External Affairs Manager

🏗 We're Hiring: External Affairs Manager

📍 Location: Bahrain (Remote)

🕒 Employment Type: Full-Time

💼 Experience Level: Mid-Level to Senior

🌐 Work Arrangement: Fully Remote

About Us

We are a construction-focused organization committed to delivering complex projects through disciplined contract management, commercial excellence, risk control, and collaborative project delivery. Our distributed teams collaborate across Project Management, Construction, Engineering, Procurement, Commercial, Legal, Finance, Design, Quality, HSE, Consultants, Contractors, Government Authorities, External Stakeholders, and Executive Leadership to protect project value and ensure contractual obligations are effectively managed.

The Role

We are seeking an experienced External Affairs Manager to lead external stakeholder engagement, government and regulatory relations, corporate affairs, public relations, communications, stakeholder management, strategic partnerships, and external risk management across construction projects. The ideal candidate will provide strong external affairs leadership throughout the project lifecycle, from tender and pre-award activities through construction, completion, defects liability, and final account settlement.

Key Responsibilities

Develop and implement external affairs strategies, procedures, standards, stakeholder engagement plans, communication protocols, and governance frameworks aligned with project and organizational objectives.

Manage external affairs activities from tendering and pre-award activities through contract execution, construction, variations, claims, completion, defects liability, and final account settlement.

Collaborate with Project Managers, Construction Managers, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors, Commercial Teams, Procurement, Legal, Finance, Design Consultants, Contractors, Subcontractors, Government Authorities, Regulators, Community Representatives, External Stakeholders, and Executive Leadership.

Review, interpret, administer, and coordinate external communications, regulatory requirements, stakeholder commitments, government correspondence, permits, approvals, and related corporate affairs documents.

Manage relationships with government authorities, regulatory bodies, municipalities, industry organizations, community representatives, strategic partners, consultants, contractors, and other external stakeholders.

Establish external affairs procedures covering stakeholder engagement, government liaison, regulatory submissions, permits, approvals, correspondence, meetings, consultations, public communications, escalations, and contractual records.

Monitor stakeholder and regulatory compliance with applicable obligations, approvals, permits, milestones, deliverables, performance standards, environmental requirements, and other external requirements.

Manage external stakeholder issues, regulatory concerns, community matters, project impacts, escalations, complaints, reputational risks, and other external affairs adjustments.

Review regulatory submissions, government requirements, permits, approvals, stakeholder commitments, project communications, and related reconciliations in coordination with Legal, Commercial, Engineering, and Project teams.

Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) including stakeholder engagement, regulatory compliance, approval turnaround times, permit status, stakeholder satisfaction, issue-resolution performance, external risks, government engagement, communication effectiveness, and reputational exposure.

Maintain comprehensive stakeholder registers, government contact records, regulatory trackers, permit registers, approval logs, correspondence logs, meeting records, engagement plans, issue registers, risk registers, and external communications records.

Lead external communications and ensure all notices, submissions, approvals, responses, consultations, stakeholder updates, and government correspondence are issued within required contractual, regulatory, and organizational timeframes.

Assess external stakeholder requirements relating to project delays, disruptions, unforeseen conditions, design changes, employer instructions, regulatory changes, access constraints, community impacts, environmental matters, and other project impacts.

Conduct external affairs and stakeholder risk assessments and develop mitigation strategies for regulatory exposure, government requirements, community concerns, reputational risks, stakeholder disputes, project delays, and contractual ambiguities.

Coordinate with government authorities and regulatory bodies to support permits, licenses, approvals, inspections, project requirements, and other regulatory processes.

Develop and maintain effective relationships with key government, regulatory, industry, community, and strategic stakeholders relevant to project delivery.

Support project teams in understanding external stakeholder expectations, regulatory requirements, government processes, public-interest considerations, and potential external risks.

Monitor political, regulatory, economic, industry, community, and public developments that may affect projects, business operations, stakeholder relationships, or organizational reputation.

Analyze external affairs trends, stakeholder feedback, regulatory developments, community concerns, industry developments, and project impacts to identify risks, opportunities, and areas for improvement.

Develop and implement stakeholder engagement strategies, communication plans, consultation programs, government-relations initiatives, and external partnership activities.

Coordinate with Legal, Commercial, Communications, HSE, Engineering, Construction, Procurement, and Executive teams to ensure consistent external messaging, regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement, and project execution.

Prepare external affairs reports, stakeholder dashboards, regulatory updates, risk assessments, government engagement reports, issue analysis, and management presentations for senior management and executive leadership.

Monitor external affairs performance and provide early-warning indicators regarding regulatory changes, approval delays, stakeholder dissatisfaction, community concerns, reputational risks, government requirements, or potential project impacts.

Establish standardized external affairs processes, reporting methodologies, stakeholder-management practices, regulatory tracking systems, communication procedures, and escalation frameworks.

Support project planning, business development, commercial strategy, government engagement, stakeholder negotiations, regulatory planning, and strategic initiatives through external intelligence and stakeholder analysis.

Ensure external affairs activities comply with applicable laws, regulations, permits, government requirements, contractual obligations, communication standards, confidentiality requirements, environmental requirements, and organizational policies.

Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on stakeholder engagement, government relations, regulatory compliance, external communications, reputation management, issue resolution, project support, and long-term stakeholder relationships.