North West England, Yorkshire and the Humber

Job Summary

This position can be based at Crewe, Leeds, Manchester or York.

Job Description

Join us in shaping a future where nature and people thrive. Whether you're drawn to hands-on conservation or playing a vital part behind the scenes, your work at Natural England will support lasting benefits for the environment and society.

Our Role

Natural England is the Government’s adviser for the natural environment and the Nature regulator with a wide range of statutory duties and powers. We provide the evidence, expertise and advice to recover Nature and shape better places for people to live. We do this working through and with others.

Strategic Outcomes for Nature

Our strategy is framed through four strategic outcomes. Each of these outcomes reinforces and amplifies the others, and together they address environmental, social and economic actions critical to thriving nature.

• Recovering Nature – Increased scale and quality of places where nature thrives.
• Building Better Places – Greener homes and infrastructure create healthier, more investable places, recognising we live better where nature thrives around us.
• Improving Health and Wellbeing – Build nature into everyday life so people can support, access and benefit from nature, wherever they live.
• Delivering Security through Nature – Nature helps us adapt to the threats of a changing climate and improves our national security, supporting more resilient food production, healthy soils, clean and plentiful water and clean air.

Find out more about the work of Natural England at:

Natural England’s Strategy: Recovering Nature for Growth, Health and Security - GOV.UK

Job Description

This role offers a unique opportunity to lead and shape external affairs and stakeholder engagement in both the Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire and Cheshire to Lancashire Area Teams, supporting Natural England’s ambition to strengthen its external profile and build meaningful partnerships that drive nature recovery. As External Affairs Senior Officer, you will play a key role in shaping how we communicate our work, engage with stakeholders, and align local delivery with national priorities.

You will work at the intersection of local delivery and national strategy, helping to ensure that our communications and engagement are inclusive, impactful, and well-coordinated. The role offers the chance to work closely with senior leaders, national communications colleagues, and external partners, including MPs and Defra, to ensure our work is visible, understood, and strategically positioned.

This is a highly collaborative role that requires strong judgement, political awareness, and the ability to work across teams and functions. You will have the opportunity to contribute to high-profile initiatives and shape how Natural England engages with its audiences at a critical time for environmental leadership. You will be supported by a well-established network of regional and national colleagues with functional management from the Internal Engagement and External Affairs Principal, Operations.

Key Tasks /Principal Accountabilities:

• The role has no functional management responsibilities but are a source of expertise and advice for the area team staff as well as the Deputy Area and Regional Directors and contribute to Area leadership teams by bringing subject leadership to the development and delivery of local plans.
• Lead the development and delivery of the Area and Regional Stakeholder Engagement Implementation Plans, ensuring alignment with Natural England’s national strategy, Communications and Engagement Framework and local priorities. Plans should include SMART objectives, stakeholder analysis and evaluation metrics.
• Feed into national and regional forward planning and horizon scanning processes, including the NE Forward Look and Defra media grid.
• Support the Regional Director and Deputy Directors to build and maintain strategic relationships with MPs, Metro Mayors, local authorities, and other key partners, ensuring Natural England’s work is visible and well understood. This will include proactive outreach, meeting coordination, and briefing preparation.
• Use the Stakeholder Insights Database to track and share engagement activity across the organisation.
• Collaborate with Defra’s Operational and Local Communications (OLC) teams to manage local media relations, press releases, and social media content for internal and external audiences.
• Identify and promote positive news stories that support Natural England’s priorities, both locally and nationally.
• Support media training and upskilling of spokespeople within the Area team.
• Act as a key liaison between the Area team and national External Affairs, ensuring two-way communication and alignment on reputational issues and strategic messaging.
• Coordinate the handling plans for emerging issues that pose reputational risk.
• Contribute to the Communications and Engagement Strategic Working Group’s reputational horizon scanning.
• Support high-profile events such as NNR launches, stakeholder site visits, and Ministerial engagements.
• Coordinate with portfolio leads and regional colleagues to ensure consistent messaging and strategic alignment.
• Monitor and evaluate communications and engagement activities using insight and feedback to inform continuous improvement and demonstrate impact.
• Champion inclusivity and accessibility in all communications and engagement activities, ensuring diverse voices are represented and barriers to participation are addressed.