Introduction
When it comes to pioneering ambition, there’s no place like Heathrow.
Our Heathrow Expansion programme offers a unique and exciting opportunity to play a defining role in one of the UK’s most significant infrastructure projects.
You’ll help shape a national legacy that millions will experience for decades to come, as we deliver the third runway, improve passenger experience, stimulate jobs and opportunities across the UK, and strengthen the global connectivity that powers trade and travel.
Modernising and expanding the UK’s only hub airport and critical national infrastructure whilst keeping it fully operational and safe, creates a pace and complexity unlike other major programmes. It demands collaboration, resilience, problem solving and a desire to take on challenges that genuinely matter.
From securing planning consents to designing a new runway, modernising terminals and improving public transport access, and delivering on environmental and community commitments - the scale is unmatched.
You’ll be part of a diverse team of talented colleagues, built on mutual respect and where excellence thrives. It’s an inspiring place to work, with unlimited opportunities to make a difference as you help to shape the future of our world-class airport.
Job Description
The Community Engagement Manager will deliver Heathrow’s strategy for supporting meaningful community engagement in the local communities surrounding the airport, ensuring that all engagement is carried out with sensitivity and care. The role will help maintain trust, foster constructive dialogue, and strengthen Heathrow’s reputation as a responsible and responsive neighbour.
You will develop tailored, place based engagement plans that ensure Heathrow understands the needs, priorities and concerns of communities across a broad range of topic areas related to the Heathrow Expansion DCO. You will build strong, transparent and supportive relationships with residents, community groups, parish representatives and other local stakeholders.
You will work with teams across Heathrow to ensure that feedback from external engagement is sensitively captured, shared and incorporated into future planning and decision making linked to Heathrow’s Expansion proposals.
Your role will involve
- Manage relationships with community stakeholders in the communities surrounding Heathrow, acting as a primary point of contact and ensuring clear, accessible, and empathetic communication on matters related to the Heathrow Expansion DCO.
- Deliver tailored, villagebased engagement activities by building trusted local networks, coordinating place ‑ specific forums, meetings, and drop - ins, and providing secretariat support to ensure transparent and effective dialogue.
- Capture and share community feedback with internal teams, advocating for community needs and ensuring local perspectives are understood and considered in strategic and operational decisions linked to the Expansion DCO.
- Oversee community engagement communication channels and materials, ensuring information for village communities is clear, sensitive, accessible, and available across both digital and hardcopy formats.
- Prepare regular reports on engagement effectiveness, highlighting themes emerging from community interactions and supporting wider updates to community groups, local authorities, councillors, MPs, and the Community Engagement Board.
- Act as a collaborative member of the Communities Team supporting the Community Relations Helpdesk, working closely with Engagement and Investment teams, and ensuring coordinated, sensitive support for village communities throughout the Expansion programme.
These Skills Are Essential
- Graduate or postgraduate qualification, or equivalent experience, with strong understanding of the community engagement landscape and its application to major infrastructure projects.
- Experience working in community engagement roles with communities affected by major infrastructure, demonstrating effective collaboration and teamworking within large, matrixed organisations.
- Proven ability to measure and evaluate the effectiveness of engagement and communication activities, ensuring continual improvement.
- Exceptional attention to detail, strong organisational skills, and a commitment to seeing tasks through to completion.
- Excellent interpersonal, negotiation, influencing, written, and verbal communication skills.
- Strong understanding of traditional, digital, and social communication channels, with experience designing innovative, interactive engagement tools and activities.
About Us
There’s something so special about working at the world’s most iconic airport. Its sights. Its sounds. Its constant air of excitement. Heathrow is an amazing backdrop to a career filled with unique opportunities.
Every day, you’ll discover a world full of fresh possibilities and end the day buzzing with stories to tell, as you encounter people from all cultures, nationalities and experiences. A world full of pride for what we do and no end of exciting career prospects to explore.
It brings out the best in all of us. And inspires everyone to deliver on our ambitious plans. Together, we’re working to welcome millions more passengers while ensuring aviation can continue to be a force for good by leading global efforts in sustainability.
Join us on that journey and we'll help you achieve your ambitions too. Supporting you to learn, encouraging you to be yourself, backing you to achieve more than you might ever have imagined. Because there’s no place like Heathrow.
Our rewards
We offer competitive salaries and excellent benefits that will support you now and in the future. As well as performance-based annual bonuses and our longer-term Share in Success Bonus plans, we also offer generous annual leave allowances and market-leading pensions. With family friendly policies, access to private health insurance and a wide range of wellbeing tools, we’ll support you to be at your best inside and outside work. And of course, we’ll provide varied learning and development opportunities too. Here you’ll find everything you need for a fulfilling career journey that can take you in exciting directions.
Working Location
Our Hybrid working approach offers the opportunity for colleagues in some roles to work from home for an average of two days a week, providing the flexibility to work in an agile way whilst ensuring we deliver for the operational needs of Heathrow . Working arrangements vary from team to team and will be confirmed during the recruitment process. You’ll need to be based in the UK and within a commutable distance to Heathrow.
Sustainable Travel to work
Heathrow’s Sustainable Travel Guide sets out easy and sustainable travel options that everyone can access.
Equal Opportunities
As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all. We believe that diverse talent makes us stronger – not least because we welcome passengers from all corners of the globe, every single day. Heathrow is an accessible place to work. With five diversity networks, we champion inclusivity and celebrate individuality.
