Communications and Engagement Officer

Job title: Communications and Engagement Officer

Location: Birmingham, London or Greater Manchester

Salary: £26,000 – £31,000 (London), £23,500 - £29,000 (Manchester or Birmingham)

Hours: 37.5 hours per week

Contract: Permanent

Overall purpose

This is a key role that will work closely with the Senior Communications Manager, Head of Public Engagement and Senior Digital Marketing Manager.

You will contribute to the implementation of our communications, engagement and fundraising strategies, ensuring that your work is anchored in our organisational and team strategic goals. You will also be closely involved in team planning, whether it’s inputting into our operational plan or sharing ideas for new campaigns. 

There are opportunities to get hands-on developing and delivering communications and fundraising campaigns to educate and inspire individuals, businesses, and other audiences. The aim of these campaigns is to help remove barriers to employment for refugees and bring about systemic change via our partnerships. Please note, we do not currently run political campaigns.

You will be responsible for creating and delivering day-to-day communications across our owned channels (social media, email newsletters, and some website content). You will also help colleagues create content for earned and paid communications that they’re leading on (press and media, digital marketing, engagement with influencers)

A team player, you will build strong relationships across Breaking Barriers so that you can source and develop content that:

• increases our visibility and influence
• showcases our impact
• inspires members of the public to help refugees build new lives in the UK
• engages and stewards our key audiences, including corporate partners, employees who advocate for refugees, individual donors, volunteers, and people of a refugee background.

You will support the Senior Communications Manager to maintain our strong brand, ensuring that all our content complies with our brand guidelines and is of a high standard.

With a good eye for detail, you will play a key role in our data management, including overseeing data on the storytelling section of our CRM, monitoring communications enquiries, and setting up and running reports. You will become a Salesforce Superuser (full training and support will be provided for this).

It is an exciting time to join our team. Breaking Barriers is an innovative organisation, so you will need to be comfortable with change and building new knowledge. The Public Engagement team is fast-paced. We support each other, approach problems with a good sense of humour, and are willing to experiment and learn.

To view the full job description and person specification, as well as details on our accessible recruitment process, please view the attached recruitment pack.

Other considerations

• As part of our safeguarding commitment to our clients, we carry out preemployment checks to ensure that successful applicants are suitable to work with adults at risk. These include obtaining references and verifying a candidate’s identity and right to work in the UK.
• Some travel between our different areas of operation (including London, Birmingham and Manchester) will be required. Occasional evening or weekend work may be required. Time off in lieu would be provided in this case.
• We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief.

How to apply

If you are looking for a role where you can make a real difference, we want to hear from you. To apply, please submit a CV and statement (up to approximately 500 words/1 A4 page) outlining:

• Which location you are applying for
• Why you are interested in the role
• What skills you would bring to be successful in this role
• Any experience you would like to highlight
• Any reasonable adjustments you require for the interview process
• Disclosure of disabilities if you wish to do so (as a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we guarantee an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role)

Please note that applications without a covering letter will not be considered.

Closing date for applications is 11:30pm on Thursday 24th October. Interviews will be held on a rolling basis so please apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

We belong to the Experts by Experience Employment Initiative, which advocates and supports organisations to employ more people from a refugee background. With this in mind, we particularly welcome applicants with experience of seeking asylum and/or a refugee background. 

If you are an expert by experience (a refugee or a migrant with direct, first-hand experience of issues and challenges of the UK asylum or immigration system), you can ask for an independent and confidential support for your job application from the Experts by Experience Employment Network. Please reach out to HR Manager Dani Meier for further details (we are unable to include email addresses in this advert, but you can find contact details on the final page of the attached recruitment pack).