Responsibilities

• Ensure all Communications and Engagement activities for PCSS / SES are responsive, professional, and coordinated effectively.
• To Include: Develop deep understanding of the area’s priorities, milestones, opportunities and challenges, including horizon scanning. This may include board attendance, bilats with key leaders, reviewing readouts and papers.
• Identify where there are handling risks and promotion opportunities for PCSS/SES and proactively insert CDP into the right conversations. This will include managing expectations (e.g. around resource, timescales or approaches) and using clear escalation routes to surface and resolve tensions.
• Translate PCSS/SES objectives into clear briefs and oversee the development of strategic communications and engagement solutions, working through specialist teams across CDP to coordinate cohesive and strategic responses to any commissions, opportunities or to mitigate risks.
• Maintain oversight of PCSS/SES activity, gripping CDP-wide plans to ensure activity is planned, delivered, robustly evaluated and lessons learned are captured – for both new commissions and BAU activities.
• Influence senior leadership teams (DDs and above) to engage CDP early and maintain best practice across comms and digital publishing.
• Provide insight and expertise to support CDP to deliver solutions that suit the needs of each directorate across PCSS/SES while remaining anchored to wider CDP strategic plans.
• Develop strong relationships with the key G7 leads in the central Communications and Digital Publishing team across media, external affairs, internal comms, content and publishing, leading in coordination, cohesion and business area intelligence while respecting and championing their specialism expertise.

Requirements

• Exceptional communications consultancy experience, with the ability to recognise when to advise and when to bring in subject matter experts.
• Depth and breadth of experience in both strategy and delivery in external communications (media, stakeholder, engagement) and a broad understanding of good practice in internal communications.
• Strong collaboration skills and ability to deliver at pace on high priority, multi-disciplinary projects.
• Strong communicating and influencing skills with senior stakeholders.
• Confident at surfacing tensions and breaking down siloes.
• A relevant qualification in communications, PR, Marketing or Journalism, or relevant experience in one of these fields.

Benefits

• Inclusion & Accessibility: At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
• ONS is committed to flexible ways of working that support a healthy work-life balance. ONS has already considered how this job could be right sized for applicants working flexibly and we are happy to explore options with you about working part time, in a job share or flexibly, in line with our hybrid working policies.