256779

£135,000

Permanent

Communications / Marketing
Press Relations
Senior leadership
Strategy

Flexible working, Full-time

1

London

We are seeking an exceptional Director to lead and reform the MOD departmental communications team, and drive communications outcomes at pace, whilst ensuring the Department has the right communications expertise and capability for an era of global competition.

To be appointed you must be an inspiring and transformational leader, effective in a large organisation, with first rate stakeholder management experience and able to keep Defence ahead of the news cycle.

You must also be comfortable providing leadership during periods of crisis and change, providing direction and support to the wider team, at all levels.

The Director reports to the Director General Delivery and Strategy, has a team of around 100 communications staff (civilian and military) and manages a budget of £12m for delivering both our external and internal communications in support of Defence’s objectives.

As the most senior professional communicator in the Ministry of Defence you must be able to act as lead adviser to the department and its ministers on all aspects of news and communications activities, providing high quality professional advice, expertise and judgement to help deliver the department’s priorities in the UK and internationally.

No two days or issues are the same, from the conflict in Ukraine to equipment procurement and human-interest stories – you will be

ready to act on our own initiative to stay ahead of the news. In the last year Defence Communications staff have been employed to support: NHS efforts to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccine roll out in all four nations of the United Kingdom; sensitively handle Armed Forces welfare and defence equipment procurement stories; UK Forces deployed in support of United Nations efforts in Mali; the delivery of vaccines to Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands; the response to the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia; and the military support to the funeral of Her Majesty the Queen.

To meet the challenges of this rapidly changing threat and information environment the new Director must provide the transformational leadership required to reform the Defence communications functions over the coming years.

The functions currently cover the full spectrum of communications disciplines: news and non-news media, brand, content creation, digital, internal, insight and evaluation, marketing, strategy and planning.

As the new Director you would need to build and then maintain relationships with colleagues across the Armed Forces (each with their own priorities and communications teams), wider Government and our international allies, as well as influential figures within the media.

As Head of the Communication Profession in the MOD, you must also ensure that the human and technical communications capability in Defence remains on the leading edge of the Government Communication Service (GCS).

Key Responsibilities

• Providing senior advice to the Secretary of State, Ministers and Officials and identifying practical solutions for managing the News and reputation of all parts of the Department, dealing quickly and proactively with politically sensitive issues;
• Overseeing an ambitious programme of reform and restructuring, delivering a programme of positive change in Defence communication while ensuring staff are engaged and informed during periods of ambiguity;
• Providing professional leadership to deliver the highest standards of work, a joined-up approach to communications across the Department and its wider network, including improved prioritisation of communications resource to support international campaigning;

Deploying campaign communication to secure departmental objectives, using media and marketing strategy, internal communication and stakeholder engagement to inform the public, create understanding and change behaviour for the public good in support of policy and service goals;

• Developing a modern communications team, including shaping the function, ensuring efficient delivery and use of insight and evaluation and advancing digital capability -to deliver our national and international objectives;
• Building a strong external communications network across a wide range of stakeholders; acting as an ambassador for the Department, profession and the Civil Service across government, the wider public sector and the Armed Forces. Developing enduring relationships with key influencers, including journalists, commentators and opinion formers to ensure departmental messaging is given appropriate priority;
• Developing the Department’s corporate engagement strategy to support the culture and values of the organisation, and ensure effective two-way communications with staff;
• Implementing the Defence Communications Strategy, and the Defence elements of the Government Communications Plan;
• Playing a leadership role in the GCS, developing influential working relationships with other Government Departments, Cabinet Office and No.10 to ensure delivery of cross department priorities. The GCS vision is to implement modern public service communication to an exceptional standard to help save, improve and enrich lives through effective and efficient campaigns.

It is important that in your application you provide evidence and examples of proven experience of these selection criteria. These responses will be developed and discussed with those candidates invited for interview.

Essential Criteria

• A resilient self-starter with experience of and a passion for capability development and leadership of a mission critical communications function in large or complex organisation subject to intense public scrutiny.
• Proven success in developing and implementing compelling and creative communication strategies, building and marketing an effective brand both proactively and reactively, at home and internationally.
• A track record of inspiring transformational leadership, with evidence of achieving reform, developing a culture of excellence, and driving comms across an Enterprise.
• An outcomes and delivery focussed orientation, comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, including crisis management.
• Excellent interpersonal and influencing skills, with evidence of building effective relationships with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders, including with senior leaders up to Board or Ministerial level as well as news industry professionals.
• First-hand experience of journalism, having worked across and managed news across a 24 hour news cycle; managing both long term and news campaigns alongside immediate crises.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

This role has a minimum assignment duration of 3 years. An assignment duration is the period of time a Senior Civil Servant is expected to remain in the same post to enable them to deliver on the agreed key business outcomes. The assignment duration also supports your career through building your depth of expertise.

As part of accepting this role you will be agreeing to the expected assignment duration set out above. This will not result in a contractual change to your terms and conditions. Please note this is an expectation only, it is not something which is written into your terms and conditions or indeed which the employing organisation or you are bound by. It will depend on your personal circumstances at a particular time and business needs, for example, would not preclude any absence like family friendly leave. It is nonetheless an important expectation, which is why we ask you to confirm you agree to the assignment duration set out above.

Open to UK nationals only.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Job contact :

Name :
Hannah Peech
Email :
Hannah.peech@odgersberndtson.com

Recruitment team :

Email :
scsrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk