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The Comms England team are a multi-disciplined team looking after communications (corporate and consumer); external affairs; and events across England. We lead the communications for all of the BBC’s local services across England (39 local radio stations and 11 regional tv news centres), BBC Radio 5 Live and the Across the UK strategy. Our team is split across two bases – Salford and Birmingham.

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Communications Specialist to join the team for a 12-month contract role based in Birmingham or Salford (with hybrid working). This role is responsible for guiding and delivering an outstanding and varied programme of creative external affairs and events activity across England, and for the day-to-day management of two to three team members.

Our events vary in scale and purpose – from large public events for 1000s of audiences, to screenings of new BBC content with talent attending to corporate speeches and appearances. Our events team ensure each event is project managed to ensure smooth running of all activity from start to finish.

We are looking for a public affairs expert who has knowledge and interest in politics particularly on a local level. No two days are the same from external stakeholder and MP engagement to having the opportunity to work on amazing content: in the last 12 months the team have worked on events and launches for world-class BBC programmes including Waterloo Road, Red Rose, Happy Valley, Gentleman Jack, Commonwealth Games and many more.

If you have the right experience plus lots of enthusiasm and creativity we would love to hear from you!

The role includes regular travel across England and overnights away from home.

As the Senor Communications Specialist, you will be responsible for leading the impeccable planning and delivery of external relations including red carpet premieres and showcase events aimed at improving awareness of the BBC’s impact and value across England.

Overseeing and organising an impactful programme of creative engagements to generate excitement about BBC content and growing awareness of BBC services particularly in the North and Midlands, often managing multiple projects at any one time.

This programme should engage influential external and political stakeholders in meaningful ways to share messages and updates around our work. A good understanding of local public affairs and political commentary around the BBC is critical and you will be expected to share updates, conduct research and use this knowledge to inform external engagement strategies.

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

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 public affairs and politics?

If you’re 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 with flexible and hybrid working.

Effective verbal and written communications skills are a must as well as the ability to be 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. You would also have 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 corporate guests, MPs and opinion formers.

You would be charged with conducting or overseeing the organic research to update internal databases, inform guestlists and develop strategy for engaging opinion formers and MPs and therefore need a good knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite and core IT skills.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here

Band: D
Contract type: 12 month fixed term contract
Location: Birmingham or Salford based role with some flexibility - ie hybrid working

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 (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.