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Job description

Head of Communications

About Us

King’s is a constituent College of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1441 by Henry VI as a place of education, religion, learning and research, the College comprises around 130 Fellows, 650 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 275 non-academic staff.

The College is internationally recognised as a leading academic institution, boasting among its former students and Fellows no fewer than eight Nobel laureates, including Patrick Blackett, Frederick Sanger,

Sydney Brenner, Philip Noel-Baker and Oliver Hart, as well as influential figures such as Alan Turing, E.M.

Forster, John Maynard Keynes and Bernard Williams. Among its most prominent living members are the novelists Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, astronomer Martin Rees, sociologist Anthony Giddens, anthropologist Caroline Humphrey, former chair of the Bank of England Mervyn King, philanthropist David

Sainsbury, molecular biologist Lesley Anne Glover, entrepreneur and computer scientist Hermann Hauser, composers Judith Weir (Master of the King’s Music) and Errollyn Wallen, the first black woman to have a composition performed at The Proms.

The undergraduate and postgraduate community is vibrant and diverse, priding itself on a friendly and inclusive atmosphere combining academic commitment with political engagement and a lively social and artistic scene. King’s has long been leading the way in undergraduate recruitment from the state sector. The

College works very hard to attract the best applicants, regardless of background, and to encourage academically outstanding students from underrepresented communities to study at Cambridge. In 2018 it launched a transformational Student Access and Support Initiative designed to improve equality of access and opportunity, and to help combat entrenched social and economic disadvantage.

The Role

The College is seeking an outstanding individual who will build on the recent successes of our King’s Campaign and alumni engagement.

This will involve maintaining our excellent alumni relations whilst shaping a communications strategy for the College’s many constituencies – those within the College, among our alumni, and with the national and global audiences who engage with the College’s life and educational mission.

The new Head of Communications will have the opportunity to build an expanded team behind the new strategy. They will be willing to get their ‘hands dirty’, creating and editing content, but also have the vision and skillset to shape a communications capability appropriate to a world-famous institution.

This is a high-profile role within King’s, involving close working with the College’s senior leadership, as well as with our energetic academic, student and alumni communities.

King’s is an exciting and dynamic place, and the Head of Communications will be critical in guiding those energies and communicating them to our alumni and the wider world. The role is currently supported by a small team, focused mainly on alumni engagement, with the expectation that this will grow to support additional audiences and capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

Communication strategy

· Design a dynamic communications strategy, covering both internal and external communications, that enables King’s to meet its objectives.

· Take overall responsibility for delivering the agreed communications strategy through a full range of channels, including digital, social media and print.

· Adopt an evidence-based approach, using audience research and appropriate metrics to support strategy development and monitoring of progress.

Public relations and community engagement

· Secure attention for King’s priorities and people in traditional and social media.

· Be proactive in securing positive national and local press coverage for the College, maintaining a strong network of media contacts as appropriate.

· Provide the College’s response to outside and internal events. This may require working out of hours and media monitoring out of hours.

· Attend to the College’s reputation in the local Cambridge community and facilitate positive relations with relevant community stakeholders.

Alumni, development, and fundraising

· Work with the Director of Development to ensure high-impact alumni and fundraising communications, maintaining a consistent voice and content quality.

· Advise and work with the Development team on brand and communications for major fundraising campaigns and key events.

· Oversee the production of College publications, including the College’s biannual alumni magazine (King’s Parade) and Annual Report.

College community

· Elicit and coordinate contributions from the College community, including regular newsletters, information on the College’s on-site screens and noticeboards.

· Be proactive in identifying initiatives to maximise communication, engagement, and interaction within the College community — including students, alumni, Fellows and staff—and between the College community and external audiences and stakeholders.

· Advise on development of the College’s physical presentation, including signage, wayfinding, and other branding.

Channels and content strategy

· Oversee King’s digital presence, including the College’s website, intranet, and social media accounts.

· Commission, edit and produce written and audio-visual content across all channels, including events.

· Ensure consistent brand, tone and quality across all King’s content and channels. Advise and train College members as content contributors.

· Ensure accurate and consistent services, selecting and managing external contractors and managing project budgets.

General

· Manage and develop a small team of staff, making the case for new posts in line with your emerging strategy.

· Maintain budget oversight of communications expenditure and establish effective supplier relationships.

· Build strong and mutually beneficial relationships with communications and engagement functions in other colleges and the central University, representing the College at University wide Communications meetings.

· Production and editing of written content are likely to be key tasks early in the successful candidate’s tenure.

The Person

We seek to appoint a dynamic individual with strong analytical and organisational skills alongside the ability to build strong relationships both internally and externally.

An ideal candidate will demonstrate:

Knowledge & experience

· Education to degree level

· Evidence of continuing professional development

· Experience of leading a busy communications team in a complex organisational context

· An understanding, and ideally direct experience of community engagement and participatory forms of communication

· Reputation and crisis management experience (desirable)

· Membership of CIPR, PRCA or CIM (desirable)

· A practical understanding of UK higher education (desirable)

Personal skills & abilities

· Ability to develop creative, inclusive, and effective communications strategies based on insight, evaluation, and an understanding of institutional values.

· Excellent PR skills, with a track record of channel management and content marketing in media, digital and social channels

High quality writing skills and the ability to write appropriately for different media

and audiences.

· Experience of driving alumni engagement and fundraising through communications (highly desirable)

· Ability to communicate complicated information in an accessible way.

· Calm and effective under pressure

· Able to work across a diverse community, and to be a spokesperson for the same.

Remuneration and Benefits

Remuneration

The post is offered at a full-time salary of £44,414 - £56,048 per annum dependant on experience and ability. The post holder will join the College’s auto-enrolment pension scheme with generous additional contribution options on completion of probationary period.

Hours of Work

The post is permanent and full time. The nature of the work is such that the hours of work are not fixed. The College’s working hours are 37.5 per week and it may also be required to work such additional hours as are necessary for the proper performance of the duties (some evening work will be required). Flexibility will be required at various points in the academic year. Subject to the demands of the role and in accordance with the Agile Working Policy, the post holder may be able to work from home for part of the week.

Benefits

The College offers full-time members of staff 32 days holiday per year, including Bank Holidays. All staff working over a mealtime are eligible to take a free lunch or dinner in the servery.

The College offer enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay as well as generous sick pay for those who have more than 6 months’ service. This is in addition to the Flexible Working Policy. More details on all of these are available in the Staff Handbook. Staff are eligible to use the Tax-Free Childcare Scheme introduced by the government to replace Childcare Vouchers.

Probationary Period/Notice

There will be a six-month probationary period. Upon successful completion of the probationary period, the notice period will be three months.

How to Apply

Please download the application form from our website and send your completed form by email.

Closing Date

Please submit your application by 5pm on Tuesday 11th July 2023. Interviews will be held during the week commencing 17th July.

Job Types: Full-time, Permanent

Salary: £44,414.00-£56,048.00 per year

Benefits:

• Canteen
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Discounted or free food
• Enhanced maternity leave
• Free parking
• On-site parking
• Sick pay
• Work from home

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday

Supplemental pay types:

• Yearly bonus

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 11/07/2023