European External Affairs Manager

**European External Affairs Manager - **_Maternity cover_**

Work level: 2C

Location: Brussel

Local Conditions Apply

**Who are we?**

At Unilever, we share one simple purpose: To make sustainable living commonplace. Through our powerhouse brands such as Dove, Axe and Magnum, we want to make sustainable living common place - and you can be part of it

We believe that companies with purpose last, people with purpose thrive and brands with purpose grow. We meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene and personal care with brands that help people feel good, look good and get more out of life.

**Business context and main purpose of the job**:
Unilever is looking to recruit a European External Affairs Manager for a 6-month maternity cover for its Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Home Care business groups. You will:

- Work closely with colleagues within the European External Affairs, Regulatory Affairs and Scientific Affairs teams to help develop and deliver the European business and External Affairs priorities as well as driving our progressive agenda in Brussels. This includes delivering flawless issues management.
- Work with three business groups (Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care and Homecare) and the European region through external affairs and advocacy interventions.
- Help to drive our progressive agenda in Brussels on Unilever’s agenda both in terms of driving growth and mitigating risks by creating the right regulatory environment to help land our Refocused Sustainability Commitments.

This will involve building/supporting multi-functional campaigns and advocacy strategies on topics covering detergents, essential use criteria, climate change, urban wastewater, cosmetic products, and more general product safety. To do so, the European External Affairs Manager is required to have a good understanding of and experience with the EU Institutions and processes, knowledge of the EU chemicals legislation, experience in working across teams and representing companies in trade associations, and excellent advocacy and campaigning skills.

**Main Accountabilities**:
You will be working with the European External Affairs team to:

- Provide input, guidance and proactively draft and help shape positions/perceptions of external audiences as part of business strategy.
- Draft and implement position papers and stakeholder outreach programmes.
- Represent Unilever in external contact building and networking with relevant European institutions including the European Parliament, European Commission and Council of Ministers.
- Represent Unilever in key European trade organisations.
- Build and maintain relationship with other key stakeholders such as NGOs, think tanks and academics.

**Who are you?**

**Relevant Experience**:

- 5-7 years’ experience in an external/public affairs role (in-house, consultancy, trade association) or relevant experience in one of the EU institutions.
- A team player with a global mindset who is willing to work across regulatory affairs, advocacy and communications disciplines, geographies and functions.
- Ability to summarize how certain regulatory and reputational issues can impact the business and to help create unlocks.
- Ability to translate complex, technical topics into clear, easy-to-understand messages for a political audience.
- Experience in the personal care or homecare sector and/or chemicals, circular economy is a strong asset.
- Knowledge of the chemicals sector and chemicals policy.

**Desirable**:

- Network of established European external affairs contacts with the European Institutions, NGOs, and industry stakeholders.

**Key Skills**:

- Have business acumen and understand how the business operates
- Understand and advise on how EA can help drive business priorities
- Stakeholder management and knowledge
- Strategic Issues Management expertise
- Lobbying and Advocacy campaigning
- Able to get to absorb information and come to the essence with novel point of views for the business
- Perfect command of written and spoken English. Any additional language is a strong asset

**EXCITED ABOUT THE ROLE?**

**We look forward to meeting you