Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Comms and Engagement Manager
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Bristol, London, Manchester
Job Summary
GDS
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.
Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:
- joining up public sector services
- harnessing the power of AI for the public good
- strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
- elevating leadership and investing in talent
- funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
- committing to transparency and driving accountability
We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.
We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.
The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.
Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.
Please note
Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
Job Description
The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) drives excellence in Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops across the public sector.
To drive these objectives, OCTO has established a new ‘Leading the Profession’ team, tasked with ensuring that public sector Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops functions have clear, centralised access to the rules, tools, methods and communities they need to do brilliant work. This depends on outstanding comms and engagement work – some delivered from ‘Leading the Profession’, some embedded directly in OCTO’s own Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops teams to support the needs of specific projects.
You will join OCTO’s new ‘Leading the Profession’ team, alongside other specialists in comms and engagement, content and community management.
You will spend some of your time supporting the establishment and core objectives of this team, helping to build an effective comms and engagement function to support the needs of the rest of OCTO. This may include tasks such as research and stakeholder mapping, comms forward looks and producing key comms and engagement products such as core briefs and pitch decks.
The Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) drives excellence in Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops across the public sector.
To drive these objectives, OCTO has established a new ‘Leading the Profession’ team, tasked with ensuring that public sector Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops functions have clear, centralised access to the rules, tools, methods and communities they need to do brilliant work. This depends on outstanding comms and engagement work – some delivered from ‘Leading the Profession’, some embedded directly in OCTO’s own Engineering, Architecture and IT Ops teams to support the needs of specific projects.
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You will join OCTO’s new ‘Leading the Profession’ team, alongside other specialists in comms and engagement, content and community management.
You will spend some of your time supporting the establishment and core objectives of this team, helping to build an effective comms and engagement function to support the needs of the rest of OCTO. This may include tasks such as research and stakeholder mapping, comms forward looks and producing key comms and engagement products such as core briefs and pitch decks.
Person specification
Key Responsibilities
- Research, create and deliver multi-channel communication and engagement plans which support organisation objectives
- Produce comms and engagement products such as briefings, blog posts, newsletters and presentations
- Help translate complex technical ideas into clear, accessible and creative narratives
- Manage communication and engagement channels, including production and scheduling content
- Work with senior members of the organisation to support them on comms and engagement activities, such as events, meetings and international engagements, and record and disseminate readouts from senior engagements with teams.
Essential Criteria
- A proactive self-starter, confident and positive communicator used to building productive relationships at all levels of an organisation, including with senior and technical stakeholders
- Able to network and find information to create concise, clear and creative comms and engagement plans
- Comfortable working in dynamic environments with lots of ambiguity and competing priorities, balancing short term and strategic requirements
- Experienced at ‘translating’ complex or technical issues into easy-to-digest content, and confident at asking further questions when such an issue is unclear
- Demonstrable experience of problem solving, being proactive about putting in place processes to make work efficient.
Desirable Criteria
- Proven ability to quickly comprehend information about new topics, and produce content based on that information
- Experience of communications and engagement within the public sector and the unique complexities that brings.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Changing and Improving
- Delivering at Pace
We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Changing and Improving
Salary and Benefits
Alongside your salary of £44,620, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology contributes £12,926 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
- A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
- Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
- A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
- An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
- Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
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Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete behavioural statements and a CV. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the lead behaviour statement - Communicating and Influencing, only.
The interview will consist of behaviour questions.
Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
Reasonable Adjustment
We are proud to be a disability confident leader and we welcome applications from disabled candidates and candidates with long-term conditions.
Information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that we offer to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our DSIT Candidate Guidance. A DSIT Plain Text Version of the guidance is also available.
We encourage candidates to discuss their adjustment needs by emailing the job contact which can be found under the contact point for applicants section.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Candidates who meet the minimum benchmark may be placed on a Reserve List for consideration for similar roles, including those at a lower grade. Candidates who narrowly miss the benchmark and are not placed on the Reserve List may still be considered for an offer in a similar role at a lower grade.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these
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