Lead the Corporate Affairs agenda for the largest investment in digital infrastructure in a decade.
Virgin Media is at the heart of the digital economy. It offers four multi-award-winning services in the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline. The company’s dedicated, ultrafast network delivers the fastest widely available broadband speeds to homes and businesses. Owned by Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company, Virgin Media is now expanding its network through a £3bn investment programme, ‘Project Lightning’, which will extend the reach of its network to 17 million premises.
The position
This is an opportunity to design and lead the Corporate Affairs agenda for Project Lightning, the largest investment in digital infrastructure in the UK in more than a decade. The purpose of this role is to provide strategic management of the key relationships with local authorities and build teams to remove barriers and expedite delivery of the Project Lightning programme.
The main responsibility of the Regional Corporate Affairs Director will be to drive Lightning build through an improved relationship and better engagement with local authorities, at both an operational and strategic level. This may include proactive public policy campaigns, reactive crisis management, building positive brand awareness and promoting the company growth agenda.
Main responsibilities include:
- Developing a fully integrated public affairs, public policy, stakeholder relations and overarching communications strategy which must mobilise support from the local authorities, media, internal and external stakeholders
- Ensuring a rigorous planning and reporting system to create full alignment of priorities and activities between central Corporate Affairs team and Lightning
- Identifying the issues that have the potential to impact on build opportunities
- Providing leadership to the team, developing individual team members and managing performance
- Working cross-functionally at the highest levels of the business to create an effective narrative and build the Virgin Media story
- Leveraging the internal communications team to ensure company-wide engagement and understanding of Project Lightning
- Working closely with the press office team to ensure positive proactive and reactive press coverage on a national and regional basis
- Working closely with Investor Relations and Virgin Media’s parent company Liberty Global around the announcement of market sensitive news and results reporting relevant to the Lightning programme.
As Regional Corporate Affairs Director, you’ll have:
- A degree-level education
- Extensive experience of working in communications, in issue-rich and complex organisations
- The highest level of written and verbal communications skills
- A network of contacts in the media, with an in-depth understanding of how the media operates
- Experience in managing and motivating teams in times of change as well as strong management and leadership skills
- Experience working with and influencing local authorities
- A creative and collaborative approach to complex problem solving
- A results-driven mind and be able to keep calm under pressure.