Vice President, Government Affairs North America

Position description

You enjoy being part of a talented and diverse team and can communicate easily and openly with your colleagues.

You are also passionate about quality work and know that good communication does not just happen – a great deal of care is taken to ensure accuracy, consistency and timeliness.

With a fascinating product, a global business and great stories to tell, come and be part of our team.

We’re the world’s leading diamond company – a unique luxury business that thrives on the creativity, passion and knowledge of our people.

To push our company forwards, we always need to think differently. We welcome diverse perspectives, people who spark fresh thinking and aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions

In return, we provide you with the space and support to grow and achieve your ambitions.

Job Description:

Government Affairs work helps to achieve our strategic and operational business goals by elevating our insights and influence of government stakeholders in priority countries. Given our size, global reach and workforce, De Beers has the credibility and potential to be a major partner to governments and institutions across many countries.

The Government Affairs team in De Beers Group was set up in early 2024 to ensure that De Beers Group is well connected and well informed about developments in key governments around the world and able to influence where necessary. This position is one of a small number of new roles being created in this team, to help deliver the global government affairs strategy. It is therefore an important and exciting moment to join this newly-created and invigorated team of experts, located around the world, and demonstrate how a top class government affairs team can help to protect and progress the company’s commercial success.

This role will work directly with and report to the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs team leader based in London, with a specialisation in the US and federal Canadian government.

There has never been a more fascinating time to join De Beers and work on government affairs, given the dynamics of the diamond industry; the recent launch of De Beers’ strategy; and the multiple elections producing new governments and new dynamics to engage with. The government affairs team will have an integral role in helping the company achieve its commercial aims, working very closely with communications colleagues.

PURPOSE:

The global government affairs team is responsible for ensuring that De Beers has the relationships, analytical skills and knowledge it needs to be well informed and well connected into governments in the countries that matter most to the business, to understand and help mitigate risks; create and seize opportunities; and influence policy, legislation and regulation in support of the company’s strategic commercial interests.

The job holder will report directly to the Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and work closely with them.

The job holder will help to iterate and implement a global government engagement plan to position De Beers as a valued and important British-headquartered mining, retail and technology company. This will require the job holder to work with the CEO and members of the Executive Team to ensure that the company has the relationships required across priority governments and the analytics and insights to help inform our business strategy and protect and progress our commercial interests.

This role will have particular responsibility for building capability, awareness, understanding and insights around developments in the US and federal Canadian government. This means developing and leveraging relationships and designing and executing plans to raise the profile and build the reputation of De Beers in this geographical area. It requires having the understanding of developments in the government arena – be they personnel, political, policy, regulatory or legislative – to provide early warning of anything that could impact our ability to operate successfully.

Specifically, the successful applicant will be required to build relationships with and insights of government officials, politicians, policy makers and opinion-formers in the US and federal Canadian government in order to:

• strengthen De Beers’ profile and reputation as an important employer and driver of economic growth as a worldclass miner, luxury retailer and technology company;
• improve our understanding of the risks De Beers faces across the political, policy and regulatory space and develop and execute plans to mitigate those risks to protect our business;
• understand, create and leverage opportunities across the political, policy and regulatory space to help progress our commercial success; and
• position De Beers as an industry expert and thought leader; a constructive and trusted partner to governments; and a responsible community partner to enhance our social license to operate.

Where appropriate, the job holder will need to work with communications and marketing colleagues to design and develop specific campaigns in order to shift opinion or position De Beers differently. An organised yet innovative approach will be most effective at managing the weight and range of work as well as spotting and creating opportunities to tell the De Beers story to government and other relevant audiences.

Additionally, the job holder will need to stay informed about the changing political and economic landscape, including policy, regulatory and legislative developments; understand what is relevant to the business; and advise a course of action for the company’s best interests.

The job holder will need to be able to work closely with communications colleagues to ensure we have the right information to engage and inform governments about the full range of De Beers’ activities, from the Origin Strategy and Building Forever programme through to Element Six’s world-leading technology capabilities and our traceability and provenance technology.

The job holder will also need to build relationships within the company and across De Beers Group’s business units and corporate functions to understand and identify business priorities and where government engagement can help deliver and protect De Beers’ commercial interests, and take timely and appropriate action.

KEY ASPECTS OF THE ROLE:

Tracking, understanding, interpreting and reporting on relevant developments in the government space, across personnel changes; political trends; policy developments; and regulatory and legislative shifts, to ensure De Beers is well-informed on issues that affect the business.  

Advising the business on tactics for engaging government to maximise the company’s influence and build a strong, positive reputation as a trusted partner and industry thought leader.

Setting up and representing De Beers at relevant meetings as part of a coordinated programme of engagement with stakeholders, to shift perception and build understanding of the company in relevant government circles as well as build insights and influence policy thinking.

Coordinating across colleagues and supporting agencies to ensure a good flow of information and understanding of the priorities, to maximise our impact.

The job holder can expect to spend significant time representing De Beers in meetings with government and at events. This will require some travel across North America and some out of standard hours work, to attend breakfast or evening events. There will also be a need to travel to the UK, where De Beers is headquartered.

De Beers does not have an office building in Washington, D.C, so the job holder will need to work from a location of their choice in the city.

The base salary range for this position is $210K to $280K USD annually.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years policy experience working in a corporate company, think tank or industry association or government in an in-house Government Affairs function or equivalent;
• Experience of working with and a good understanding of policy- and decision-making processes in the US government, preferably with a good network of contacts to enable the job holder to hit the ground running in building strong and enduring relationships; and
• A strong and demonstrable understanding of government relations work, including personal experience of developing and executing strategies and building advocacy campaigns.

SKILLS:

• Highly proactive and self motivated, to drive the government affairs agenda and create opportunities;
• Excels at working autonomously to agreed strategic goals and priorities
• Comfortable taking responsibility for delivery;
• Able to spot and understand relevant developments and link them to the business need;
• Organised and structured working style to ensure delivery and execution
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills; able to easily build good relationships with colleagues and external stakeholders;
• Enjoys working in and building a strong sense of team;
• Professional, dependable and trustworthy;
• Fluent and excellent written and verbal English skills;
• Ability to remain productive and focused while working alone and remotely;
• Able to explain technical and complex information to non-experts;
• Works well in high pressure moments; and
• Able to interpret and operate productively between public and private sectors.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Willing to travel, sometimes frequently;
• Able to engage and build rapport quickly with Ministers, senior officials and colleagues;
• Organised and attention to detail;
• Stakeholder oriented;
• Integrity;
• Flexible and adaptive to new ideas and change; and
• Positive and action-oriented.

Application instructions

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