The primary responsibilities in such a role include engaging with various stakeholders, including the state and central governments, various departments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and industry associations.
Often such positions double down as public policy experts to represent the interest of their sector to the government, advocating for policies that might be beneficial to the industry or some time to make sure that it doesn’t become at least detrimental to the sector.
“The demand for government affairs professionals is steadily on the rise, driven by evolving regulatory environments, globalization, and the need for active engagement with government entities,” said Karl Fernandes, partner and head of the corporate practice group at specialist search firm Vahura. “In the previous year alone, we have received over a dozen requests for government affairs positions, indicating a widespread demand across various levels within this field.”
Recently in December, Dipakshi Mehandru joined Intel Corporation as director of government affairs from Dell Technologies, where she handled public policy and government affairs for the company.
“An evolving semiconductor policy landscape will be a great learning ground, and, will also provide me with an opportunity to apply all that I’ve learned so far,” said Mehandru in her LinkedIn post while announcing her joining Intel Corporation. Last year in October, the local unit of the US manufacturing major Honeywell hired Ankur Malhotra as director for government affairs from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Similarly in August, Ravi Valia joined as director of government affairs at the Indian arm of medical technology company Medtronic from Mumbai-headquartered B. Barun Medical India. In one more such move, Mallika Verma joined Swiss agrotech company Syngenta as the director for government affairs and public policy from the Federation of Seed Industry of India. Last year in July, Shveta Sahal joined Marriott International as director for government affairs and CSR (corporate social responsibility).
Anshul Lodha, managing director of PageGroup said this trend is across large organisations and tech-led companies and expects steady growth and demand in coming years.
“The most critical skill is the understanding of the geopolitical landscape, connects with the industry-specific bodies – government and independent think tanks, technical understating of the operations of a particular industry, commercial bent of mind, extremely strong interpersonal and communication skills,” said Lodha. “The other upcoming skills for this role are increasing – understanding of social media and also data-led representations and decision-making,” he further added.
Most companies typically target candidates with academic credentials in fields like political science, law, public policy, or international relations.