Senior Communications Specialist, Bbc England

Job Introduction

We are a multi-disciplined team looking after communications (corporate and consumer), external affairs and events across England. We work across all of the BBC’s local news and broadcast services across England, BBC Radio 5 Live and the Across the UK strategy. Our team is split across two bases in Salford and Birmingham.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Communications Specialist position. This role is responsible for directing and delivering an outstanding and varied programme of creative external affairs activity across England. It is a hybrid-working role with responsibility for the day-to-day management of two posts.

Our events vary in scale and purpose – from screenings of new BBC dramas and entertainment formats for members of the public, to corporate events and smaller engagements. All of our engagement is intended to showcase the BBC to media, stakeholders and audiences to illustrate our unique role as a public service supporting the creative economy across the UK. The job includes travel across England and some overnights away.

Main Responsibilities

As Senior Communications Specialist, you will be overseeing and implementing an impactful programme of engagements to generate awareness of BBC programmes and commitment - particularly in the North and Midlands - often managing multiple projects at any one time.

This work engages influential external and political stakeholders in meaningful ways to share messages and updates. A strong understanding of local public affairs and commentary around the BBC is essential to conduct and oversee research to inform external engagements.

Leading the impeccable planning and delivery of external relations including red carpet screenings and showcase events designed to improve awareness of the BBC’s impact and value across England.

You will be operating within a team collectively responsible for maintaining a comprehensive database of stakeholders to communicate with. This role is in charge of ensuring all activity complies with BBC regulations around safety, security, data protection and editorial policy.

Are you the right candidate?

Do you have an impressive track record for organising unforgettable events in the greatest possible way? Is your attention to detail second to none when it comes to the set-up, safety and audience experience of an event? Are you savvy about local public affairs and politics?

If you’re a problem solver, full of ideas and enthusiasm for how to improve awareness of the BBC’s work across England, this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

Effective verbal and written communications skills are a must as well as the ability to project manage live events, being assertive and resourceful under pressure.

Prioritising and working across multiple projects simultaneously is key and your experience should include events management; producing events to budget in compliance with industry safety standards.

A strong aptitude for research to produce effective opinion former lists/guest lists for events and a good understanding of current affairs, public affairs and politics in order to engage relevant corporate guests, MPs and opinion formers.

You would be charged with conducting and overseeing organic research to update internal databases, inform guestlists and present strategies for engaging opinion formers and MPs, therefore a good knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite as well as core IT skills is essential.

Package Description

Band: D
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Salford or Birmingham based role with some flexibility - i.e. hybrid working
Salary: £38,000 to £42,000 per annum, depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits - We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days annual leave (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.