Head of Government Relations, UK & EMEA, & Global Policy Lead

☞ Xero

View: 107

Update day: 01-06-2024

Location: London

Category: Human Resources Marketing / PR

Industry: Information Technology

Job type: Permanent

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Job content

Xero is a beautiful, easy-to-use platform that helps small businesses and their accounting and bookkeeping advisors grow and thrive.

At Xero, our purpose is to make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. This purpose sits at the centre of everything we do. We support our people to do the best work of their lives so that they can help small businesses succeed through better tools, information and connections. Because when they succeed they make a difference, and when millions of small businesses are making a difference, the world is a more beautiful place.

We’re looking at government relations a bit differently from most other places. At Xero, just as we created ‘beautiful business’ for our millions of small businesses across the UK and EMEA, we’re working with governments across the region to create policies to match. Together these initiatives help unleash small businesses to truly thrive. Join us!

Our Purpose...

At Xero, we’re here to make running a business beautiful. By making small business more efficient every single day, by connecting them with big business technology and by
empowering a community behind them, their potential is limitless. To this mix we should add the power of government, especially as we move beyond the pandemic, to help small business navigate and survive this unique period of time. When this all comes together we see small business thrive and the wider British economy grow independently and strong. Xero is a leading technology software company headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand and is currently one of the top ten tech stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. (ASX: XRO)

Our purpose is to make life better for small business and their advisors, and this should be reflected in the approach to our engagements with governments.
Our new Government Relations team has the clearest of missions - to help governments all over the world make beautiful policy. What’s beautiful policy you may ask? Think simple, to-the-point, proportionate, outcome-focused, direct, agile and innovative policy solutions that place small business at the heart of cutting-edge policy thinking. Our mindset is fully aligned with what Sir Iain Duncan Smith and his peers wrote recently in the TIGRR Report to Prime Minister Johnson where they set out as a proposed goal the objective of making “the UK a global pioneer and leader in agile, adaptive regulation to increase productivity, competition and innovation”.

How you’ll make an impact...

If you’re on board with our purpose, you’re a well established leader in business-to-government and government-to-business engagement and you’re looking to join a leading listed technology company, you’ll make a major impact in this role by driving and implementing a government engagement strategy for the UK/EMEA region. This will include the UK Government, and where relevant the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as governments in the EMEA region, particularly South Africa. You will embed this engagement plan within the wider strategy of Xero by working closely with the Xero UK/EMEA Managing Director, the regional leadership team and the Regional Director for South Africa, among other UK/EMEA leaders and team members.
Additionally you will work closely with a wide range of senior government stakeholders. You will make an impact by being the leading evangelist for public policy for small business.
In addition to the regional leadership role heading our UK government engagement, depending upon the skill set of the successful candidate there’s also the potential to take on the global level leadership of a key strategic public policy area of interest to Xero and our community, as a Global Policy Lead.
The policy landscape across which we’re seeking leaders includes global data policy, platform-related policies, technology and innovation policy, small business-related policy and broader economic policy. Whilst this is not an essential component for a successful application and the UK engagement program is the primary focus of this Head of role, the identification of experience and/or expertise in one of these areas will be a plus and would further enhance your pathway to make an impact at Xero.

What you’ll do...

  • Always first, second and third, you’ll be a kind, empathetic human being who cares about others.

Then...

  • You’ll have 10+ years experience as a clear leader in government and/or government
engagement of some form in the UK, preferably but not essentially, including in areas with a degree of topical alignment to Xero’s strategic public policy concerns.

  • Building on both of the above, you’ll be the evangelist champion of beautiful small business public policy.

  • You will drive this central passion into strategy, you will develop and lead the implementation of a UK/EMEA government relations engagement strategy.
You will do this in close collaboration with the UK/EMEA Xero Managing Director and Regional Leadership Team, as well as the global EGM of Government Relations (GR) and the full GR team, building off the work already set in motion by many dedicated and passionate Xeros.
  • You will coordinate ongoing relations with all parts of the UK government for Xero and along with our regional business leader be our lead advocate to government, many parts of the company engage with many parts of government and GR will increasingly coordinate this work to ensure consistency of content and purpose. Working with the Managing Director, you will have direct responsibility for engagement with the executive
and political/elected level at Westminster (and where relevant the executive within the devolved governments in Edinburgh and Cardiff) and the departments, agencies and other bodies that directly advise them. Beyond that you will play a coordinative, facilitative and/or advisory role with other engagements, such as those undertaken
by the Legal Regulatory or Product Compliance teams.

  • You will drive a shared value narrative consistently
through all forms of our engagement, working in partnership with Communications colleagues, you will drive a clear narrative to government stakeholders that carries our commitment to shared value outcomes and the beautiful public policy for small business approach.

  • You will be a recognised diplomat, in addition to that essential human kindness, you will embrace the core values of being a Xero and become a leader of the Xero way. You will deploy these skills and characteristics to diplomatically lead a highly empathetic and continuous internal and external facing engagement effort.

  • You will be or become a public policy leader - whether
through the day-to-day full suite of public policy concerns in the UK and EMEA or through additionally leading a Global Policy portfolio, you will rapidly develop an expertise in key relevant public policy areas. This work runs across a full spectrum and includes policy identification, monitoring and intelligence, working with industry bodies and other external organizations on ideal policy frameworks, deploying campaigns to help shape policy proposals and making a significant contribution to the development of global public policy positions at Xero.

  • You’ll excel at bringing people together - alignment is critical for success in this role. As such, in coordination with global approaches, you will drive an alignment-always approach which includes regularly convening all parts of the UK business that
deal with governments and providing regular executive briefings to the regional Leadership Team to ensure they are both fully supported, informed and aligned. The role will formally report to the EGM, Government Relations and have a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Xero UK/EMEA Managing Director to reflect the importance of our local delivery model and your day-to-day relationship with our most senior business leader
in the region.

  • You’ll always have the radar on and tuned to today, tomorrow and well over-the-horizon using your established network along with wider data sources and technology you’ll identify, closely monitor and communicate timely updates to other relevant Xero’s of any public policy opportunities and threats in the UK/EMEA region that are occurring right now (this month), that are coming soon (this year), in the near future (1-2 years) and likely over-the-horizon (2+ years), and ensure the GR strategy is calibrated accordingly to include opportunity enhancements or risk mitigations, as relevant. This will include a need to be fully connected to the vibrant think tank community connected to public policy development in the UK.

  • You will be an agent of demystification - each and every day you will work to demystify the workings of government for your colleagues and help governments better appreciate the Xero world and its power to support beautiful public policy. This will include, among other things, supporting wider corporate knowledge levels about government amongst Xeros in the UK/EMEA and worldwide.

  • You will leave nothing on the bench when we engage - working closely with the GM of Global Advocacy Campaigns and Stakeholder Relations you will maximise global resource deployment to support UK/EMEA public policy objectives. In detail,
you will:

  • Coordinate external government-advocacy campaigns and key initiatives in the UK/EMEA
region in line with Xero’s global policy positions
and business objectives.
  • Identify, categorise and empathise with a full spectrum of stakeholders, ensuring Xero’s
strong industry and cross-industry relationships.
  • Share local/regional campaign experience to contribute to the development and continued validity of Xero’s public policy positions.
  • Advance Xero’s positions (where appropriate) through industry associations and pragmatic coalitions to enable regulatory environments supportive of small business and technology companies.
  • You will drive data and technology into our engagement
and measure our impact - we are building government relations for the digital world,
and whether its big data or simply joining the dots on learnings from meetings with different parts of government, the Xero GR team is seeking to drive responsible technology deep into our operations and to closely measure our impact, you will
lead this effort in the UK/EMEA.

  • You will be an ethics and diversity-centric trailblazer - Xero overall and the GR and Legal teams specifically place critical importance of being best-in-class in relation to ethical considerations around engaging with government. We also elevate the building of a diverse and inclusive team and culture to the centre of our thinking. You will make a major contribution to both of these concerns by being an innovator and mindset leader in both areas
Why Xero?

At Xero we support many types of flexible working arrangements that allow you to balance your work, your life and your passions. We offer a great remuneration package with benefits that support a range of lifestyle choices and requirements and the opportunity to participate in Xero’s success through our Long Term Incentive scheme. Xero has rapidly expanding offices in London, Milton Keynes and Manchester and our work environment encourages continuous improvement and career development.

Our collaborative and inclusive culture is one we’re immensely proud of. We know that a diverse workforce is a strength that enables businesses, including ours, to better understand and serve customers, attract top talent and innovate successfully. We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion, and Disability Confident committed. So, from the moment you step through our doors, you’ll feel welcome and supported to do the best work of your life.
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Deadline: 16-07-2024

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