Job details

Job title: Corporate Communications Manager

Directorate: External Relations

Reporting to: Head of Communications

Responsible for: Corporate Communications Officer

Based: British Science Association, 165 Queen's Gate, London SW7 5HD

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

Salary: £28,600 – £36,934

About the role

The main purpose of this role is to develop and deliver a broad and engaging corporate communications strategy for the BSA to raise the profile of the organisation’s work and its spokespeople.

Key responsibilities 

The main responsibilities will be to: 

• Develop and deliver an integrated communications plan for the BSA, that supports the organisation’s mission, vision and purpose and highlights its focus on driving forward the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda for the science engagement sector;
• Manage a programme of profile-raising PR for the BSA and its spokespeople;
• Deliver the communications plans for our thought-leadership programmes, including the Huxley Summit;
• Be the custodian of our corporate brand, our corporate tone of voice and our owned social and digital corporate channels;
• Play an active role in evaluating the success of our communications campaigns;
• Collaborate with colleagues across the organisation on content & ideas for the various programmes we run.

About you

The Corporate Communications Manager role would suit someone who has experience in delivering broad, multi-channel campaigns for stakeholder audiences.

We’d expect that the successful candidate will have an interest in developing campaigns that can evoke behavioural change or influence audiences’ attitudes. They will also need to be able to contribute speaker ideas for high profile events, so an interest in current affairs is essential.

The role would suit someone who has excellent communication and presentation skills, and would be confident acting as an ambassador for the organisation.

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 

Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview	Task at interview
Experience of developing integrated communications campaigns for a stakeholder audience	Y	Y	Y
Excellent verbal and written communication skills		Y	Y	Y
Excellent project management skills, including the ability to juggle numerous projects at once	Y	Y	Y
Understanding of how to work with the media to generate press coverage and raise the profile of an organisation, project or spokesperson. In particular, showcasing diverse and representative ambassadors across numerous projects	Y	Y	Y	Y
A passion for helping organisations tell their story and communicate their purpose and impact			Y
A keen interest in current affairs and politics, particularly in science, business and the media.		Y	Y	Y

Desirable criteria

Criteria	CV	Cover letter	Interview	Task at interview
An interest in future developments or innovative tactics in the communications sector		Y	Y
An awareness of the ways that organisations can implement the best equality, diversity & inclusion practices to achieve results in campaigns and programmes		Y	Y

Benefits 

• 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 (currently 5% of salary from employee plus 3% from BSA);
• Up to five days’ unpaid leave per year (this is down to the Manager’s decision and ensuring it does not affect work);
• Life insurance from your first day;
• 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;
• Homeworking Wednesdays, subject to the needs of the BSA.

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=WWnAF6Wg6WRGtFpm 

The closing date for applications is 5pm on Monday 6 April 2020.

Interviews are due to take place on Thursday 16 or Friday 17 April 2020. 

You will be informed as soon as possible 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]  

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.