Interim Director of External Affairs

Merrifield Consultants is delighted to partner with Autistica to find an Interim Director of External Affairs (6-month contract) to join the senior management team and be responsible for building the relationships that ensure Autistica creates breakthroughs for autistic people over the next decade. You will fit in well at Autistica if you are passionate about enabling high performance and you value working with a team that thinks in diverse ways.

Job Title: Interim Director of External Affairs

Organisation: Autistica

Salary: £55,692.00

Contract: 6-month maternity contract

Hours: 0.8 contract, over a 4-day working week. Autistica operates a 4-day working week.

Location: London (One day a week in the office)

Closing date: Monday 15th December 2025

Required: CV and Cover Letter

Autistica is the UK’s leading autism research and campaigning charity. Their mission is to create breakthroughs that enable autistic people to live happier, healthier lives. They make that happen by funding research, shaping policy and working with autistic people to make more of a difference.

Key Responsibilities:

• Ensure autism and autism research remain policy priorities, with Autistica continuing to have strong relationships with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
• Ensure you build constructive collaborations and relationships with organisations working in related areas to Autistica.
• Develop relationships with key members of parliament ahead of the election, and post-election (both independently and in collaboration with other autism charities)
• Oversee, implement, and effectively deliver operational plans, a quarterly reporting cycle, monthly reporting of financial figures, and production of our annual report.
• You will be an effective visible leader and manager, passionately championing the charity’s work and building confidence in our strategy and plans.
• You will champion our values and mission with enthusiasm and consistency.

Who are we looking for?

• Experience of being at least “head of department” in an organisation overseeing planning, monitoring, management of resources within department and across an organisation.
• Enjoys and has a track record of overseeing change including system and process improvements.
• Experience of managing, leading or overseeing communications.
• Trustworthy and competent to others with the ability to oversee communications and policy.
• Able to motivate, inspire, empathise, with work with, and lead a neurodiverse team and enable a high-performance culture.
• Comfortable with nuance and uncertainty, with the motivation and resilience to tackle a fascinating but complex and contentious area of focus (autism and autism research).
• Constructively identifies opportunities to make improve which will enable our mission.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a rewarding charity who have clear goals in place to help and support Autistic people. To find out more and to apply for the role, please contact Stuart Milliner from Merrifield Consultants.

We practice a diverse and inclusive recruitment process that ensures equal opportunity for all we work with, irrespective of race, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age or gender. As an organisation, we encourage applications from all backgrounds and will ensure measures are met when required, to allow a fair process throughout.