Chief Media Officer, Sheffield

About the job

Job summary

The Department for Education (DfE) is at the heart of the government's mission to break down barriers to opportunity, and ensure every child and young person has the chance to succeed, no matter what their background.

We are recruiting for an experienced PR and communications professional to join our energetic and high performing communications team as a Chief Media Officer - with responsibility for delivering communications through digital, broadcast and print media.

Job description

The DfE is looking for an exceptional communications professional to lead one of our media teams, working to the Secretary of State and Ministerial team to deliver audience-focused media activity against a wide ranging brief.

Responsibilities will include, but not limited to:

• You will be a key part of the news and social media senior management team, with responsibility for leading and manage a high performing, creative media team.
• You will be expected to maintain and build on incredibly high standards, while thriving under the pressure of a delivering a substantial news agenda in a fast-paced environment.
• As well as experience of dealing with front page news stories or breaking broadcast news, we are looking for candidates who are equally comfortably using the full range of social and digital channels to innovate and communicate the DfE's key messages - embedding an audience first approach to our communications.
• We need a creative team player, willing to work across communications disciplines to achieve our aim to break the unfair link between young people's background and their success.
• You will have a pivotal role in providing effective leadership and clear direction to the whole office, developing and enabling staff to reach their full potential, and ensuring media officers are working to shared goals in support of the priorities.
• You will have the communications understanding and news sense to spot problems before they arise and identify proactive opportunities before anyone else.
• You will be expected to quickly win the trust of and work closely with the Secretary of State for Education as well as Ministers, policy teams and communications colleagues within the DfE and with other government departments and across the Government Communications Service (GCS), of which you will be a member.
• As part of the senior management team, you will continually seek ways of improving the service provided by the media team including making sure the team has the skills needed.
• You will provide advice - and constructive challenge where required - to senior policy teams, the Permanent Secretary, ministers, and special advisers on the communication implications of new, developing and existing policy.
• You will take part in the office back-up rota, providing senior management support to our out-of-hours service.

Person specification

We are looking for candidates who:

• Are a creative and experienced communications leader who can quickly get to grips with fast moving and complex issues.
• Have experience of leading teams and extensive experience in the media across digital, print and broadcast. Your experience should include both traditional newswriting skills and multimedia knowledge.
• Can maintain and build on incredibly high standards, while thriving under the pressure of delivering a substantial news agenda in a fast-paced environment.
• Have experience of leading junior members of staff and supporting their development.

Essential criteria:

• Leading a team and developing people.

• Handling high profile issues and influencing senior internal and external stakeholders.

• Delivering cross-channel media campaigns through the team.

• Sharp news sense and first-rate writing skills.

• Ability to build relationships and network.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• GCS Technical Skill: Ideas
• GCS Technical Skill: Implementation
• GCS Technical Skill: Impact

Benefits

Alongside your salary of£58,185, Department for Education contributes£16,856 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department's transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years'service. In addition, all staff receive the King's Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days'bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

To apply for this role, please select'Apply Now'at the top or bottom of this advert. CV details need to be included in the template within the application form; attached or emailed CVs will not be considered.

Please be advised there aretwo stagesto the recruitment process for this role, these are outlined below.

Stage 1 - Application

At sift stage, you will be assessed on your Experience in line with the essential skills listed in the person specification section of the job advert.

To apply for this role, please provide:

1. AShortCVsetting out your career history, highlighting specific responsibilities and achievements that are relevant for this role.
2. AStatement of Suitability(no more than 750 words)explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the job advert.

To confirm, the maximum word count for the statement of suitability is750 words. Please adhere to this limit as anything over750 wordswill not be taken into account.

The CV and Statement of Suitability will be assessed against the essential criteria detailed in the advert.

If you are successful at application sift stage, your application will be progressed onto Stage 2 part of the Selection process.

Stage 2 - Interview:

The interview will be a 2-part process:

Part 1:A written assessment will form part of the interview process, in which you will be assessed against the Delivering at Pace behaviour which will form part of the overall assessment. Further details will be provided to candidates upon invitation to interview.

Part 2:The interview will be a blended interview. We will ask you a series of Behaviour and Technical Skills based questions to demonstrate, using examples, how you meet the Behaviours and Technical Skills listed in the advert.

The interview is likely to be two hours long to accommodate the written assessment.

We receive many applications, and unfortunately we're not able to provide feedback for candidates who aren't shortlisted. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

All communications will be electronic therefore it is vitally important that you check your Civil Service Jobs account regularly, as well as your spam/junk email folder.

Important Information

In your application, please don't include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based …