Stakeholder Engagement Manager

Job summary

*This role is home-based with regular travel to North West England and occasional travel to bp’s Sunbury-on-Thames site, where the project is based.*

bp’s ambition is to be one of the leading providers of offshore wind energy. To power the scale and pace of growth that we are targeting, we need the best people in the industry.

In the UK’s Irish Sea, we intend to develop offshore wind across two leases, Morgan and Mona, each with a generating capacity of 1.5GW – each enough to power the equivalent of 1.5 million homes. This role will support the Morgan offshore wind farm development project.

The Stakeholder Engagement Manager sits within the UK communications and external affairs (C&EA) team and supports bp’s UK offshore wind (OFW) business, including joint venture partners, to obtain societal support for the duration of the project.

Working with a variety of stakeholders, this role builds long-term relationships, monitors local stakeholder sentiment to plans, and works with other members of the project team to enable the delivery of the project.

• Own and manage the stakeholder map and strategy on behalf of the project leader (aligned with consenting strategy), including:
  • Local/regional communities to the project
  • Local/regional government officials
  • Local/regional political stakeholders
• Provide input to determine non-technical (including legislative, regulatory, reputational, political and social) risks, and develop appropriate mitigation plans
• Issues management - anticipating and responding to stakeholder needs – mobilising project and wider business leaders where appropriate, delivering solutions to stakeholders.
• Identify areas of collaboration with partners and other developers.
• Ensure alignment between UK OFW and the UK C&EA plans, in consultation and with support from stakeholder engagement senior manager.

You will:

• Act as a champion for the project, and build clear and efficient communication, strong relationships and trust with stakeholders.
• Drive best-in-class approach to external stakeholder engagement through execution of the stakeholder engagement strategy, aligned with the consenting strategy.
• Develop and deliver the social investment plan for the project, consistent with the social sustainability strategy.
• Gather intelligence and feedback from stakeholders to identify emerging issues, risks and opportunities, supported by data and key metrics.
• Facilitate and coordinate supply chain activities, working closely with the Supply Chain Manager and Procurement, and aligned with project requirements.
• Inform the development of positions on key consent topics for the project, and proactively ensure alignment across the projects.
• Take responsibility to ensure that all queries from, and responses to, stakeholders are logged on the project's communication management software.
• Prepare responses to queries from stakeholders within the local community (co-ordinating with the project team where required), delivering consistent and positive responses. Support Consents where required in responses to other technical stakeholders.
• Arrange and attend public events (information and consultation).