Head of Communications

TN United Kingdom; South Oxfordshire; Hybrid; GBP 80,000; Full time

Job description

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The salary for this role is £79,638. Onsite working is expected for 3 days each week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role is based at the following site: Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

Join our team and use your enthusiasm and expertise in communication to contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Head of Communications, you will play a pivotal role in developing and leading communications to support UKAEA's mission to deliver complex and impactful scientific work in the public interest. You will provide expert advice, strategic insight, and leadership to ensure effective engagement with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders, fostering trust, understanding, and support for UKAEA's work.

In this role you will enable the UKAEA to communicate effectively, provide leadership in communications of all kinds, and will develop and advise on best practices throughout the UKAEA. Operating with a high degree of complexity and sensitivity, you will shape the narrative around scientific work, ensuring that communication strategies are clear, compelling, and accessible to varied audiences. You will influence hearts and minds to drive engagement, build advocacy, and contribute to policy outcomes. This involves leading and developing a high-performing communications team with appropriate skills, processes, and tools, including a comprehensive multi-channel communications and engagement strategy.

In addition, you will collaborate with senior leadership and the UKAEA’s parent department in government, DESNZ, to align communications with organisational goals, manage reputational risks, and ensure compliance with government standards and best practices.

Qualifications

An excellent communicator yourself, you will bring a degree or equivalent experience in a communication-related field, experience in a senior communications or public affairs role, ideally within a government, scientific, or similar environment, and an ability to work with technical teams and subjects.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here: Employee Benefits.

We welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We encourage applications from under-represented groups, particularly from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African, Pakistani and Bangladeshi British, and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and neurodiverse individuals. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing, and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and take steps to increase diversity within our organisation. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

For applicants applying from outside the United Kingdom or those who have spent time outside the UK in the last five years, please visit the following link for information on criminal records checks: Criminal Records Checks for Overseas Applicants. If your country of residence or previous residence is not listed on the website or if the UK Government does not have information on obtaining a criminal records check from that state, we regret to inform you that we cannot process your application.