External Affairs Manager - Midlands

Summary

Historic England is the public organisation that brings new life to heritage to build a better future for every place and everyone.

Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our External Affairs Manager for the Midlands Region.

This is a full time permanent contract position.

The location of this role is national, inclusive with hybrid working. You will be based in our Birmingham office.

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.

What you will be doing

Supporting delivery of a national engagement strategy and Historic England’s strategic priorities of Growth, Place and Sector, you will proactively identify and cultivate key regional stakeholder and political relationships in priority places. You will support and equip colleagues to engage and influence local decision-makers with the value of the historic environment and its potential to deliver benefits for people and places across England. Key audiences are Local Authority senior officers, elected leaders, Mayors, MPs, development sector and significant heritage sector relationships. Your role will also include identifying opportunities for public and professional engagement via the media and social media. You will be part of the External Affairs team in the Communications department, a team that delivers and oversees Historic England’s stakeholder, political, sector relationships and partnerships. You will be embedded in the region, working alongside the regional team.

Who we are looking for

Experience of stakeholder engagement, external / public affairs in support of strategic priorities

Experience of influencing and collaborating with a wide range of partners and stakeholders including local communities

Experience of initiating and leading projects within a strategic framework

Experience of prioritising and coping with many demands

Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England wants all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries.

At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.

At Historic England, we value the expertise and individuality each candidate brings and want to hear about this in your own words. If you require the use or AI tools or other resources to support your application, we ask that all information is factually accurate, original, and reflects your own experience. To best represent yourself, we encourage you to write in your own words and use AI-generated content only as inspiration—not as direct input.

Provisional interview dates

04th and 05th August 2026

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description -

https://cms.historicengland.org.uk/media/x42ej1sa/ce-external-affairs-manager-regional-jd-jun-2026.odt