade.
• VDU/DSE: Free eye test vouchers every 2 years with £55 contribution to glasses if required for VDU work.

Additional benefits include:

• Access to the Finance wellbeing portal.
• Professional subscription annual payment.
• Travel season ticket loan.
• Car lease scheme.