Job details

Job title: Community Engagement Officer

Reporting to: Community Engagement Manager

Responsible for: N/A

Based: Our Head Office is based in London, but we have an agile working policy enabling people to work at another UK location up to 4 days/week (this is a trial policy and subject to review). Requests for permanent remote working will be considered and we welcome applications from people based in other parts of the UK.

Terms: Full time (35 hours per week), permanent. Requests for part time or flexible working will be considered​.  

Salary: £24,432 – £29,583 per annum (pro rata for part time)

About the role

Since 2015, the BSA has led a series of programmes to support community organisations who work with groups that are underserved and underrepresented in science. ​What began as a pilot to enable more people to run events during British Science Week six years ago, has since grown into a unique, grassroots network supporting hundreds of community groups each year.

These programmes are outlined in this showcase report and include Community Leaders and Community Buddies, as well as a series of grant schemes. Building on the success of these programmes, in 2020, we launched the Ideas Fund which connects communities with researchers in order to develop and try out ideas related to mental wellbeing.

The Community Engagement Officer will provide support in delivering, growing and diversifying some of these programmes. This role would suit someone with experience of supporting community engagement programmes.

Key responsibilities 

The main responsibilities will be to: 

• Administer and support grants schemes for diverse community groups, including managing relationships with grant holders and evaluating the impact of the schemes.
• Coordinate the recruitment of individuals to take part in the Community Leaders and Buddies programmes and other community engagement programmes.
• Support the development and delivery of the Community Leaders and Buddies programmes and other community engagement programmes, including possible support for the Ideas Fund.
• Support the facilitation and co-design of accessible workshop sessions for community engagement programmes.
• Manage the BSA Communities social media accounts, working with Communications team colleagues.
• Coordinate and help to grow the Community Engagement Network.
• Manage communications with Community Engagement Network members including writing newsletters, email updates and working with Comms colleagues to develop blog content.
• Assist colleagues as needed and undertake other duties as reasonably required by the line manager. 

Person Specification

Below is a summary of essential and desirable criteria needed for this role, as well as how we will assess a candidate’s suitability.

Essential criteria 

Essential Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview*
Experience of working in the community,  voluntary, science engagement or a related sector	Y	Y	Y
Experience of coordinating project work and working on multiple projects at the same time		Y	Y
Ability to build good working relationships with internal colleagues, external partners & stakeholders		Y	Y
Good organisational and time management skills		Y	Y
Clear communication skills		Y	Y
Resilience – adaptable with the ability to remain calm and effective when working on fast-moving, high-pressure projects			Y
Experience of Microsoft Office applications	Y

*The interview may include a task relevant to the role. If so, candidates selected for interview will be given more information nearer the time. 

Desirable criteria

Desirable Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview
Experience of working in an inclusive way with community groups	Y	Y	Y
Knowledge of science/public engagement theory or practice	Y	Y	Y
Experience in facilitating accessible community workshops		Y	Y
Knowledge of community-led engagement and co-creation theory or practice		Y	Y
Experience in using Salesforce (training will be provided)	Y
Experience of administering grant schemes and analysing data	Y	Y	Y

Benefits 

• Agile Working policy enabling you to work at home or in another UK location up to 4 days per week, if office-based, and to vary our working hours outside our 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm core hours (this is a trial policy & subject to review), subject to the needs of the BSA;
• 27 days holiday per annum plus bank holidays (pro-rata for part-time employees); 
• Up to two days paid leave per year for significant voluntary commitments in support of professional and personal development, such as being a trustee of a charity or a school governor;
• Auto-enrolment pension scheme (3% paid by employer);
• Up to five days’ unpaid leave per year (this is down to the Manager’s decision and ensuring it does not affect work); 
• Life assurance from your first day subject to scheme rules;  
• Occupational sick pay: up to six weeks’ full pay per year (pro-rata for part-time employees); 
• Interest-free loan for season ticket, bike to work, and assisted study.

To apply

Please send a CV and covering letter (each of no more than two A4 pages) that summarises your interest in the role and details your ability to match the criteria.

Applications should be made via this link: https://recruit.smb.co.uk/vacancy.aspx?id=fJReuweLbgakyfv8 

The closing date for applications is 9am Monday 4 October 2021. 

Interviews are due to take place on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 October 2021.

You will be informed during the week after the application deadline whether you have been selected for interview.

As part of the British Science Association’s commitment to being a Disability Confident employer, all disabled* applicants who meet the ‘essential criteria’ for this vacancy will be offered an interview under our guaranteed interview scheme.

If you wish to apply under the guaranteed interview scheme, you will be asked to indicate this when you submit your application by selecting ‘yes’ in the relevant box when asked during the application process. Applicants do not need to state any further information or declare their disability at the application stage.

Whether you are applying under the scheme or not, if you are successful in being shortlisted, we will ask candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions to let us know if they need any adjustments during the recruitment process. 

If you have further questions or would like this information in a different format, please contact: [email protected]org

Download the candidate pack for this role as a pdf or view our text-only version of the pack here.

Terms & conditions

From time to time the job entails working extended hours and occasional weekends, for which no overtime payments are made. The BSA operates a time off in lieu policy for weekend working and some other out-of-hours instances.

Only applicants who have a legal right to work within the UK will be considered. You will be asked to bring along proof of nationality and/or proof of ability to work in the UK.

You will also be asked to declare any previous convictions in line with your rights under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) order 1975.

This is a description of the job as it is presently constituted. It is the practice of the Association to examine job descriptions from time to time and to update them to ensure they relate to the job as then being performed, or to incorporate whatever changes are reasonably required, in discussion with the postholder.

It is the policy of the BSA to offer starting salaries at the bottom end of the salary band where appropriate.

A copy of our Privacy Notice is available on the vacancies page of our website.

*The Disability Confident scheme’s definition of disability is in line with the Equalities Act 2010: “a physical or mental condition which has a long-term and substantial effect on your daily life”.

Further information about our Disability Confident commitments can be found on the Disability Confident page of our website.