Strategic Communications Manager
Employer: The Office for Students (OfS)
Contract length: 12 month fixed term (maternity cover)
Location: Bristol
Salary: £51,846 - £56,662
(Generous Civil Service defined benefit pension)
Who we are
The Office for Students (OfS) is the independent regulator of higher education in England – we regulate higher education on behalf of all students. Our mission is to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling higher education experience that enriches their life and career.
What we do
Sitting within the Strategy, Delivery and Communications (SDC) Directorate, the communications team drives the OfS’s external and internal communications, including public affairs, media relations, digital publishing, stakeholder engagement, events and public information. Communications is essential for the organisation to drive progress towards our strategic goals.
What you’ll do
We’re looking for someone with strong interpersonal skills and a proven ability to drive strategic communications to join our busy team.
You’ll work to drive forward and co-ordinate communications around key strategic projects, including our work around equality of opportunity and fair access and participation. As Strategic Communications Manager, you will:
• Develop a coherent, comprehensive narrative that describes the OfS's role in ensuring access, participation and success in higher education.
• Work across policy, media, digital and internal communications colleagues to ensure communications launches and campaigns are planned and delivered effectively.
• Develop and implement strategic communications plans.
What you’ll need
These are the skills you’ll already have:
• You have outstanding written communication skills, in particular the ability to present complex policy and technical information in a clear, accessible way tailored to specific audiences.
• You can quickly build trusted, effective working relationships with senior OfS leaders and team members
• You have strong organisational and project management skills, including identifying risks and building optimal processes.
Benefits
Our Total Reward Framework offers a range of benefits to suit your way of life:
• 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
• Comprehensive learning and development – we’re invested in your future
• Generous Civil Service pension scheme
• Health-related benefits
Working for us
We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.
To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working - for example job share and part time working - apply to this role.
Working arrangements
We love working flexibly because we know that it helps us all to do our best work. We’ve created a set of principles to shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two days in a typical week.
Closing date for applications: Sunday 13 October
How to apply