UK Regional Head of Corporate Affairs

As the UK Regional Head of Corporate Affairs, you will play a pivotal role in advancing Barclays’ commercial goals. You will work closely with senior leaders in Barclays UK, UK Corporate Banking, and Private Banking and Wealth Management to present a unified and coherent face to market. Your ability to build strategic relationships with political, media, and business stakeholders will be essential in enhancing the visibility and understanding of Barclays’ economic and societal impact. You will act as a local ambassador, representing the firm externally and advocating for its interests across key forums and engagements.

In this role, you will support growth objectives by fostering internal partnerships and delivering integrated communications strategies that align with commercial goals and protect corporate reputation. You will engage with political stakeholders and public officials to strengthen relationships and promote Barclays’ policy positions. Through high-impact campaigns and events, you will drive measurable outcomes and ensure Barclays is well-positioned across industry, government, and client platforms. Your leadership will be instrumental in shaping the bank’s external narrative and reinforcing its role as a trusted and influential presence in the UK.

To be successful as a UK Regional Head of Corporate Affairs, you should have experience with:

• Commercial mindset with previous roles in government/politics, media, consultancy, or regulated corporate environments.
• Excellent relationship-building and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence diverse audiences.
• Ability to interpret public policy and political developments and assess and communicate their impact.
• Skilled communicator, with good presentation and writing capabilities.
• Ability to craft and implement corporate communication strategies aligned with business goals and experienced in crisis communications.
• Demonstrated project management experience and successful campaign execution.
• Collaborative, and able to work under pressure in fast-paced environments.
• Understanding of the UK political, media, and business landscape.

Other highly valued skills include:

• Proficient in using data and insights to refine strategies and drive a consistently excellent approach.

• Previous roles in financial services, banking, or another highly regulated industry.

• Experience engaging directly with senior business leaders.

• Established network of contacts within the local political, media, and business community where your role is based.

• Familiarity with public policy issues related to financial services.

We are seeking five exceptional candidates to join our Corporate Affairs team, with each individual based in one of our key strategic UK locations:, Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills

Purpose of the role

To identify, analyse and influence the development of legislation, proposed rules and regulation by engaging directly with government and regulatory stakeholders.

Accountabilities

• Management of relationships with governments, politicians, regulators and relevant stakeholders to advocate the bank’s interest/position in policy discussions.
• Development and execution of external advocacy and policy strategy that shapes how the bank responds to emerging policy trends so that its interests are communicated.
• Collaboration with and advice to stakeholders including senior managers, industry groups, think tanks, agencies and others to gain policy insights and determine policy goals.
• Development of advocacy campaigns and initiatives that support the bank’s policy efforts through public and private engagements, education, and lobbying.
• Monitoring and evaluation of successful advocacy initiatives and contribute to future improvements by looking into new markets and sectors.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.