About us

Collaborate CIC is at the forefront of pioneering collaborative approaches to social change and public services. As an innovative social consultancy and think tank, we are building the thinking, culture and practice of collaboration to help us meet the challenges of today, together. We work towards a vision of a collaborative society — one that is equitable, caring and sustainable.

To achieve this vision, we act as change partners to public and voluntary sector organisations. We help people to collaborate across sectors, reform public services, put citizens and service users at the centre of their work, develop collaborative and system leadership skills, engage with civil society, and learn together to support change.

We work with a wide range of organisations and sectors. Current and recent clients include Wigan Council, London Councils, Essex County Council, SOLACE, City Bridge Foundation, NHS England, MOPAC, Sport England, Save the Children and the Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Partnership. We deliver work alone and in partnership with others. As a social purpose organisation, we also share the learning from our work, create tools and resources to support collaboration, connect change makers and host events.

Ultimately, we believe that people and organisations can create a better future together than they can alone, and we bring this conviction, blended with cutting-edge thinking and practice, to all our work.

Please see our website for more information about what we do.

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced Communications and Marketing Manager, who ideally understands our sector, who can spread the word about our incredible work to support people and places, and grow the movement for a more collaborative, equitable society where all are supported to flourish.

 This role will manage our external communications and marketing. You'll be supported by and report to a Director, while collaborating closely with both the operations and practice team. This role will be ‘top to bottom’, considering and developing our communications strategy, and putting strategy into action by creating marketing materials, optimising our website content, planning online and offline events, and driving engagement on social media to effectively share our content externally.

Job responsibilities

Your day-to-day role and responsibilities will include, (but are not limited to):

• Drive work to grow the awareness of Collaborate and build a movement to support delivery of our mission

• Develop our communications strategy alongside the Director responsible for Impact and Communications, seeking input and developing engagement with it from the rest of the team

• Work with our practice team to create compelling externally facing content targeted to our audiences, across various channels, including the website, social media, newsletters, and press releases

• Build relationships with partners (sector press/sector event coordinators etc) to support our senior leaders to promote and represent Collaborate more widely

• Refresh and manage our brand/channel/product identities and organisational tone of voice

• Manage social media platforms and get the best out of the variety of them, developing our audience in line with our strategy

• Manage our website, thinking creatively about content and design and working with external web developers where necessary

• Conceive, promote and deliver events to market our work - online and offline - working alongside our practice team

• Work with our Business Development Manager and others in the team to seek sponsorship/funding for events and publications

• Support our Business Development Manager to strengthen our organisational contact relationship management

• Support building culture, skills and infrastructure (CRM and CMS) to enable more effective organisational communication and use of our networks

• Monitor and report on the impact of our external comms using analytics and other qualitative data and share insights and updates with our team, senior team and the Board

Organisational responsibilities

• Attending and contributing to team learning sessions and discussions 

• Supporting business development where relevant, including by contributing to bid writing or by supporting proactive external communications that will improve our business development opportunities and positioning

Challenges of this role – all roles have their challenges and we think it’s helpful to be open about these and set them out for you to consider if these are challenges you would embrace:

• this will be a new role, which gives you the opportunity to shape it around your interests and expertise but means you’ll need to be prepared to get stuck in, and that expectations might change as the role develops

• ‘managing up and across’ – to enable the success and progress of our communications, you need to work with and draw content from your busy colleagues and stakeholders

About you 

Taking on a new role, working closely with a Director, offers huge scope to make an impact on our organisation, how we are perceived and positioned externally and to help us to deliver our mission, building a movement for social change. As such, it would suit someone who brings ideas and is driven to make improvements happen.

You’ll have demonstrable experience in a majority of the skills below, whether gained through professional, volunteering, or personal experience, and a strong desire to learn and grow in the remaining areas.

Experience

Required: 

• Practical experience in developing and/or delivering a successful communications plan, movement building approach or a B2B marketing strategy

• Experience in developing high quality marketing content, reflecting organisational brand and voice, including email newsletters, blogs, articles, website copy and social media posts

• Confident managing content and organisational activity on social media platforms

• Understanding of website management, with a good working knowledge of WordPress or an equivalent platform that will enable you to pick this up quickly

• Familiarity with organising and promoting events and webinars (either online or in-person)

• Familiarity with tools like Google Analytics and/or social media insights to track the performance of campaigns and adjust strategies accordingly

Desirable: 

• Experience of understanding or working within a public sector or civil society organisation

• Experience of training or supporting others to develop their communications and marketing skills

• Existing relationships with other public and voluntary sector organisations and/or media outlets focused on nonprofit, social impact, or public sector topics

Skills

You could be the right person for this job if you’re:

• An excellent communicator (verbally and in writing), judging tone appropriate to the circumstance and being confident in dealing with people at all levels and from all backgrounds

• A confident, accurate and articulate writer, able to create a strong ‘voice’ to develop and strengthen our brand

• A strategic thinker, whilst also being adaptable and able to respond to new opportunities that may strengthen our external communications

• Happy working in a collaborative team environment, building strong relationships and working together toward a shared purpose

• Skilled in and passionate about helping others grow and develop their abilities in communications and marketing

• Highly organised, good at prioritising multiple tasks over different timeframes and managing your time to complete them

• Confident on different design and media applications and platforms and quick to pick them up or to adapt to changes

• Passionate about improving outcomes and experiences of the public and curious about how to achieve that goal. You are likely to have interests in issues that affect society and perhaps already have some experience (be it personal/ professional/voluntary) in trying to achieve social change

About the package

• Salary range: £35,000-42,000 pro rata

• Location: We’re a national organisation with an office in London. All of our team work in a hybrid way, which varies depending on role and location. This role requires at least 1 day per week/fortnight in the office during the induction period. Beyond that, you are required to come to London at least once every 6 weeks.

• Working hours: preference is 22.5 hours per week, open to exploring flexible working requests that match organisational needs with personal needs/preferences

• Additional holiday over the winter holidays, on top of 25 days' (pro rata) holiday and bank holidays

• Pension contribution equal to 3% of your pro-rata salary 

• Options for multi-purpose loans, bike-to-work scheme, eye tests, enhanced parental leave pay and we're open to exploring more...

• Being part of an inclusive, team-led, learning environment!

Next steps

Firstly, we would like to invite you to  join our Information and Question & Answer Webinar which you can register for by clicking here (Meeting ID: 893 3781 9139; Passcode: 184685) on Thursday 31st October, 12.30-1.30, where you will be able to hear a bit about Collaborate, why we’re recruiting and more about the role and what sort of person we think would suit it, as well as answer your questions.

• Apply here before Monday 11th November at 5pm. You’ll answer questions that are related to your interest in this role and your experiences and skills that would help you to do it. After the job closes, your answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers to ensure that every application is treated fairly and without bias.

• First interviews 25-28th November: you will meet 2 members of the team to discuss your experience and skills and to complete a short task.

• Second interviews 2-4th December: the opportunity to meet 2 more members of our team and to talk about you and the role with us further.

• We hope to make an offer by mid December! If availability allows, we would love the person to start in post in January, or as soon as they have completed any required notice period.

Also, we love giving and receiving feedback, so at the end of the application process you'll receive insights into how well you performed and be invited to give anonymous feedback to us, or feel free to reach out to us to give more personalised input.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Collaborate supports flexible working and enables the potential for growth within this role and the organisation.

We seek to be a genuinely collaborative organisation, sharing ideas across the team through weekly team meetings and regular learning sessions. We collectively consider our broader strategy, examine and share learning across our projects, and explore how we might develop our work and our thinking.

As a Living Wage employer, we believe in paying our team fairly and are committed to promoting equity of opportunity for all. 

Being equitable, inclusive and fair is not easy or simple and we are challenging ourselves, talking, working and learning about how we can continue to do this better. We aim to create an inclusive working environment in which all individuals are able to make the best use of their skills and are enabled to thrive.

Please email Hannah Tomlinson (htomlinson@collaboretcic.com) if you have any questions.