Communications, strategy & delivery

Lead the development and implementation of ECU’s strategic communications work, including managing the programme plan and budget.
Devise and deliver programmes of proactive interventions aimed at shifting the traditional media narrative on key economic policy issues.
Devise and deliver social media strategy to maximise ECU’s reach, engagement and impact across campaigns.
Contribute to ongoing intelligence-gathering, horizon-scanning, and analysis of economic policy debates to identify opportunities for media influencing.
Build and maintain effective relationships with potential expert spokespeople and work to deploy these spokespeople in the media.
Provide support with media strategy and delivery across ECU’s broader campaigning work.
Effectively commission and manage contractors where necessary for project delivery.

Campaigns & projects

Lead strategic communications for ECU’s campaigning work on public investment (Invest in Britain), including proactive and reactive comms, cultivation and training of spokespeople, design and delivery of branded products and development of journalist relationships.
Edit and manage our weekly e-newsletter (New Economy Brief), including executing a strategy to grow our readership with target audiences as well as maintaining day-to-day delivery at a high quality.
Support the Head of Campaigns on communications strategy and delivery for our cost of living coalition campaign (Cost of Living Action).

Stakeholders & relationships

Maintain a strong understanding of key journalists and editors relevant to our programmes and campaigns and build and maintain effective relationships with them.
Build and maintain effective relationships with key civil society allies.
Represent ECU externally, including at public and private conferences, workshops and other events with key stakeholders.

Fundraising & Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

Support the Director of Policy and Programmes and the Executive Director to fundraise for ECU’s strategic communications work, including meeting with funders, and helping to draft funding applications and report on grants.
Lead on delivery of monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) activities for strategic communications function to track impact and enable ongoing incorporation of learnings.

Team & Organisation

Provide excellent line management to 1-3 staff (currently one Policy & Programme Lead).
Contribute to organisational planning and strategy development.
Deputise for the Director of Policy and Programmes as and when required.

General

Actively support equity, diversity and inclusion within the organisation and embed this approach in our work
Work out of hours and undertake occasional domestic and overseas work trips as required to effectively perform the role, with flexibility depending on your circumstances.
Undertake any other reasonable duties as may be required.

Person Specification

Essential Attributes, Skills & Experience

Proven and extensive track record of securing coverage in mainstream print and/or broadcast media, including generating stories from scratch and building strong, ongoing relationships with journalists.
Excellent understanding of the UK political and/or economic media environment and strong capabilities in analysing and understanding the motivations and agendas of media actors and the factors influencing them.
Experience of developing and delivering successful strategic communications plans based on audience insights and which respect the target audience perspectives.
Deep commitment to ECU’s purpose andvalues.
Excellent organisational skills, including the ability to manage a full workload while responding promptly to emerging media opportunities, and to deliver a comms plan with multiple work streams and meet agreed deadlines.
Excellent written and verbal communications skills, with experience of translating complex topics into engaging content and tailoring messaging and copy to different audiences.
Proven ability to effectively develop and maintain relationships with key stakeholders internally and externally, including at senior levels, and to work collaboratively and supportively with colleagues at all levels.
Willingness to ‘pitch in’ at all levels of work, and to work flexibly across a small team to meet organisational needs - including occasional evenings, weekends or travel - alongside your own requirements and circumstances.

We encourage anyone who meets these criteria to apply. If you are unsure about whether you meet the criteria, please get in touch with any questions - we are keen to hear from as wide and diverse a set of candidates as possible (recruitment@econchange.org).

While it will be advantageous to have specific experience of working on economics or of line management, it is by no means essential, and we would be happy to support candidates without these experiences to get up-to-speed in the role.

Benefits

We followa shorter working week, with a 32-hour standard working week.
Choice of when to begin and end work (within certain limits)
Annual cost of living increase (dependent on funding constraints)
8% Pension - of your qualifying earnings regardless of employee contribution
21 days holiday per year (pro rata for part time), plus bank holidays and an additional period of paid leave in between Christmas and New Year (usually 3 days)
Annual learning and development allowance and team-wide training
Contribution to some health and dental treatments and access wellbeing therapies
Generous family leave policy including up to 14 weeks paid leave in addition to statutory provision (for employees who are pregnant and also partners of pregnant employees).

Applying for this role

By submitting your application you are consenting to the Economic Change Unit retaining your personal data for the duration of the recruitment process. All unsuccessful applications are deleted within six months.

We ask diversity monitoring questions which are not seen by the assessors. We know that asking about identity using drop down lists is trying to simplify very complex concepts, and that some of the questions may feel very personal. We have used the categories of ethnic origin that are recommended by the UK Commission for Racial Equality as the most appropriate for monitoring the UK. We recognise however that the specified categories may not be appropriate for everyone, if this is the case please use the last box.

You don't have to answer any or all of these questions, however collecting information of this type will help us monitor where we are and what we need to improve on.

We are eager to receive feedback on our application process and will be sending surveys to all candidates. Alternatively you can send direct feedback to recruitment@econchange.org

Economic Change Unit remote jobs

Head of Strategic Communications