Principal Consultant: Stakeholder Engagement, Consultation and Communications - #2186931

We have an exciting opportunity for a Principal Stakeholder Engagement Consultant to join our team in either Edinburgh or Glasgow with an option for hybrid working. We're looking for someone who is passionate about delivering effective communications, who can demonstrate experience of engaging with and consulting a wide range of audiences to support complex projects, and who can help us build our business and work on more projects across Scotland.

Here's what you'll do:

Communications:

• developing communications strategies and delivery plans
• developing project narratives, key messages and collateral for multiple audiences including digital users, the media, local communities, statutory bodies, technical groups, and elected representatives
• managing communications channels.

Engagement and consultation:

• identifying and mapping key stakeholders for client's projects, and establishing an engagement strategy and delivery plans
• supporting consultation delivery, developing surveys, managing stakeholder feedback channels and analysing consultation responses
• planning and delivery of events, both physical and virtual, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all attendees, delivering logistics, developing tailored materials, developing Q&As and briefing colleagues.

Client relations:

• liaising with internal and external clients, ensuring a high level of customer service and accurate, timely reporting.

Business development:

• this role will have a focus on building our stakeholder engagement and communications services and team in Scotland, and is likely to include proactively identifying new business opportunities and pitching to potential clients
• building connections within AECOM to identify new opportunities
• developing proposals and tender responses.

Project and team management:

• managing a range of projects, project teams and budgets
• delivering on time and on budget, flexibly
• supporting junior colleagues to grow, including line management responsibilities.

Does this sound like something you can do, and do well? If so, read on…

About our team

AECOM has a well-established Stakeholder Engagement, Consultation and Communications team which has been playing a key role in delivering major infrastructure and development projects for almost 20 years. Most of our work revolves around engagement, consultation and communications during the consenting or construction phase of major infrastructure projects. Our team, which comes from many diverse backgrounds, has been involved in a range of high-profile projects across a range of sectors, working with other AECOM disciplines or providing standalone services for clients such as Scottish Power, Transport Scotland, RSPB Scotland, National Grid, Network Rail, National Highways, Homes England, a range of Local Authorities across the country, and major energy and renewables companies.

Our point of difference? We're used to working with a wide range of technical experts from engineers, archaeologists, quantity surveyors, planners, designers, environmental and biodiversity scientists, programme and construction managers. As a result, we can translate complex information into accurate, plain English facts that help stakeholders understand a project and engage with it meaningfully.

About you

• You have extensive experience of delivering communications, engagement and consultation on projects of different sizes and scales, ideally including major infrastructure schemes.
• You have a track-record of business development, spotting opportunities, nurturing relationships and turning these into commercially viable ventures.
• You are experienced in managing teams of different sizes and complexity, including supporting junior colleagues with their career development.
• You have strong experience in at least some industry sectors relevant to our business (e.g. infrastructure, energy, water, transport, residential and commercial development), and are confident engaging a variety of audiences and stakeholder groups.
• You're proactive and ambitious, work well both alone and in a team, and can bring about new ideas on engagement.
• You have great personal communication skills, are culturally aware, and have a strong focus on inclusion and accessibility. For you, giving people a chance to influence projects that affect their lives, is key.
• You're willing to work flexibly and travel when required to meet with clients and project teams.
• You hold a degree in a relevant subject (for instance: social science, history, politics, geography, language and literature, law, business…), or an equivalent number of years of successful, relevant experience.