Duration: Parental Leave (EML) Cover (June - mid December contract)  

Salary: Circa £50000 per annum

Hours: 35 hours per week. Other flexible arrangements will be considered 

Disclosure Level: Basic. This role involves no regulated activity or direct work with children  

Reports to: Head of Strategic Communications 

At the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK), we pull together to achieve the best possible results for children around the world.  We believe in an inclusive workplace and in the power of fulfilled colleagues who share the same values and goals, enjoy their work and are motivated to do their utmost for children.   

Our work is guided by the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognise the universality of children’s rights. 

ABOUT THE TEAM 

The Strategy function at UNICEF UK is home to the Knowledge and Insight, Strategic Planning, Strategic Communications and Project Management Office teams, sitting within the Executive Director’s office. This team cuts across the whole of the organisation to guide, coordinate and facilitate teams to achieve their objectives.   

With a clear mandate to deliver an extraordinary provision in insight, strategic planning and communications, facilitation, project management and critical thinking – this team is pivotal to the organisation’s decision making and success.  

ABOUT THE ROLE 

As the Senior Communications Strategist at UNICEF UK, you are responsible for ensuring our external voice is coherent, optimised, and unified. You are a lead force in ensuring our Public Engagement directorate, Advocacy and Partnerships & Philanthropy teams focus on the right activities in the right way to meet our objectives. This role ensures we have the right communications strategies, plans, performance monitoring and coordination across UUK to achieve our outcomes for children. Working closely with the Insight team, this role champions the use of insight to ensure it is at the heart of all decision making. The role is audience focussed with the ability to apply planning principles to make clear strategic recommendations. You will use these as a springboard to powerful communications that achieve our goals. 

What we will expect you to achieve 

• Support the development of the marketing and communications strategy, and sub strategies, for the Public Engagement directorate.  

• Support the Heads of Marketing to develop strategies that work together across the funnel, writing strategic briefs, guiding delivery, and evaluating outcomes 

• Identify insight needs and lead on briefing of research projects to internal and external research teams to address critical business and communications challenges.  

• Contribute to an integrated and rigorous approach to planning, performance and prioritisation across Public Engagement with a focus on delivery of the UNICEF UK and directorate strategy 

• Responsible for the long-term integrated planning of our Public Engagement, Advocacy and P&P communications to ensure maximum impact and return on investment.  

• Be the provider of strategic tools and facilitation to Public Engagement and beyond that are designed to help develop powerful strategic plans and good decision making 

• Support teams and functions across UNICEF UK to produce cohesive and intelligent plans to bring success to our marketing and communications activities 

• Undertake one-off feasibility studies and plans into new business opportunities  

• Project manage the integrated marketing and communications plans for major organisational moments and campaigns - with objectives, critical paths, risk logs, evaluation 

• Partner with colleagues in International Programmes to coordinate UNICEF UK’s response to sudden onset or large-scale emergencies  

• Demonstrate and model a commitment to our shared values, behaviours and inclusive practices (known as Our Shared Commitment) in all aspects of your work

BEHAVIOURS, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS 

Effective behaviours 

Supporter driven and mission aligned 

• Is committed to children and their rights and motivated to work towards achieving a better world for every child.   

Collaboration 

• Consults others and shares expertise, know-how and ideas with colleagues for best results. Values diversity, respecting and drawing on colleagues’ different perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge  

Communication 

• Convey complex ideas in a compelling manner, tailoring arguments to persuade the listener.  

Efficiency and effectiveness 

• Balance multiple projects and conflicting priorities using insightful interpretation and resourceful solutions  

Relevant experience 

• Demonstrable success in working in a strategic capacity within a company/organisation or in an agency planning environment 

• Experience of identifying growth opportunities and developing business plans to secure resource/support  

• Evidence of using strategic planning tools to affect change in an organisation 

• Experience of coordination of plans and communication to ensure optimised integration and optimisation 

Specific knowledge and skills 

• Has a good understanding of marketing communications theory, and the intuition to land on the best approach to a given situation. 

• Comfortable writing high level strategic briefs, as well as identifying the data and insights needed to support them.  

• Able to support Heads of Marketing (and wider organisation) to craft strategies and knows where to look for the right approach to a specific problem. 

• Deep familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and working knowledge of when and how to apply them to a given business or communications challenge; knows how to brief internal and external researchers. 

• Ability to work across different groups and disciplines, and has sound judgment in pushing the work, elevating the ambition of communications, and supporting multidisciplinary teams to deliver outputs that are ‘on’ strategy. 

• Understands the creative process and is a valued partner to the creative teams. 

• Strategic thinking and drive with a proven ability to lead others to develop strategies 

• Strong facilitation skills to develop and drive forward strategic plans and work 

• Excellent stakeholder and programme management skills to optimise the use of resources 

• Able to build and maintain credibility and trust at all levels of the organisation