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Chief Press Officer - Markets and Business

Employer
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Location
SW1H 0ET, London (Greater)
Salary
£52,075 - £58,800
Closing date
17 Aug 2020

Job Details

Do you want to be at the forefront of the Government’s efforts to bounce back from the impact of coronavirus, and help build an economy that works for everyone? And can you keep your cool when faced with decisions that affect thousands of lives? If so then the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) could be the place for you.

The BEIS Media team plays a key role in the delivery of the Government's agenda. We pride ourselves on creative cross-channel communications to tell the story of how we are helping to improve the way we live, travel and work. Issues like tackling climate change, high profile mergers and takeovers, workers’ rights, and the biggest investment in science and innovation in a generation means we are always in the news.

As chief media officer on the markets and business desk, you would have the unique and exciting opportunity of helping lead a team of media officers to communicate and promote what the Government is doing on across a wide range of issues - which could include everything from product safety to the UK's future relationship with the EU.

You will be responsible for delivering comprehensive and targeted communications plans to promote and defend what the Government is doing in these policy areas, which are of growing interest to the media, and to the public at large.

And as a key member of the Press Office senior management team, you will be responsible for maintaining high standards, encouraging fresh and innovative communications approaches and professional development in a team of media officers.

Job description

Lead teams to create multi-channels media plans to ensure activities reflect policy developments and the emerging news agenda and contribute to the wider communications strategy and the goals of BEIS Ministers and the Government Communication Service (GCS)

Help set strategic direction to ensure your team are well-motivated, highly skilled and high-performing individuals aligned towards delivering engaging, accurate and timely content which reflects ministerial priorities

Work constructively with senior policy colleagues and external partners

Provide considered communications advice to ministers, special advisers and senior officials on new, developing and existing policy – providing constructive challenge where necessary

Handle high-profile and sensitive media issues. Adhere to confidentiality and provide a clear, trusted brief to media and other partners

Demonstrate excellent written and editing skills to ensure quality and timely press releases, rebuttals and lines to take in response to developing stories

Analyse media monitoring results and evaluate media strategies to inform proactive and reactive media campaigns

Decide on appropriate styles, methods and timing of communications, including digital channels, to maximise understanding and impact

Scan and interpret the modern communications landscape to identify risks to BEIS reputation and help to manage these risks

Nurture the skills of your team to ensure they develop professionally

Participate in the out-of-hours duty rota providing, overseeing the work of on-call members of the media
 

Responsibilities

• Leadership skills that let you inspire colleagues to higher levels of innovation and achievement

• Extensive experience of working and leading teams in a fast-paced media office, with highly effective media, rebuttal and crisis management skills

• Excellent written and oral communications as well as editing skills

• Sharp news sense, excellent judgement, strong political savvy and outstanding communications skills to help provide convincing advice at senior level

• A passion for and deep knowledge of modern communication methods, digital communication and social media in particular with the desire to bring news way of working to the team

• Experience of developing and leading strategies and evaluation in a news environment and incorporating lessons learned into new communications strategies

• A track record of leading teams to deliver a range of content types including writing, video and digital channels

• Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret and learn from evaluation data, including a commitment to continual improvement through monitoring and evaluation

• The capacity to lead teams and balance priorities even under pressure, all while retaining excellent judgement

• Personal resilience is also vital

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

  • Seeing the Big Picture
  • Managing a Quality Service
  • Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

  • Government Communication Professional Competency Framework - Insight
  • Government Communication Professional Competency Framework - Ideas
  • Government Communication Professional Competency Framework - Implementation
  • Government Communication Professional Competency Framework - Impact

Benefits

BEIS offers a competitive mix of benefits including:

  • A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
  • Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
  • A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
  • An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
  • Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.

Company

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is a government department, which was created by Theresa May on 14 July 2016 following her appointment as Prime Minister, created as a result of a merger between the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Department for Business, Innovation and Skill

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