Head of Policy and Government Relations in Harlow

Salary: £77,000-£85,000 p.a DOE

Hours: 37.5 per week

Reports to: Director of Policy and Oversight

Key relationships: Motability Governors and Directors, Motability Foundation Executive Team, Government departments (e.g. DWP, BIS, DfT), Disability Organisations, Academic and research institutions.

Direct reports: Scheme Policy Manager, Non-Scheme Policy Manager, Policy Operations Officer.

Location: Harlow, Essex or London. Harlow is easily commutable from London Liverpool Street or Tottenham Hale Station. We offer a free minibus service to/from Harlow Town Train Station as well as free parking and EV charging on site.

Extra Information: Open to conversation on hybrid, flexible and compressed working arrangements. Regular travel between London, Harlow and Scotland is required.

About the role: Define Motability’s policy agenda and lead external government relations to advance mobility outcomes for disabled people. Translate evidence into actionable policy positions and advocate across Whitehall, Devolved Administrations and national bodies, coordinating internal alignment with Oversight, Grants and Communications.

What you will be doing:

• Policy and Planning:

• Lead horizon scanning of Government policy affecting mobility, disability, transport and consumer finance; propose Motability positions and options.
• Maintain a live policy pipeline and briefing library; align with Oversight and Insight & Evaluation on evidence standards and cycles.
• Convene cross‑Foundation Policy Steering to agree priorities and tactics (campaigns, convening, partnerships, insider influencing).
• Lead the development and coordination of clear, concise and authoritative policy positions on key issues.
• Identify actionable and achievable policy influencing goals to achieve change on the highest priority issues and develop strategic influencing plans to achieve these goals.

• Own relationships across central Government (DWP primary focus in collaboration with Director of Policy & Oversight), devolved Governments, arm’s‑length bodies and regulators.
• Identify and build effective relationships with key contacts across UK and devolved governments and parliaments, including Ministers, MPs, civil servants and local and regional decision makers.
• Prepare senior briefings for CEO/Governors; coordinate responses to consultations and Select Committee inquiries.
• Work with the Public Affairs team to co-ordinate relationships management and activities with Government stakeholders more broadly.

• Build a high‑performing team culture of openness, integrity, and collaborative challenge; set and monitor KPIs.
• As the departmental budget holder, lead on all financial management for the department, including forecasting and measuring financial performance, setting and managing budgets, reducing waste, and taking action to ensure the department achieves its financial objectives.

Your experience:

• A successful track record at senior executive level.
• Leadership experience in policy and/or public affairs functions and a successful track record working with Government.
• Significant experience of delivering within a complex policy environment, ideally within an organisation of similar size and complexity including developing and delivering impactful policy and public affairs strategies that have led to demonstrable change.
• Strong analytical thinking and decision-making skills, with ability to translate data and evidence into actionable insights to inform decision-making.
• Ability to think strategically; working in timescales of between one to three years.
• Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative performance standards.
• Experienced in preparation of complex reports.
• Awareness of current government, European, economic and business issues.
• Strong communication skills, written, verbal, presentation.
• Strong planning skills. Commercially astute. Thoughtful.
• High level influencing skills. Excellent team skills.
• Understands the importance of personal mobility for disabled people.
• Strong relationship-building skills.

Nice to haves:

• Experience in automotive or consumer finance businesses.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience, we’d still encourage you to apply.

Who are we? We are building a future where all disabled people have the transport options to make the journeys they choose. We fund, support, research and innovate so that all disabled people can make the journeys they choose. We oversee the Motability Scheme and provide grants to help people use it, providing access to transport to hundreds of thousands of people a year. We award grants to charities and organisations who provide different types of transport, or work towards making transport accessible. We also carry out ongoing research, in partnership with disabled people and key stakeholders in the industry, to inspire innovations that continue to champion accessible transport for all.

Why choose us? We want working for the Motability Foundation to be the best career move you’ve ever made. When you join the Motability Foundation you will join a group of people who are supportive, innovative and motivated to improve the lives of our beneficiaries. We value everyone’s unique qualities and celebrate having a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture where everyone feels safe to be their authentic selves. This is embedded into our values, Collaborative, Respectful and Evolving. We bring our people together through our People Forum, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Forum, Social Squad and our Wellbeing Champions and our employee Spotlight Awards help us recognise the excellence and dedication of our staff. We are proud to be recognised as Disability Confident Leader, have attained Platinum Level Award for Investors in People and are members of the Business Disability Forum.

A career with Motability Foundation can offer you so much more than earning potential, we pride ourselves in offering some fantastic benefits. Some of these include:

• 26 days annual leave, plus the option to buy/sell up to five days.
• One wellbeing day for extra flexibility.
• Pension scheme - Up to 20%, including a 10% non-contributory contribution and matched contributions up to 5%.
• Life Assurance of four times your salary.
• Private healthcare through BUPA for you and your family, along with a Medicash Health Plan.
• Employee assistance programme: GP appointments, eye tests, flu vaccinations, sick pay and free gym and yoga sessions.
• Enhanced Parental Leave, including Adoption Pay.
• Free parking, EV charge points and a minibus service to/from the town centre and train station.
• Fresh fruit, breakfast snacks, and a Dress for Your Day dress code.
• Learning and development opportunities to help you grow.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, and we aim to be an employer of choice for candidates with disabilities. As a Disability Confident Leader, we have committed to ensuring that disabled people and those with long term health conditions have the opportunities to fulfil their potential. We want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to perform their best when interviewing and when working with us, so if you require any reasonable adjustments that would make you more comfortable, please let us know so that we can do our best to support you. To help us create an inclusive workplace we are committed to offering to interview every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the job. Some of our roles attract a high volume of applications and in some circumstances, we may need to limit the number of interviews offered to disabled and non-disabled candidates.