About the job

Job summary

Senior Communications Officer

£42,001 - £44,151 + generous Civil Service defined benefit pension

Bristol or London with some travel to Bristol.

 

Higher education is rarely out of the news. And as the independent regulator of higher education in England, the Office for Students (OfS) has a crucial role in ensuring student reap the life changing rewards a degree can offer. Following an internal promotion, we have an exciting vacancy for a senior communications officer.

 

Job description

This role sits within the media team, and the successful candidate will also contribute to all communications functions. The role will suit someone who has experience working in a press office – perhaps for a government department, a large business or charity – and is confident in working with journalists. There will be opportunities to plan, deliver and evaluate a range of communications campaigns as well as helping to offer a high-quality press office service responding to the wide range on enquiries we receive. The successful candidate will also make important contributions to our internal communications work and help to support our public affairs work.

Person specification

About you 

 We’re looking for someone with a passion for communications. You’ll have excellent writing skills and be able to explain complex ideas and policies to a broad audience. An ability to work quickly and accurately, and to juggle a range of priorities, is essential. You will have strong news sense, and the skills and experience to communicate confidently with journalists. You’ll need to be confident having conversations with journalists, briefing them on our work, and leading our media response to some of our highest profile pieces of work. You’ll also need to be able to advise and influence others, including key OfS stakeholders and journalists as well as your colleagues within OfS. You will be able to plan and deliver communications campaigns which have an impact.  

 

You’ll be supported in the role working closely with colleagues in our media team, public affairs team, and with staff working on internal and strategic communications. The role is varied, with no two days the same, and you’ll need to be able to juggle a range of different projects covering a wide range of OfS’s work.  

Key responsibilities 

• Drafting and writing media content including press releases and opinion pieces to help support and advance our regulatory aims and activities 
• Answering complex media queries from journalists with confidence – both on the phone and via email
• Verbal and written briefing of OfS spokespeople ahead of media interviews 
• Recommending and implementing media approaches on various projects and campaigns 

• Varied work with the public affairs team including supporting OfS events 
• Engagement with external stakeholders as well as with internal colleagues 
• Various writing tasks including our intranet and OfS website 
• The planning and delivery of internal communications campaigns.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,001, Office for Students contributes £11,382 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Working for us

 

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.
 
We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation and socio-economic background.

Working arrangements

 

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two to three days in a typical week.

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part-time working, applies to the role. 

 

For further information about the role, please contact our Head of Media, sean.beynon@officeforstudents.org.uk

 

Closing date for applications:  5 May 2024

Interviews:  From 20 May 2024

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). 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.