External Affairs and Strategy Specialist

External Affairs and Strategy Specialist

Location: Home based, with some travel required (including All Party Parliamentary Group meetings, service visits, and team away days)

Salary expectation: £38,960 to £48,960 (the salary listed reflects the full earning potential for this role; starting salary depends on experience)

Working hours: 37 (flexibility and part-time hours may be considered)

Contract Type: Permanent

About Waythrough

Waythrough was formed in 2024 following the merger of Humankind and Richmond Fellowship, creating one of the largest mental health and social support charities in England. Every year, Waythrough supports around 125,000 people through nearly 200 services, made possible by 3,500 staff and volunteers.

About the role

As the External Affairs and Strategy Specialist, you will help shape Waythrough’s external influence, ensuring the organisation understands and responds to an increasingly complex political, policy and social environment. Working closely with senior leaders, you will support strategic decision-making, build key partnerships and drive campaigns and policy projects that create positive change for the people Waythrough supports.

This is a home-based role with some travel required, including attendance at Waythrough’s joint All Party Parliamentary Group (five or six times per year), plus service visits, team away days and wider meetings as required. You will work closely with colleagues across the organisation, particularly the Communications team, to ensure Waythrough’s external voice is informed, impactful and rooted in lived experience.

Key duties

• Monitor and interpret political, policy and sector developments, identifying emerging risks, opportunities and trends.
• Build strong relationships across Waythrough to identify subject matter experts and ensure external positions are informed by operational and lived experience.
• Lead and coordinate elements of national campaigns, maintaining momentum and working collaboratively with Communications colleagues to maximise impact.
• Brief senior leaders on external affairs issues and provide high-quality research, papers and recommendations to support organisational decision-making.
• Represent Waythrough at parliamentary groups, policy alliances, external forums and partnership meetings.
• Develop policy submissions, consultation responses, speeches, presentations and campaign materials.
• Build and maintain relationships with senior stakeholders, including parliamentarians, sector bodies and partner organisations.
• Ensure the voices of the people Waythrough supports remain central to all advocacy, policy and campaign activity.

About you

You are a confident and proactive relationship builder who thrives in a complex and fast-moving environment. Working as part of a small team, with support and coaching from the Director, you’ll be comfortable seeking out expertise across the organisation, collaborating with a wide range of colleagues and influencing senior stakeholders.

You have excellent communication skills, a strong understanding of politics and policy, and the confidence to work closely with directors and executive leaders. You can balance multiple priorities while maintaining focus on what matters most, and you are motivated by ensuring that campaigns, policy positions and external messages are genuinely informed by the experiences and voices of the people Waythrough supports.

What Waythrough offers

• 27 days’ annual leave, rising to 32 after 1 year (plus bank holidays)
• Pension scheme with 4.5% employer contribution, matched up to 6.5%
• Life assurance (3× annual salary)
• Enhanced sick pay and family-friendly pay
• Birthday leave and the option to buy up to 5 extra days’ annual leave
• Professional fee reimbursement for relevant qualifications
• 24/7 online GP access and Employee Assistance Programme
• Cycle to Work scheme and Credit Union membership
• Discounts via Blue Light Card, Charity Discounts, Extras and Tickets for Good

Waythrough is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and has signed up to the Disability Confident Scheme — all applicants are welcome, and adjustments can be made to enable fair participation.

Application deadline: Sunday 2nd August 2026