Political Intelligence Consultant (Defence & Foreign Affairs)

Position description

If you’re passionate about policy and politics, you’ll fit right in to our enthusiastic and vibrant team.

This is an exciting opportunity to become part of a highly-respected political intelligence team, providing market-leading intelligence services to ensure our clients stay ahead of political developments. We provide fast, focused, and comprehensive information and insight on the activities of legislatures, government, and a variety of stakeholders to clients across a wide range of sectors. In a time of political turmoil, keeping constantly informed is a dynamic challenge.

You’ll be part of a team of fellow consultants, each of whom are experts in their respective policy areas, and will be providing finger-on-the-pulse analysis to your clients within defence and foreign affairs on a daily basis.

You will work towards becoming a respected authority within the industry on all issues relating to your specialist policy area and key stakeholders, with the potential opportunity to write articles for media publications and participate in broadcasting and panel discussions.

This role is based at our London office. Colleagues spend some of their working week in the office and some days working from home (usually 2-3 days in the office per week). If you would like to explore flexible working options, we would be happy to discuss this as part of the interview process.

What’s it like to work with us?

At Dods we focus on our 3C’s: Collaboration, Continuous improvement, and Customers. We live these values by offering employees opportunities to further their skills through learning and development and training, plenty of opportunities to connect across teams to network, socialise and volunteer, and by always keeping the customer at the forefront. Our inclusive culture means there are always room for new ideas, opportunities to be creative and continuous improvement.

Situated in the heart of London, the office working environment is collaborative, bright and airy with everyone together in one space. There’s always a bit of a buzz and conversation going on, and people really like to chat and help each other. The office is small enough that everyone knows everyone’s name, so colleagues work across teams on shared projects and catch up over informal meetings in the kitchen or over a game of pool in the office.

We prize initiative and creativity in how you best provide intelligence to your hugely diverse range of clients. We invest in our consultant’s expertise and will support you in gaining new skills with dedicated funding for your learning and development. 

We’ve provided political intelligence for 190 years, and whilst we’re looking into how to leverage artificial intelligence, we know that it’s still our people and how we support our customers personally that makes us different. Work can be fast-paced – there’s an expectation that a customer can get straight through to their Consultant or Account Manager to ask a question and get a quick answer. This means that if a colleague is out-of-office, we cover for each other. It’s a very engaging environment to work in, and whilst it can be busy, you know that there are always great colleagues around to support you.

About Dods Group Ltd

Dods is a leading political intelligence business covering the Westminster and Brussels parliaments. Organisations have been turning to us for pertinent information on what’s going on in Government since we first published Dods Parliamentary Companion way back in 1832. We provide clients across the corporate, government and charity sectors with insight, intelligence and impact through our comprehensive suite of policy tools.

Dods Political Intelligence is comprised of three main services:

• Insight – based in Brussels and London, our industry experts offer real-time analysis and impartial guidance on the latest policy developments and trends.
• Monitoring – our platform offers instant alerts and contextual insight from over 13,000 sources across the UK and the EU.
• People – the original “who is who” in politics, Dods Parliamentary Companion, was established in 1832. Today, our stakeholder management tools cover the UK and the EU, helping you identify and communicate effectively with key contacts.

For further information, please visit: www.dodsgroup.com

What are we looking for?

Our ideal candidate will have:

• Familiarity with parliamentary procedure and the political landscape of the UK.
• Excellent attention to detail and commitment to accuracy, while working quickly and to tight deadlines.
• Capable of prioritising multiple tasks and managing workloads.
• A proactive approach, with the confidence to hit the ground running.
• A relevant degree-level qualification or relevant professional experience.
• IT literate and confident in using online applications to support your work.
• Ability to work well within a team but also take initiative when required.

Key responsibilities

The successful candidates will be responsible for providing a first-rate political intelligence service to their own portfolio of clients.

This position is for the defence and foreign affairs portfolio, which covers the work of the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and overlapping areas across government policy. Applications should refer to the role and detail any relevant policy expertise in this area.

You will need an excellent understanding of parliamentary procedure and government policy, and some relevant client-facing experience.

You will have a keen interest in politics and policy, and excellent written and verbal communication skills. You need to be comfortable working at a fast pace, within tight deadlines, with the ability to analyse large amounts of information in a rapidly changing political environment. And you’ll need to love working with both clients and colleagues, with a professional attitude and ability to demonstrate initiative and commercial awareness.

Your responsibilities will include maintaining an excellent service to clients, and the provision of timely and high-quality political insight and research. You will also contribute to the development of our business through the delivery of successful trial periods with prospective clients.

Why choose Dods?

We are proud of the inclusive culture we have built at Dods. Our team are passionate about what they do, and we are passionate about supporting them to be their best. We understand the importance of work-life balance and offer a flexible, hybrid working environment so you can choose how and where to work. Celebrating diversity and inclusion is also an important aspect of our culture and we often have social events to bring everyone together. Here’s some more information on our benefits and ways of working:

Employee Benefits (London)

• 25 days annual leave plus your birthday off, with the option to buy an additional 5 days holiday per year.
• Our approach to work is agile and the team currently spend some of their working week at home and in our office based in The Shard. We also offer the option to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks a year.
• Flexible working, including 4pm finish on Fridays and early finish throughout the summer holiday period so you can spend more time with your family and friends.
• Opportunities to connect across teams and locations to network, socialise and volunteer.
• Our inclusive culture means there are always room for new ideas, opportunities to be creative and continuous improvement.
• Continuous learning and development opportunities throughout your journey with us.
• Life assurance: we hope you will never need this, but our cover is for 4 times your salary to your beneficiaries.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave options.
• Company Pension Scheme.
• Discounted Gym Membership.
• Cycle to work and season ticket travel loan scheme.
• Exclusive Shard Member Discounts.
• In-year employee bonus scheme.
• Employee assistance programme.

Equal opportunities

We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion, we encourage applications from all backgrounds and communities. Dods Group Ltd wants to meet the aims and commitments set out in its equality policy. This includes not discriminating under the Equality Act 2010 and building an accurate picture of the make-up of the workforce in encouraging equality and diversity.

The organisation needs your help and co-operation to enable it to do this but answering our Equal Opportunity questions is voluntary. The information provided will be kept confidential and will be used for monitoring purposes. Please note, the answers to your questions will be kept separate from your application and not viewed by the Hiring Manager.

Application instructions

Please be sure to indicate you saw this position on tendersglobal.net