Director Of Strategy and Advocacy

2 young people with their backs to the camera are facing Westminster building. They are wearing black Bite Back hoodies which have white text on the back that says, 'Fuel us, Don't fool us'

Contract: Fixed term - 10 months (maternity cover).

Hours: Full time.

Location: London. This is a UK-based role; you must have the right to work in the UK to be considered. You are expected to be in our London, Victoria office 2 days a week.

Salary: £70k FTE gross per annum + an additional office allowance of £2,000 per annum pro-rated.

Benefits: 30 days annual leave, flexible working environment, enhanced sick pay, 5% employer / 3% employee pension contribution, bike to work scheme.

Reporting to: Chief Executive.

Please note: Owing to the nature of this role, any offer of employment with Bite Back will be subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check.

Do you want to work with a vibrant, dynamic and youth-driven organisation that is committed to creating healthy futures for British children by improving the food system?

Be part of the creative, agile and growing team behind Bite Back’s exceptional teenage activists. Join us as our Director of Strategy & Advocacy and contribute to our journey to help make the food system healthier and fairer. See below for more details about the role and how to apply.

At Bite Back we are committed to ensuring our staff is representative of the diverse world around us and therefore we encourage candidates with a range of lived and professional experiences to apply. We particularly welcome applications from people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. We will use positive action under the Equality Act 2010 to appoint from these underrepresented groups if two candidates are equally qualified.

About Bite Back

We’re surrounded by junk food. From the moment we're born, every second of every day, children are being targeted. Giant companies manipulate them with colourful, cuddly, clever marketing, deceive them with packaging claims and pump products at them that are full of junk. It's become the cultural wallpaper. Now, it risks destroying the health of a generation.

Over a third of 10/11-year-olds leave primary school with an increased risk of developing food-related conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease in their future.

The good news is, it's totally preventable. And we're biting back.

Bite Back is a youth activist movement challenging a food system that's been set up to fool us all.

We do this by:

  1. Calling out the manipulation of the junk food giants.
  2. Demanding higher standards from food marketing and from everyday food itself.
  3. Mobilising and equipping young people in the fight for better food.

We do all this so we can bite back against a global epidemic of food-related ill health.

Role Description

The Director of Strategy & Advocacy will be responsible for leading the Policy & Engagement, Campaigns and Digital Communications teams. This role is responsible for uniting the function to deliver the day-to-day execution of Bite Back’s strategy. They will develop collaborative, cross-team working practices that ensure teams are making the most of opportunities to drive impact together. They will manage the Head of Communications, Head of Policy & Research and two Senior Campaigns Managers ensuring that the strategies these team members set are aligned and reflective of our organisational strategy.

2025 is a particularly important year for Bite Back to build relationships with government influencers and make the most of policy opportunities. This role will be responsible for charting our public affairs strategy and building new relationships with MPs, ministers and key government advisors.

They will ensure that activity across our campaigns, communications and content supports our policy impact ambitions while working closely with the Chief Brand Officer to identify opportunities for the team to advance our brand ambitions. They will have a knowledge of supporter engagement strategies and support the Head of Communications and Senior Campaigns and Digital Managers to increase our supporter base and their engagement.

Responsibilities

The Director of Strategy & Advocacy is accountable for:

Advocacy

  • Lead on the development of a public affairs strategy to increase and deepen Bite Back’s influence in Westminster and advance our policy impact.
  • Work closely with the Chief Executive to build senior government relationships across Whitehall and with policy influencers and partner organisations.
  • Generate advocacy opportunities for Bite Back’s young people to influence key decision-makers.
  • Represent Bite Back at external meetings, roundtables and stakeholder events.
  • Work collaboratively with key partners to align advocacy messages, policy asks and influencing activity.
  • Coordinate Bite Back’s advocacy role on the School Food Review.

Strategy

  • Develop and implement creative strategies for achieving Bite Back’s policy goals working across youth, communications, digital, campaigns, brand and policy teams.
  • Ensure a strong focus on monitoring and evaluation, and building learnings back into cross-team strategy.
  • Develop strategies to engage new audiences and mobilise existing supporters; grow our supporter base to build power; narrative alignment and storytelling.
  • Ensure we remain youth-led in all our communications, campaigns, public affairs and research and that youth insights are integrated into planning and delivery.
  • Ensure that we have plans and capabilities in place to amplify our reach at key moments.

Team

  • Continue to develop and manage a strong Strategy & Delivery function designing structures and systems that support collaboration, creativity and high-performance.
  • Manage the Head of Communication, Head of Policy & Research and two Senior Campaigns Managers to develop and deliver strategies for their areas.
  • Ensure integration of these strategies and alignment with the organisation's strategy.
  • Lead the team to ensure strong integration and collaborative working across Strategy & Delivery, Brand & Youth, and Finance & Operations teams. Serve as the strategic lead coordinating activity for high profile moments to ensure all teams are working in the same direction towards an aligned goal.
  • Develop and manage the departmental budget in line with strategic objectives.
  • As a member of the Leadership Team help and shape Bite Back’s continued development and impact.

Skills and Experience

The ideal candidate would have the following:

Essential

  • Deep commitment to health equity and social justice.
  • Extensive experience navigating political processes and the Westminster landscape to build relationships and advance policy ambitions.
  • Extensive experience creating evidence-based strategies and translating them into creative, innovative campaigns to secure policy change. Passion for integrating digital, communications and supporter mobilisation best practices to drive forward policy and campaign impact.
  • Demonstrable experience leading multiple teams and directing cross-team collaboration.
  • Exceptional ability to unite team members behind a coherent strategy, direct the activity needed to achieve that strategy and support contributing team members to lead their workstreams autonomously.
  • Experience setting KPIs and evaluation approaches to ensure strategies are working, and adjusting strategies based on evaluation results as necessary.
  • Exceptional communications skills including clear and compelling writing style and the ability to translate complex policy and evidence language into well-framed engaging messaging for key audiences including supporters, the media, political influencers and the general public.

Desirable

  • Previous experience working in child health or another health policy area.
  • Experience working with young people is welcomed but not essential.

Approach to Work

You will be able to show the following qualities:

  • A bold and open mind — you will be prepared to think differently about issues. Narrative shift is a key component of our work and the successful candidate will be open and prepared to challenge their own mindsets and adopt a new way of thinking about our issue.
  • A level head — you will be comfortable working both reactively and proactively.
  • A sense of humour — we believe work should be fun and that we all perform at our very best when we enjoy what we do.
  • Creativity — you will come at issues from new and surprising angles.
  • Adaptable — the ability to adapt to an ever-changing policy environment.
  • A commitment to Bite Back’s values: Fresh, Resilient, Respectful, Energetic, and Real.

How to Apply

Please apply with a CV and a statement answering the following questions:

  1. Please give an example of an advocacy strategy you have developed to advance a specific policy or campaign aim. (250 words max)
  2. Please give an example of how you have led cross-team collaboration to achieve a specific organisational or project goal. (250 words max)
  3. Please tell us how you would ensure the voice of our youth advocates is front and centre for policymakers, the media and our supporter audiences. (250 words max)

If you have any questions about the role or the application process, do contact us at recruitment@biteback2030.com and we’ll be happy to help. We will only accept applications submitted via the CharityJob website. This is because CharityJob automatically anonymises all applications to reduce bias in the selection process.

Applications will be handled in line with our Recruitment Privacy Policy.

Timeline

  • Applications close at 09:00 on Monday 17 February 2025.
  • Initial (online) interviews are expected to take place on Thursday 20 February 2025.
  • Second interviews will happen at Fivefields, 8-10 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0DH on Wednesday 26th Feb 2025.

If you are in receipt of means-tested benefits and cost is a barrier to attending a London-based interview, please let us know and we can help with booking your travel.

We are testing an approach of sharing one interview question in advance as part of our commitment to being more inclusive. Please let us know if you require any additional support or reasonable adjustments for the application or interview. We really want our process to feel accessible.