Purpose of post

• To grow the Society’s engagement and reputation with the professional community as the professional body for geography.
• To develop and lead the Society’s knowledge exchange activities across the professional, policy and research communities
• To advance the standing and use of geography, geographic information and geographical research and practice in professional and policy contexts, drawing on expertise from geographers in the public, business, academic and third sectors.
• To support the Society’s public affairs activities, maintaining contact networks and keeping abreast of government initiatives relevant to the geography community and the Society.
• Working with the Professional Officer: Chartered Geographer, grow the support for Chartered Geographers and raise their profile.

Duties and responsibilities will include:

• Lead the Society’s knowledge exchange activities to advance the standing and use of geography by professional communities, including in government
• Plan and deliver a series of lively, informative and high-profile discussions across practitioner, business, think-tank, policy, academic and NGO communities on which geographers have particular interest and strength, including on the applications of new geographical data, technologies and analytics.
• Develop and disseminate outputs from the events, including briefings, case studies and other web-based resources
• Support an active Professional Advisory Group for the Society.
• Demonstrate the relevance and impact of geography to professional practice and policy
• Make good use of current research, professional and policy practice, to showcase the breadth and impact of the geography’s contributions in business and to local, regional and national policy. These case studies will be underpinned by robust evidence
• Use an array of media to highlight these impact case studies to a wide audience, building on the Society’s ‘making the case’ series
• Contribute to Society member communications (Latest News, e-Updates, Bulletin, Annual Review), to a monthly email newsletter for professional geographers, and provide oversight of the professional and policy sections of the Society’s website and LinkedIn presence, ensuring that these reflect the breadth and depth of the work by the Professional and Policy team
• Chartered Geographer accreditation, and support for careers with geography
• Sustain and support the growth of Chartered Geographer, building its reputation.
• Plan and deliver a range of Continuing Professional Development opportunities for Chartered Geographers, working with the Professional Officer: Chartered Geographer.
• Communicate the value of accreditation, and of the impact and benefits of the geography profession and its breadth of career pathways, to employers and graduates.
• Liaise with colleagues in Education team on delivery of a Professional Ambassadors scheme, to support students from a range of backgrounds to choose geography for further study and careers.

Support advocacy

• Keep the Society abreast of emerging government agendas, including the work of Select Committees and advisory bodies in which the interests of Geography and the Society could or should be represented
• Support the drafting of consultation and Select Committee responses and maintain the Society’s consultation database
• Prepare briefings for the Society as appropriate, collecting and summarising data to support evidence-led arguments.

Management and administration

• Draft reports for the Society’s Council and its Committees
• Manage the Professional and Policy Assistant and Professional Officer: Chartered Geographer on a day-to-day basis.
• Any other tasks that may be requested in support of the Society’s professional policy work by the Head of Research & Higher Education or the Director.

Selection criteria for the post of Policy Manager

This is an excellent career opportunity for an experienced and dynamic professional, preferably with a geography degree background, with substantial profile raising and/or policy or professional experience. It would particularly suit someone who has the drive, initiative and interest to make a real difference in developing the Society’s work in this area.

The following criteria are those against which applicants will be shortlisted and it is in your interest to ensure that you cover as many as possible of these areas in your application It is not expected that the successful candidate will meet all the criteria training and support will be provided.

• Experienced and dynamic manager with a proven capability in developing and leading new areas of work.
• Career track record of working with professional or trade bodies, or in a comparable environment, in support of practitioners.
• Degree qualified, preferably with a geography (or related) degree background or, if not, with a demonstrably good working knowledge of contemporary professional geography.
• Experience of managing committed staff in small teams.
• A record of proven success, in developing and delivering knowledge exchange programmes working with the professional practice, research and/or policy sectors (at least ten years of professional experience is expected).
• Strong understanding of the use of geography in professional practice and/or of the UK parliamentary system and of the policy community.
• Expertise and proven effectiveness in marketing and/or profile raising using a wide range of media.
• Experience in planning and organising events and in developing audiences for them.
• Ability to collect, synthesis and analyse data and to interpret and present the results clearly in briefing documents.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral, including the ability to convey technical information to a non-specialist audience convincingly.
• Excellent inter-personal skills, including those of working one-to-one, teamwork, liaison, and conveying both enthusiasm and gravitas; confident and calm manner; tactful and diplomatic.
• Initiative, drive, common sense, ability to follow through and good judgement.
• Proven ability to prioritise tasks, and to operate with efficiency and effectiveness in a multi-task environment.