Principal Consultant- Corporate & Public Affairs and Advocacy, ERM Strategic Communications Agency, EMEA

ERM is the world’s largest pure play sustainability consultancy, helping shape a sustainable future with the world’s leading organizations. With over 8,000 consultants working in 140 countries, our clients receive best-in-class strategy and delivery support, enabled through subject matter expertise and a huge breadth of capability.

We are constantly innovating to find new ways to help our clients achieve their ambitions.

The expansion of our Strategic Communications offering into EMEA is one of our most exciting developments. Our team has a clearly defined purpose: to help businesses attain a market advantage through communications. Our ambition is to become the world’s most impactful sustainability communications firm (we were recently named as a new agency to watch in 2026 by PR Week), and we are looking to recruit new colleagues who share our passion and entrepreneurial spirit.

As part of the EMEA Communications Agency, you will join a small but growing UK-based unit connected to a 50-strong US agency team and a wider global network of sustainability experts. We operate much like a disruptive start-up, with a mandate to set our own strategy and build our growth plan – but with the investment and enablement of a $1 billion ‘parent’.

Our primary route to growth is through collaboration with ERM colleagues across the globe, who already advise the majority of the world’s largest listed businesses and see opportunity for ERM to provide communications counsel, up-selling our capabilities and enabling ERM to drive end-to-end consultancy throughout our clients’ decarbonisation journeys.

Much of the work we’ve delivered to date focuses on creating evidence-based sustainability narratives that can enable a market advantage, by building reputation, supporting engagement and influencing behaviour. The audiences who our clients want to reach are varied, but typically prioritise investors, regulators and policy-makers, NGOs and industry bodies, and b2b customers; and internally, the Board, Executive leadership teams and current & future employees.

We have identified client need and a route to growth by strengthening our senior expertise in policy and industry influence and thus we are now seeking a Principal Consultant with a strong foundation in agency-side corporate and public affairs, to lead the charge on new business development and client delivery in this sphere.

The successful candidate will have an established record of winning work and advising clients on integrated briefs spanning strategic communications and public affairs. They will have a good understanding of policy and regulatory issues within sustainability and a minimum of 10 years’ experience of influencing decisions around regulation, planning and sustainable infrastructure development, gained from operating in a fast-paced, high-stakes corporate PR agency environment.

Key areas of responsibility

Culture and leadership

• Be an accountable, responsive and proactive core member of the EMEA Agency team. Consider your role as a leader within an early-stage business, in helping us to shape culture, values and identity through how you show up.
• Bring a passion for helping clients make an impact in the work they do, to support a more sustainable world. Be able to articulate the role you have played in doing this for previous clients.
• Be available, flexible and prepared to work across timezones. We are a small and non-hierarchical team, you will be covering a breadth of capabilities and sectors; agility and the willingness to ‘roll up sleeves’ is critical. You may not always have access to junior support and will at times be working solo as part of a wider ERM project team.
• We grow through networking, primarily within ERM. You will invest time and energy in building your own relationships within the firm, testing and developing your offering in partnership with several hundred Partners who themselves hold the key to relationships with our most valued corporate clients.

Business development

• This role has been identified as a strategic growth hire. The expectation is that you will spend half of your time in the pursuit of new business, to be worked by you and our small team.
• You should be comfortable leading a pitch team, drafting a comprehensive proposal, scoping budgets and managing contract negotiation – with the help of the Comms Agency Partner Lead.
• You must have a flair for innovation and proven track record of taking new propositions to market. You should have a hunger for business growth, a sound understanding of agency commercials and strong experience of scoping and delivering profitable work.
• We have identified growth potential in the field of corporate and public affairs. Specifically, we see a need to support ERM clients with:
  • Helping them position themselves through communicating with regulators, policy-makers and political influencers, with a view to leveraging climate and social impact issues, policies and frameworks to enable business goals.
  • Building cross-industry coalitions with competitors and peers to shape perceptions and influence decision-making. Engage with trade bodies and draw on their networks to support clients. Demonstration of advising membership organisations is welcome.
  • Identify and build engagement programmes with influential NGOs and special-interest organisations – and advise clients on how to handle NGO investigations and reputational threats.
  • Shaping and engaging with local community and local authority / planning decision-makers to protect and promote client interests around critical infrastructure projects (eg renewables; data centres).
• It is expected that this candidate will have their own views on how to shape this proposition, and these should be presented as part of the interview process.
• Within your mandate will be a need to market your own expertise. You will be expected to attend industry events, create thought leadership content for media and social media publication and leverage your own network for ERM’s gain.

Client delivery

• As you win business, you will become the primary day-to-day lead on a range of client projects and retainers, most of which will be communications mandates delivered as part of a larger ERM programme of work. You will be expected to retain and grow these relationships.
• Given our size and stage of growth we all have to ‘jump in’. You may find yourself supporting more clients on internal comms, narrative development or sustainability reporting projects than public affairs until you have grown that proposition.
• Be the point-person for the ERM Account Manager (Partner-level) and for the client, providing advice and identifying opportunities to up-sell our communications capabilities.
• Take an active role in client meetings, workshops and strategy sessions, constantly identifying ways to add value to the existing ERM relationship.

• Work collaboratively with colleagues in ERM Shelton and in other Business Units – in particular, Climate, Sustainability & Transactions and Capital Projects in the UK and Europe.

Required experience and attributes

• You will be comfortable and confident advising clients at Senior Management-level, recognising they may be in ESG, not Communications or Public Affairs, functions.
• A can-do attitude, not fazed by the need to juggle priorities and multi-task. You will be highly organized, a fast-worker, proactive, collaborative, with good attention to detail. You are happy ‘doing the do’; we are a small, non-hierarchical team.
• You have valuable contacts at political, regulatory and NGO-level, and excellent writing skills. Some experience with wider media and business stakeholders is welcome.
• Experience operating across industry sectors; knowledge of the energy and renewables, built environment, chemicals and technology sectors is preferable.
• Experience delivering multi-market programmes and advising clients in international markets beyond the UK. You should be able to demonstrate understanding of sustainability and climate-related regulation in the UK and at Brussels level (eg CSRD; EUDR; Packaging Waste Regulation) and be comfortable advising EU-based clients on how this should impact how they communicate.
  • While it is not expected that we will be selected as a client’s primary Public Affairs or Communications agency, our role as sustainability specialists means we frequently partner with said agencies on the client’s behalf.
• Experience of managing client and agency budgets, tracking utilisation and servicing levels, and understanding core agency performance metrics.
• Experience of delivering multi-channel sustainability communications programmes with the ability to articulate the outcomes and impact of your work.
• Native speaker of English with strong writing, verbal and presentation skills. Ability to interpret complex information and create content which makes it accessible for a wide range of audiences.
• Minimum 10 years’ experience working in communications, with at least half of this in an agency environment. Experience of working within local or national government is preferable.
• Given our size and the importance of investing in relationships with ERM colleagues, it is expected that you will be in the London office on average 2-3 days per week, although we respect the need for flexibility.
• Willingness to travel, primarily within Northern Europe but with occasional trips further afield.

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ERM is committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to thrive, it’s an essential part of what makes ERM a great place to build a career and helps us create better solutions for our clients.

We welcome talent from all backgrounds and provide equal opportunities for every candidate. If you have a disability, are neurodivergent, or need accommodations during the selection process, we’re here to support you. Our commitment doesn’t stop at hiring. Once you join us, we’ll ensure you have the tools, support, and adjustments needed to succeed and feel a true sense of belonging. Learn more about our Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DIB) efforts by visiting our website or exploring our 2025 Sustainability Report..