External Affairs Manager - Strategic Stakeholder Engagement

Dominion Energy•Richmond, VA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Dominion Energy is seeking an External Affairs Manager to join the Strategic Stakeholder Engagement team. This role will support major energy infrastructure projects across Dominion Energy's footprint by developing and executing strategic outreach and stakeholder engagement plans. The position involves close collaboration with internal project teams and Corporate Affairs to ensure timely and transparent engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, including customers, communities, public officials, Tribal Nations, regulators, landowners, and others. The goal is to facilitate fair and timely project consideration, build trusted relationships, and advance permitting, siting, and development objectives. The role requires strategic planning, issue management, message alignment, and risk mitigation.

Requirements

8+ years of related experience. A Master's degree will count as one year of experience. A partial year of six months or more experience will be rounded up to one year.
Experience in negotiation, consensus building, policy writing, policy analysis, and public speaking.
Demonstrated success developing and executing strategic outreach plans.
Experience working in partnering effectively with project teams, Corporate Affairs, Legal, Regulatory, and other internal functions.
Considerable knowledge and understanding of legislative and/or regulatory processes, rules, and protocol of local government.
Broad knowledge and understanding of company operations, goals, and objectives.
Excellent writing and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical information into clear, accessible messages for non-technical audiences.
Excellent analytical, negotiation, and persuasion skills.
Ability to build relationships and negotiate with the public, local officials, and business leaders.
Ability to develop and implement strategies that accomplish organization goals and objectives.
Ability to forecast needs.
Ability to initiate plans and programs to enhance company image.
Ability to achieve results and meet deadlines.
Ability to manage multiple projects and priorities with discipline, sound judgement, and attention to detail.
Experience supporting large infrastructure projects, including permitting/siting processes and community engagement requirements.
Understanding of stakeholder, regulatory, and political landscapes within Dominion Energy’s footprint.
Familiarity with facilitation methods, public meeting design, sentiment research, and issues management/rapid response.
Ability to partner with, and have a complete understanding of, internal company operations.
Ability to work before or after normal working hours will be required (early morning, evenings).

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Mass Communications, Public Policy, or Public Administration Management.
Other disciplines may be substituted for the preferred discipline(s) listed above.

Responsibilities

Works in close partnership with internal project teams and Corporate Affairs to ensure meaningful, transparent, and timely engagement with customers, communities, public officials, Tribal Nations (as applicable), regulators, landowners, and other stakeholders to support fair and timely project consideration.
Provides strategy across engagement planning, issue management, message alignment, and risk mitigation, while building trusted relationships and enabling project teams to advance permitting, siting, and development objectives.
Leads strategic outreach planning for a portfolio of major projects, developing engagement strategies, objectives, stakeholder maps, timelines, and resourcing plans aligned with project milestones.
Designs and executes engagement programs that create meaningful two-way dialogue (e.g., public meetings, open houses, small-group briefings, listening sessions, landowner outreach, digital engagement, and feedback mechanisms).
Builds and maintains stakeholder relationships with local governments, community organizations, business leaders, public service commissions/regulators (as appropriate), landowners, NGOs, and other impacted parties to support understanding and timely issue resolution.
Identifies and manages stakeholder issues and risks, including emerging concerns, misinformation, and community impacts; develop mitigation and response strategies in collaboration with Corporate Affairs, Legal, Regulatory, Environmental, and project teams.
Measures and reports engagement effectiveness using qualitative and quantitative indicators; provide regular updates to leadership on sentiment, themes, risks, and recommendations.
Supports team by mentoring and promoting a high-performing, collaborative team culture focused on integrity, inclusion, and accountability.