Media and Communications Officer (Social Sciences) at University of Warwick

About the Role  

For informal enquiries, please contact Kat Beauchamp Communications Manager (Media Relations) at [email protected]

Responsible for a wide range of communications activities for the University to promote our world-leading research, through the delivery of high-quality content in digital, broadcast and print media. This role requires a skilled communications officer with experience of pitching stories to the media.

The role will lead on specific strategic communication projects and will also act as the communications advisor on a number of key workstreams, including, but not limited to, social sciences research, STEM related content and research and information from the School of Life Sciences, Warwick Institute of Employment Research and Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies. You will need to be a confident communicator as building relationships with internal and external stakeholders is a key part of this role.

About You  

• To plan and deliver highly effective external proactive communications, including through research and education, with target audiences globally through digital, broadcast, and print media.
• You will proactively develop and implement creative media relations plans in line with institutional priorities, including establishing objectives, messaging, understanding of audience, understanding of context, use of appropriate channels, and mechanisms to evaluate outcomes. You also will undertake horizon-scanning to identify content creation and news distribution opportunities.
• This will entail producing media relations content to maximise audience engagement. Content will include, but not be limited to: press releases, media packs, broadcast opportunities, feature writing, and digital assets. You will produce this yourself or in collaboration with the wider team and/or external agencies.
• Work with academic departments and the leadership team to understand their priorities and coordinate media relations content in alignment with the University’s communications strategy.
• Provide support to departments to enable them to tell their stories in creative and engaging ways. Advise academics and professionals on media relations good practice, broadcast skills, brand guidelines, and institutional narrative to ensure consistency of messaging.
• Lead on or contribute to specific communications projects and campaigns to support key strategic objectives, motivating and developing cross-functional teams to deliver results.
• Actively supporting institutional preparedness for effective crisis communications via an out of hours rota. Evaluating performance, tracking progress against KPIs and delivering communication analytics reports to key stakeholders internally where required. Development and maintenance of relationships with journalists and news outlets relevant and valuable to the University and allocated portfolio departments.
• Working in a cross-functional team across MCI, proactively contributing to and shaping marketing and communications projects and campaigns to support strategic objectives using an assigned budget and motivating and developing teams to deliver results.

Operational

• The post holder will take direction from the management team but will be expected to manage their own work and priorities and act independently to clear parameters, updating and calling for advice/support when needed.

Communication

• The post holder will need to persuade journalists to engage with the University’s stories and academic expertise. Internally, the post holder will need to be able to influence colleagues and staff on media relations approaches and to help individuals to prepare for effective media engagement.

Other information

• The post holder will need to be available to support early morning filming and interviews as well as weekend filming and interviews on an occasional basis. This responsibility is shared across the team. Post holder will be expected to be part of an on-call rota for weekend/evenings cover.

For details on the experience and skills required, please refer to the job description attached as a PDF below.

About the Department  

• This role sits within the Corporate Communications team. The Corporate Communications team is responsible for promoting and protecting the reputation of the University of Warwick, and our brand. The team elevates and amplifies our research, education, achievements and impact – whether that’s internally to our staff, or to a global audience. Comprised of media, communications, digital and marketing experts, it is an exciting team to be a part of.
• The Corporate Communications team sits within the wider Marketing, Communications, Insight & Student Recruitment team. The team carefully communicates important messages around our excellent education and research, and innovative partnerships.
• The team provides expertise in campaign creation, multi-channel communications, market research, web development, and more. This broad base of professional skills and knowledge ensures the University is represented through compelling, creative, and consistent messaging and content, always keeping our varied audiences in mind.