HS2 (High Speed 2)
Senior Engagement and Interface Lead - North Geography
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Location - Birmingham
Base salary: £65,474pa to c.£77,028pa depending on skills and experience. In addition, we offer flexible benefits fund of 20% which is paid on top base salary and is fully pensionable, as well as a range of competitive benefits - check them out in the Benefits section on our website.
HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives and achieves their full potential. In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish and providing personal and professional development opportunities.
Role Overview
As a Senior Engagement and Interface Lead - North Geography at HS2, you will:
- Manage the staff operating within the IPTs, coordinating across the geography and providing guidance to the delivery teams (IPTs) to support and coordinate the local plans across defined geographies.
- Manage multiple teams embedded within IPTs providing direction, guidance, and line management to a number of senior managers in order to enable a successful programme of community and stakeholder engagement across the area.
- Provide the strategy for engagement across a complex geographical area, building close working relationships with contractors, the construction teams, and other internal stakeholders in order to effectively engage on HS2’s programme of works across utility companies, enabling works contractors, and main works contractors.
- Be responsible for drawing together community and stakeholder engagement and interface functions ensuring consistency of communication and engagement practices across IPTs and wider geographical areas.
- Be accountable for working across multiple contractors to deliver collective engagement and collateral across defined geographical areas whilst liaising with HS2 client route-wide functions and ensuring consistency and continuity of service in line with the Community Engagement Strategy.
- Be responsible for ensuring a consistent horizontal (geographic and external) approach to engagement and interface whilst collaborating, informing, and reporting vertically (Internal).
- Be the escalation point for the IPT engagement teams and construction teams – providing the guidance, coordination, and driving collaboration.
- Manage engagement risks and opportunities working with the IPTs to deliver effective and tailored engagement and stakeholder management.
- Be responsible for the oversight of IPT engagement performance, including monitoring against KPIs, auditing, assuring, and checking quality of outputs.
- Be accountable for identifying best practice and creating case studies to share with other IPTs, and to promoting the work of the teams both internally and externally.
- Be responsible for ensuring a consistent approach to visitors' centres and viewing platforms.
- Be accountable for providing local, geographic knowledge to the delivery teams (IPTs), Client Directors, and Head of Engagement and Interface.
- Act as the front face of the organisation with high profile stakeholders, including MPs and local authorities, across a complex geographical area with multiple contractors operating.
- Manage the full breadth of stakeholder issues and agendas over a complex geographical area, guiding how we deliver HS2.
- Actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures on EDI.
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About You
Skills:
- Able to work with a range of subject matter and technical experts, working collaboratively to achieve solutions.
- Able to balance the interests of timely and accurate delivery with advocating for the community in an honest and transparent manner.
- Communication skills – ability to present in public (including media) and produce high-quality documents and reports including communicating complex information to non-specialist audiences.
- Ability to manage and balance competing stakeholder priorities.
- Prioritisation – able to work to tight deadlines in a calm manner even if the organisation is fast moving.
- Ability to build collaborative working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders.
- Analytical Skills - the ability to analysis data and think agilely and rapidly.
- Influencing and negotiation skills – ability to influence outcomes to a satisfactory level.
Knowledge:
- Understanding of the complex political environment within which HS2 operates, including relevant governance and accountability issues.
- Knowledge of how Local Authorities and Parish Council operate.
- Knowledge of local and central government policy priorities concerning public projects, regeneration, and community impacts.
- Knowledge of issues affecting communities arising from large infrastructure projects.
- Knowledge of the diverse communities represented across the line of route.
- Knowledge of various communication channels to achieve two-way communication with communities.
- Knowledge of regulations concerning public consultation and engagement.
Type of experience:
- Experience in managing teams to deliver multiple overlapping activities under pressure to meet tight deadlines.
- Experience successful track record of implementing innovative solutions in community engagement and response across a diverse and challenging environment with high profile stakeholders.
- Experience of working with senior political stakeholders and communities, devising a strategy, and managing the delivery of engagement activities in the public and private sectors, on infrastructure projects of similar scale, scope, and complexity.
- Experience of operating in a complex political environment and managing political ambiguity within the project engagement work-streams.
- Experience of providing counsel at a senior leadership level across an organisation on community engagement.
- Experience of working in a political and/or regulated environment/sector.
- Experience of dealing with fast-paced local or national media.
- Experience of successful delivery in a maturing environment against challenging timescales and developing requirements.
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The post-holder is expected to behave at all times in a manner consistent with the HS2 values of Safety, Leadership, Integrity, and Respect. It is expected that you will actively promote and embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in all your work and support and comply with all organisational initiatives, policies, and procedures on EDI.
As HS2 Ltd do not hold a sponsorship license from the Home Office, we are not able to provide sponsorship to any applicant. Applicants must already have the Right to Work in the UK at the time of application, and our process involves a Right to Work validation prior to the interview stage. Note, there are certain types of time-bound visas that we cannot accept.
Any offers made to applicants will be subject to satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks which include Nationality & Immigration Status, employment references, DBS, Financial, and Education checks.
We ask for a variety of detail in your online application, however, we perform the first assessment of suitability for a role based solely on the information in your CV. In a further development of our efforts to create a more diverse workforce, your CV will be anonymised, and personal information will be removed during the first stage of the application review. This removes bias from the process and makes it even more important that you attach an updated word version of your CV for each new application ensuring you include evidence directly related to the criteria in the job advert. Watch this video on how we remove bias in the recruitment process: Removing bias in the recruitment process - YouTube.
Any applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
High Speed 2 (HS2 Ltd) will be the UK’s new high speed rail network. As well as improving capacity, the new scheme will shorten journey times between a number of Britain’s major population centres, boost the economy, and create thousands of jobs.
HS2 Ltd will create a skills legacy and develop a diverse range of talent. We aim to be a leader in EDI practice by creating a safe & inclusive working environment for all our staff - living our values of Safety, Respect, Integrity, and Leadership.
In practice, this means we are positive and inclusive about making adjustments, providing flexible working, encouraging our staff networks to flourish, and providing personal and professional development opportunities.
HS2 Ltd is also a safety-critical organisation. Employees are required to ensure reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety by taking personal responsibility for working to our ‘Safe at Heart’ programme principles and following safe working procedures at all times.
HS2 Ltd endeavours to ensure everyone working for us and with us feels included, thrives, and achieves their full potential.
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