Media and Communications Manager

Samaritans’ award-winning media and communications teams work with the media and stakeholders to responsibly raise awareness of suicide prevention and reach those who are struggling to cope.

In this exciting role and working with our award-winning rail programme, the Media and Communications Manager will take the lead in developing, delivering and managing Samaritans’ communications and media activity relating to rail suicide prevention in order to raise awareness, engage supporters & stakeholders and positively influence the wider media’s reporting of suicides.

This post will operate at a national level alongside similar posts in the rail industry. It will seek to develop ties with all train operator and Network Rail communications team and will play a key role in delivering Samaritans messages at a national level.

This position will work across both the Network Rail Partnership team and the External Affairs team in order to provide dedicated focus, resource and specialist expertise – providing a conduit for these skills and colleagues in the rail sector.

In this role, you’ll need experience of working in a press office, PR agency, or similar role within a wider communications team or media outlet, having developed excellent communication and written skills, along with a good working knowledge of UK media landscape, a strong news sense and experience selling-in.

Working with stakeholders across the rail industry, you’ll have experience of influencing, negotiating and, ideally, partnership working. Warm, personable and friendly, you’ll have strong interpersonal skills and be able to build and maintain relationships with many different groups of people.

Highly organised and able to work under pressure to meet deadlines, you’ll be a self-starter with experience of successful project management. You’ll need compassion and resilience to work with exposure to incidents and stories that may be upsetting.

Samaritans is one of the UK and Ireland’s best known and respected charities - our vision is that fewer people die by suicide. As the impact of the pandemic continues to be felt across our society, Samaritans is needed more than ever. If you want to make a real difference to people’s lives – this is the role for you!

Initially a fixed term contract until April 2024
Full time, with flexible working practices
£34,000 to £38,000 per annum
Hybrid working – This role is ‘linked’ to our central office (Ewell), with the choice to work from the office or from home to meet your needs

Full outline of the role can be found here.

Employee Benefits

Samaritans invests in our People’s wellbeing through the provision of a range of benefits including;

Flexible working and family-friendly policies,
A structured induction and ongoing training and development.
28 days holiday, plus bank holidays each year, rising to 33 days over 5 years of service.
Matched Pension contributions of up to 5%.
A health Cash plan to cover the cost of medical and alternative health treatments.
Complimentary subscriptions to Headspace and Perk Box for expert meditation, fitness programmes and shopping discounts.

Samaritans recognises the enormous benefits and the social justice imperatives of ensuring diversity at every level of our organisation. We are wholly committed to inclusion and diversity and to building a culture and environment where everyone is appreciated for the unique person they are.

To ensure Samaritans is representative of those we support and who support us, we particularly welcome applications from Disabled, BAME and LGBTQ+ candidates, as these people are under-represented in our organisation.

We are committed to making our recruitment processes accessible to everyone and are flexible in how we receive information. If you would like to apply via a different format or let us know how we can support you to be the best you can be, please contact the People team at [email protected] and we will try our best to accommodate your needs.

If this sounds like the opportunity for you, please apply. You’ll be asked to upload your CV and a cover letter, outlining how your skills and experience meet the job specification.

This role will close for applications on 30th April 2023, with interviews scheduled to take place from 8th May 2023

If you’re interested in applying or would just like to find out more, then we'd love to hear from you.

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