Communication Manager

Responsibilities

• Strategic communication – support the Head of Communications in developing and delivering long-term communication strategies across priority policy and thematic areas, ensuring communication activity supports ministerial objectives and organisational priorities.
• Insight and evaluation – lead the development of audience insight, evaluation and communication performance reporting. Use evidence and data to shape communication activity, identify opportunities and provide strategic recommendations to senior leaders.
• Press office resilience and reputation management – provide expert media handling support, contribute to proactive and reactive communications activity, support major announcements and issues management, and provide resilience during periods of high operational demand, including participation in the out-of-hours rota.
• Relationships – develop and maintain strong working relationships with ministers, private offices, special advisers, senior officials, journalists, stakeholders and other government departments.
• Prioritising – understand government, departmental and ministerial priorities so you can communicate key messages clearly, accurately and creatively.
• Each member of the team takes part in an on-call system, for which there is an allowance, to take calls out-of-hours from the media. This is done on a rotational basis, and full training will be given.

Requirements

• Experience of developing strategic communication strategies that support organisational and ministerial objectives.
• Experience of using audience insight, research, evaluation and performance data to develop communication activity and measure success.
• Experience of providing strategic communication advice to senior stakeholders.
• Ability to identify emerging risks and opportunities and translate complex issues into effective communication approaches.
• Excellent understanding of the national news agenda, social media landscape and communication handling; strong news judgement and political awareness.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience producing high-quality content for a range of audiences and channels
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills - producing high-quality written content such as statements, press releases and briefings, for a range of different stakeholders and audiences.
• Strong organisational and planning skills, comfortable managing multiple priorities and working to tight deadlines.
• Strong networking skills with the confidence in building and maintaining a network of internal and external contacts.
• Strong team collaboration skills, work effectively as part of a team; contributing to shared goals, supporting colleagues and fostering a positive team environment.

Preferred

• An ability to speak and write proficiently in the Welsh language is desirable for this post.

Benefits

• Alongside your salary of £42,914, Wales Office contributes £12,432 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides .
• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance