About the job

Job summary

As a Senior Press Officer, you will lead on communicating some of the most important and high-profile issues facing Wales today.

Working with policy, marketing and digital colleagues – and with your line-manager - you’ll lead on communicating our messages through the media, engaging with different audiences and developing exciting campaigns. 

Working with your team, you will provide media advice and support to Cabinet Secretaries and senior officials.  Through monitoring and evaluating your media work, you will ensure objectives are being met.

Developing strong and constructive working relationships with journalists is key to the role, as well as reaching out to key external influencers and experts.

Delivering positive coverage in the media is a central part of the job, so a good news sense, creativity and enthusiasm is essential. A big part of this is successfully selling-in stories to news editors and journalists – so, we’re looking for someone with a positive, resilient, can-do attitude.

Responding swiftly and accurately to breaking news, you must be able to effectively horizon scan to spot potential problems. Working with your team, you will implement crisis management strategies if they arise.

Job description

• Work closely with Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers, senior policy officials and communication teams to develop and deliver creative and imaginative media plans and campaigns;
• Cultivate strong relations with UK, Welsh, regional and specialist media, as well as key digital platforms;
• Ability to work to a deadline, independently and as part of a team;
• Respond swiftly and accurately to reactive media queries and breaking news stories;
• Correct and rebut inaccurate news stories when necessary;
• Use excellent judgement to become a trusted adviser to Cabinet Secretaries and senior policy colleagues;
• Build good working relationships with journalists and other partners, providing advice and guidance when required;
• Support the Chief Press Officer in managing the press team by directly line managing a team of more junior press officers, setting their priorities and managing workflow, providing leadership and guidance and supporting their development;
• Use a full range of insight and evaluation tools to target communications and assess their impact, using the information to continuously improve;
• Adhere to high professional standards, including very good writing skills;
• Keep abreast of developments in the communications landscape, in particular how best to incorporate digital and social media into integrated communications plans and share learning with colleagues;
• Work with communications colleagues in other disciplines to deliver cross-cutting strategic communications activity and develop wider knowledge of all communications activity;

Person specification

What the organisation will expect;

• You will be responsible for managing defined areas of work using your specialist knowledge or experience to exercise sound judgement when interpreting complex or conflicting information weighing up all evidence to produce innovative solutions to problems.   
• You will be adaptable, flexible, open to, and accepting of change affecting you and your area of work and deal with that change efficiently and professionally. 
• You will show political awareness and an understanding of the political landscape when considering the impact of your decision and work on the wider business area and when formulating proposals for Senior Managers and Ministers. 

What your team will expect:

• You may be required to manage a team setting clear direction on achieving their objectives. You will support team members in their work such as complex areas of work; work allocation and prioritisation; performance management; training and development; mentoring and coaching.  
• You will value diversity and inclusion, creating an environment where individuals feel safe to challenge, share ideas and express concerns adopting an inclusive leadership style.  
• You will be responsible for developing, implementing and maintaining systems or processes ensuring excellence or value for money. 

What key stakeholders will expect;

• You will take the lead in creating, building and maintaining constructive relationships at all levels.  
• You will be able to tailor and adapt your communication style (written and oral) to advise, guide, influence and persuade internal and external stakeholders as appropriate. 

Benefits

All Welsh Government staff are members of the Civil Service, and as a result are eligible for:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme
• 31 days annual leave (pro-rated for part time)
• training and development opportunities
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Smart Working flexible working arrangement
• Green Car Scheme (subject to availability)

If you are an active Civil Service Pension member you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages:	2 stage process
Stage 1	Application Form
Stage 2	Interview

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.