Senior Advocacy Manager (humanitarian)
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Role Title: Senior Advocacy Manager (Women’s Rights and humanitarian response)
Salary: £48,166 to 49,558
Location: London-Hybrid
Tenure: Full Time, 1 year Fixed-Term (Maternity Cover)
ActionAid UK is a member of the ActionAid Federation, an international charity that works with women and girls living in poverty. We work with our partners and dedicated staff in 43 countries to end violence and fight poverty so that all women, everywhere, can create the future they want
Are you a keen advocate of women and girls’ rights in emergencies?
Do you have proven experience of developing and implementing successful influencing strategies?
Could you make a real impact by supporting our efforts to promote social justice and fight poverty?
Then we'd love to hear from you!
We are now looking for a Senior Advocacy Manager focused on women’s rights and humanitarian response. This role sits in our Advocacy and Influencing department, where you will help shape how ActionAid UK engages with politicians, civil servants, networks, and other organisations, ensuring our positions are heard, understood and acted on.
Day to day, you will work collaboratively with teams across the organisation to develop advocacy strategies that reflect the realities faced by women during crises. You will build constructive relationships with parliamentarians, civil servants, policy actors and partner organisations, representing ActionAid in meetings, sector networks and coalition spaces. You will help shape our policy messaging, brief senior colleagues for external engagements, monitor developments across UK politics and humanitarian policy, and ensure we are well-placed to respond to emerging opportunities or risks. You may occasionally act as a spokesperson, and will work closely with colleagues across media, digital and brand to ensure our advocacy has impact. [JO3]
We are looking for someone with strong experience in advocacy, public affairs, parliamentary or policy work, and a deep understanding of gender equality in international development and/or humanitarian contexts. You will be confident building relationships at senior levels, able to translate complex policy issues into compelling and coherent narratives, and comfortable navigating political dynamics and making judgement calls. Proven political judgement and experience of lobbying government, Parliament, and other institutions is essential, along with excellent writing/presentation skills..
Above all, you will share our feminist values and commitment to working in solidarity with women’s rights movements globally.
This role requires regular travel into central London for meetings, parliamentary engagement and external events. No international travel is expected.
Key Requirements:
* Understanding of the key issues in humanitarian response policy and advocacy
* Significant experience of working in advocacy, in parliament, or in Whitehall
* Experience of working in national coalitions & working in cross-organisational teams to deliver on projects/ strategies
* Commitment to AA’s vision, mission and values, including a commitment to feminist principles, anti-racism and decolonisation, and working in an organisation committed to working for the rights of women and girls
If you are motivated by meaningful systemic change and want to help ensure women’s voices shape humanitarian policy and practice, we would love to hear from you.
* Start date likely to be mid/end of January 2026
* Interviews likely to take place W/C 8 December 2025
Additional information
Diversity, equality, inclusion and belonging:
Diversity, inclusion and belonging are key to our organisational culture. We are on a journey to become not only an anti-racist organisation but one that proudly celebrates the diversity of all applicants and employees. We look forward to you bringing your full self to work, proudly sharing your unique perspective and helping us to shape our combined future. We especially welcome applications from those from under-represented/marginalised communities.
AAUK is a Disability Confident Committed organisation and as such any candidate that declares a disability will be shortlisted for interview if they meet the essential criteria for the role.
Referencing and safeguarding:
All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, safeguarding, criminal records and terrorism finance checks. By submitting an application the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.
ActionAid UK is committed to preventing any form of sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse (including child abuse and adult at-risk abuse) and responding robustly when these harms take place. We expect all ActionAid UK staff and ActionAid UK representatives to share this commitment. We will not tolerate our staff or other representatives carrying out any form of sexual harassment, exploitation or abuse towards anyone we come into contact with through our work.
Working practices:
ActionAid is committed to supporting flexible working. If you would like to discuss flexible working options, including the possibility of a job share for this role, there will be space to do so during the interview process.
ActionAid UK has a hybrid working policy for many of our roles. The requirement will vary from team to team and the responsibilities of individual roles. As a minimum, all colleagues are expected to attend the office 12 days per year, plus additional time for induction, training, and company connection days. Some roles may require in-office attendance on all days and if so, these will clearly be marked as in-office roles.
Please note that ActionAid UK does not offer fully remote working options. We encourage you to discuss hybrid working expectations at interview.
Recruitment processes:
Please note that ActionAid UK may review, shortlist and interview candidates prior to the closing date so we encourage all candidates to apply as soon as possible. If we receive a very high response, we may close the vacancy early and will not accept further submissions. Vacancies close at 23:55pm