Digital Communications Manager - Digital Listening, Insight & Search

Responsibilities

• You will use your news sense to spot and evaluate emerging online trends and conversations and help colleagues understand what they mean for HMRC and its customers.
• You will identify opportunities to promote and defend HMRC's work in the digital space, making sense of the multiple digital conversations and trends that affect our work, and advising colleagues on how and where best to respond.
• You will lead on the identification and rebuttal of mis- and disinformation on social media, working in collaboration with Press Office and External Affairs colleagues and drawing on the RESIST 3 Counter Disinformation Toolkit.
• You will deliver multiple strands of digital communication analysis, including website and social data analytics, to inform campaign planning, daily reporting products, evaluation and future content decisions.
• You will conduct real-time monitoring and reporting of social and media data, providing fast-paced insight to colleagues across Press Office, Social Media and External Affairs to protect and enhance HMRC's reputation.
• You will track how AI tools, chatbots and generative search are changing the way people find tax and customs information, helping HMRC stay ahead of shifts in search and discovery behaviour rather than simply reacting to them.
• You will build and maintain dashboards and reporting products that translate complex data into clear, actionable insight for non-specialist audiences, including senior stakeholders.
• You will contribute to the evaluation of campaigns and communications activity in line with the GCS Evaluation Cycle, helping teams move from output metrics towards genuine outcome and impact measurement.
• Anyone joining the Press, Digital and External Affairs team at Higher Executive Officer grade and above may be required to join the out of hours on call rota.
• You will occasionally be required to travel to other offices for team meetings etc.

Requirements

• Strong news sense, with experience gained in communications, journalism, PR or campaigns.
• Ability to identify, articulate and present data trends clearly, in ways that influence decision-making at all levels, including with non-specialist audiences.
• Solid grasp of key social media platforms and social media good practice, including community spaces such as Reddit and other forums.
• Strong grasp of data analysis, with the ability to draw out insight that leads to tangible improvements in campaigns and communications.
• Understanding of different digital communications platforms and how audiences use them differently.
• Understanding of analytics platforms and tools (for example Brandwatch, Pulsar, Google Analytics or similar).
• An interest in, and working understanding of, how generative AI and AI-powered search are changing audience information-seeking behaviour, and a willingness to build expertise in this area.
• Experience using social listening or media monitoring tools to inform real-time reputation management.
• Experience contributing to or leading the identification and rebuttal of mis- and disinformation.
• Experience applying accessibility and inclusion principles to digital content and reporting.

Preferred

• Familiarity with the OASIS campaign planning framework and the GCS Evaluation Cycle.
• Understanding of behavioural science principles (such as COM-B) and how insight can be used to shape behaviour change communications.
• Awareness of data protection principles relevant to social listening and analytics (for example UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018).

Benefits

• Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues' Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development.
• Alongside your salary of £37,682, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £10,916 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
• HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
• We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.