Senior Advocacy Adviser – Germany at WaterAid

Want to use your skills in policy and advocacy leadership to play a vital role in making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone everywhere?

Join WaterAid as a Senior Advocacy Adviser to change normal for millions of people so they can unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good. On top of that you’ll be joining a 2020 Great Place to Work® award-winning organisation.

The WaterAid’s International Affairs team is the ‘political brain’ of WaterAid, we filter the signal from the noise about how key actors think, and what informs their behaviour. Our work enables WaterAid to confidently navigate and leverage the external landscape facing our campaigns. We garner high quality intel, craft politically persuasive messages and build a broad cohort of champions.

As our Senior Advocacy Adviser in Germany, you will lead WaterAid’s Germany’s policy and advocacy work. You will be responsible for providing policy analysis and leadership on several of our key policy issues, including development financing, global health, education, gender quality as well as transparency and accountability.

You will be a great team player and self-starter with excellent project management and communications skills, who is able to handle a varied role, and has a range of experience within development policy and advocacy. You will have a thorough knowledge of Germany and EU development debates. This position reports directly to the International Affairs Director and will be based in Berlin.

Your Responsibilities:
In this role, you will develop and implement advocacy strategies to operationalize the policy leg of national, European and international campaigns in Germany. You will also lead the development of policy positions and messaging of WaterAid in Germany, building relationships with a range of stakeholders in government, parliament, and civil society.

You’ll also:
* Work with colleagues across WaterAid to design and implement WaterAid’s advocacy and lobbying strategy in Germany and the EU
* Identify trends and issues in Germany and develop strategies, projects and interventions around these
* Provide briefings for senior WaterAid staff and leadership, and provide policy advice to support the work of the media and campaigns teams.
* Represent WaterAid at high level meetings.
* Lead on the development of policy products for Germany.
* Provide policy analysis and monitoring on political trends and processes in Germany.
* Provide German perspectives to global policy discussions and international policy products, ensuring global positions reflect German perspectives.
* Provide policy leadership or support for international projects

This is a very exciting opportunity to join our Policy & Campaigns team.
You will have significant experience (at least 5 years) of working in an NGO, think tank or government agency in the field of development policy and advocacy, specifically on issues pertaining to German development policies and institutions. In addition, you will have experience of developing and implementation of advocacy strategies. Fluency in German at native speaker level, and excellent English skills are essential for the role.

To be successful, you’ll need:
* Strong political judgement and understanding of the German political environment
* To be able to synthesize complex policy language and to seek out key facts and statistics that help explain complicated policy topics to broad audience.
* Strong networking skills, extraordinary professionalism and diplomacy
* An entrepreneurial spirit and ability to work in a fast-paced environment, with shifting priorities and occasional heavy workloads.

Additional Information:

WaterAid is located in Canary Wharf, London. WaterAid is open and supportive of flexibility. We are currently defining our approach to hybrid working. The right balance between office and home-based working should be agreed with your line manager. Your flexibility requirements and that of the role will be discussed at the interview stage with you.
We are unable to provide sponsorship for this post. In order to apply for this post, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in Germany.

WaterAid is committed to ensuring that wherever we work in the world there is no tolerance for the abuse of power, privilege or trust. WaterAid reinforces a culture of zero tolerance towards any form of inappropriate behaviour, abuse, harassment, or exploitation of any kind. The safeguarding of our beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf, is our top priority and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. All staff and volunteers are required to share in this commitment through our Global Code of Conduct. We will conduct the most appropriate pre-employment references and checks to ensure high standards are maintained.

WaterAid is an equal opportunities, disability-confident employer and committed to achieving the highest standards of diversity, fairness and equality. Should you have a disability and require any additional support, please contact us at careers@wateraid.org.