Job description
Learn about the role, responsibilities and what the employer is looking for.
Wales Office
Job Description for Communication Manager
Job Title: Communication Manager
Pay Grade: SEO
Salary: £42,914 - £46,182 (National) / £49,325 - £53,081 (London) Your salary will be dependent on your base location
Location: Ty William Morgan, Cardiff, CF10 1EP / Gwydyr House, London, SW1A 2NP
Contract: Permanent
Reports to: Head of Communication
Clearance: SC (See Additional Information)
About the Wales Office:
The Wales Office is the face of the UK Government in Wales and the voice of Wales in Westminster. We support the Secretary of State for Wales and the Ministerial team in representing Wales at the heart of Government. We work in partnership with other Government Departments and other stakeholders to deliver a stronger Wales within a strong United Kingdom.
Our departmental values are Commitment, Collaboration and Quality. These shape how we operate in a challenging, demanding, and fast paced environment which requires flexibility, transparency and professionalism.
The Wales Office has two sites, one in Cardiff and one in Whitehall. The successful candidate will be based in Cardiff or London, but travel between sites and elsewhere may be required in order to build relations with colleagues and stakeholders.
About the team:
The Wales Office Communications Team is a high-performing team that helps connect people across Wales with the work of the UK Government. We provide strategic communication advice to ministers and senior officials, manage media relations, deliver digital and social media content, and support ministerial visits and events.
Working at the heart of government, we collaborate closely with colleagues across Whitehall and the Government Communication Service to ensure UK Government delivery is communicated clearly, effectively and in ways that matter to Welsh audiences. We combine insight, evaluation, creativity and strong news judgement to deliver communication that is audience-focused, evidence-led and impactful.
The team is ambitious about modern government communications. Alongside supporting ministers and managing daily media activity, we are increasingly focused on direct-to-citizen communication, using digital channels and partnerships to tell authentic stories about the impact of UK Government policies and investment in communities across Wales.
As part of a small team, you will have the opportunity to work across multiple communication disciplines, take ownership of significant projects and develop strong relationships with senior decision-makers. No two days are the same, making this an ideal role for a communicator who enjoys variety, challenge and the chance to make a visible impact.
About the Role:
The Wales Office is seeking an experienced integrated communicator to play an important role in developing and delivering strategic communication that supports UK Government priorities across Wales.
You will develop expert communication advice for ministers and senior officials, helping to shape and deliver integrated communication strategies that build understanding of UK Government priorities and their impact across Wales.
This is a varied role spanning strategic communication, media relations, campaigns, digital communication and reputation management. You will work across disciplines to ensure communication activity is insight-driven, audience-focused and aligned with wider UK Government objectives.
A key aspect of the role will be supporting the Head of Communication to develop and deliver longer-term communication strategies across Wales Office priority policy areas. The successful candidate will lead the development of thematic communication plans, ensuring activity is informed by audience insight, aligned to ministerial priorities and evaluated to demonstrate impact and continuous improvement.
By joining a communications team, you will become a member of the Government Communication Service, a profession of over 7,000 communicators working in government departments, agencies and arm’s length bodies. You’ll benefit from continuous professional development from our new learning and development curriculum, a network of skilled communicators sharing best practice, mentoring opportunities, and more.
For more information on how becoming a part of the Communications Profession can support your career and development please visit the GCS careers page.
Key Responsibilities
We are looking for motivated and creative individual to join us and embark on an exceptional career in government communications.
Your key responsibilities will include:
Strategic communication – support the Head of Communications in developing and delivering long-term communication strategies across priority policy and thematic areas, ensuring communication activity supports ministerial objectives and organisational priorities.
Insight and evaluation – lead the development of audience insight, evaluation and communication performance reporting. Use evidence and data to shape communication activity, identify opportunities and provide strategic recommendations to senior leaders.
Press office resilience and reputation management – provide expert media handling support, contribute to proactive and reactive communications activity, support major announcements and issues management, and provide resilience during periods of high operational demand, including participation in the out-of-hours rota.
Relationships – develop and maintain strong working relationships with ministers, private offices, special advisers, senior officials, journalists, stakeholders and other government departments.
Prioritising – understand government, departmental and ministerial priorities so you can communicate key messages clearly, accurately and creatively.
Each member of the team takes part in an on-call system, for which there is an allowance, to take calls out-of-hours from the media. This is done on a rotational basis, and full training will be given.
The job description is not intended to be exhaustive, and it is likely that duties may be altered from time to time in the light of changing circumstances and after consultation with the postholder.
Person Specification
Please evidence how closely you match the essential criteria in your Statement of Suitability, which is up to 750 words.