Government Relations Director – MENA

Job description / Role

Honeywell International is a diversified technology and manufacturing leader of aerospace products and services; control technologies for buildings, homes and industry; automotive products; power generation systems; specialty chemicals; fibers; plastics and advanced materials.

The company is committed to providing quality products, integrated system solutions and services to customers around the world. Honeywell products touch the lives of most people everyday, whether you’re flying on a plane, driving a car, heating or cooling a home, furnishing an apartment, taking medication for an illness or playing a sport.

Based in Morris Township, N.J., Honeywell employs approximately 132,000 people in 120 countries. Its shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HON, as well as on the London, Chicago and Pacific Stock Exchanges. It is one of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is also a component of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
EMEA Honeywell Government Relations

The EMEA Government Relations team is a small, dynamic and proactive group dedicated to:
(a) Ensuring that laws and regulations at the regional and national levels in the Middle East have a positive impact on Honeywell's businesses;
(b) Supporting business growth in existing and emerging regions; and
(c) Securing for Honeywell the most favorable investment, tax, research and development and other incentives available.

The EMEA Government Relations team seeks a flexible, self-motivated, creative and disciplined individual to join our group as Director of Government Relations. As a member of the team, you would regularly interact with senior level leaders of Honeywell, gain significant knowledge of all aspects of Honeywell's many businesses and participate on numerous cross functional teams. An understanding of and experience with government entities are desirable. A strong work ethic and willingness to travel are required. We anticipate that the successful candidate will be located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and will work closely with our High Growth Region organization and with all of our businesses across the MENA region.

A more detailed list of responsibilities and desired characteristics is set forth below:

Requirements

•Act as liaison for Honeywell with Governments across the Middle East & North Africa on key issues relevant to Honeywell
•Partner with businesses and our High Growth Regions team to develop government relations strategies related to specific product initiatives and/or business imperatives
•Work closely with business leaders and HGR teams to understand medium and long term strategies and imperatives related to the Strategic Action Planning process and outputs.
•Ensure the same teams are aware of impending changes in legislation and/or government incentive schemes which impact the business plans.
•Manage subset of issues and processes for Honeywell business unit(s), products and/or company-wide issues
•Actively participate to influence the legislative process and educate regulators on issues and strategies important to Honeywell. For example
•Build strong knowledge of key bodies and individuals responsible for shaping legislation in key business interest areas for Honeywell.
•Lobby support for positive changes in legislation.
•Understand likely impact of future legislation and pro-actively work to influence a favorable position for Honeywell.
•Serve as subject matter expert on legislation and the impact on Honeywell and our products
•Put in place a clear process by which business leaders and strategy teams can be regularly updated on relevant changes and solicit feedback on planned approach to respond to these changes.
•Work with cross-functional team of attorneys, business leaders, customers, and other government relations teams members to develop creative solutions that incorporate government relations into business problem solving
•Play a key role in supporting the businesses in evaluating the most advantageous locations to establish local presence in the region:
•Build strong awareness of and evaluate government incentive programs in key countries in the region.
•Review benefits of existing investments against proposed or likely changes to ensure that further investments are well informed.
•Create keen awareness of the pros and cons of different incentive plans.
•Create and execute opportunities for Honeywell's senior leaders to interact with key governmental officials
•As appropriate and in alignment with HGR Leadership manage and participate in relationships with consulting firms and associations in order to extend the reach and impact of the government relations function.
•Characteristics/Skills:
•Relevant experience with government, corporation and/or consulting focused on Middle East government relations or strong business experience would be an advantage.
•Strong intellectual capacity and high personal standards of excellence.
•Personal presence, communication skills and credibility necessary to effectively interact with and influence enterprise management, as well as work in a team with a diverse group of highly motivated professionals.
•Integrity, compliance and good judgment are extremely important.
•Ability to set priorities, and the discipline to execute to those priorities.
•Demonstrable record of providing clients with advice that blends government relations experience, expert legislative knowledge and an understanding of, and appreciation for, a client's business objectives.
•Self-motivated, dedicated team player with a proactive approach in managing and seeking to continuously improve the function.
•Track record of operating in complex matrixed environments.
•Experience of working across functions and delivering results based on harnessing the power of virtual teams and resources.
•Ability to work through complex issues to quickly identify most vital priority and focus areas.
•Strong and sophisticated influencing skills with track record of operating at executive level in current or previous role.
•Broad understanding of rule-making and legislative process at national levels and ability to identify and engage key decision makers within the governments.
•Experience of working with complex organizations to map out key decision makers / stakeholders.
•Strong communications skills:
• Quickly adapts to audience.
• Highly articulate.
• Strong listening and presentation skills.
• Fluency in the Arabic language a must.
• Educated to Degree level.
This role does require traveling up to 25-35% of the time.
As an equal opportunity employer, Honeywell is committed to a diverse workforce.

About the Company

Honeywell (NYSE: HON) is a Fortune 100 company that invents and manufactures technologies to address tough challenges linked to global megatrends such as safety, security, and energy. With approximately 122,000 employees worldwide, including 19,000 engineers and scientists, we have an unrelenting focus on quality, delivery, value, and technology in everything we make and do.