Climate Outreach is seeking a Communications Lead for a 12 month maternity cover. 

The successful candidate will be an experienced communications professional with demonstrable experience of delivering a range of communications activities to target audiences, in order to meet strategic objectives. 

The role will involve helping to make the case for public engagement in climate change, maximising the impact and reach of our work with target audiences, and raising the profile of Climate Outreach.

Key to success in this role will be the ability to understand why our work is important and how to strategically communicate it in a clear, compelling and impactful manner; the confidence to represent Climate Outreach at a strategic level; a commitment to producing high quality work; the flexibility to respond to changing circumstances and competing priorities in a fast-paced environment; and excellent attention to detail.

This is a particularly exciting time to be joining Climate Outreach: next year is our 20th year and we will be rolling out a new organisational strategy. The Communications Lead will be responsible, with support from the Leadership team, for developing and delivering a new communications strategy aligned with our new organisational strategy. 

You will work strategically with the Leadership Team, line manage the Communications Coordinator, collaborate with other teams within Climate Outreach and liaise with a range of external stakeholders. 

This will be a highly stimulating and enjoyable job with many opportunities to contribute your expertise and develop new skills, through a feminist and anti-colonial approach to our work. You’ll be working alongside passionate and supportive colleagues in a rewarding environment to build a mandate for climate action - creating a society in which the majority of people support climate action. 

Climate change affects everyone and to create a social mandate for climate action we need representatives from across society to be part of the conversation. Therefore at Climate Outreach we maintain a non-partisan approach on policy and politics. 

Please note that this job requires residence, and the right to work, in the UK.

Your key responsibilities:

Communication responsibilities

• Working with the Leadership team, develop and deliver a new communications strategy and plan, based on the new organisational strategy

• Develop and manage our organisational brand, based on our new organisational strategy

• Lead our media work, including proactively identifying media opportunities, writing articles and press releases, liaising with journalists, responding to press enquiries etc

• Oversee all of our external communications, including providing communications support and sign off for new content eg reports, generating creative ideas to maximise reach

• Represent the organisation externally through presentations, writing and other related activities

• Liaise with relevant stakeholders and external clients, managing relationships with them

• Produce the organisational newsletter, with support from Communications Coordinator

• Oversee the organisation’s website management and development

• Oversee the organisation's social media management and development

• Produce marketing materials as needed 

• Support fundraising efforts through helping to promote funder events, producing marketing materials, etc 

• Keep a watching brief on communications trends to identify opportunities for the organisation, and keep colleagues informed of important developments

• Manage the Communications budget 

• Undertake any other reasonable duties related to the position as necessary, in particular picking up some of the Communications Coordinator’s responsibilities when they are on leave (eg website updates, social media channels) 

Line management and working culture

• Provide people-centred line management for line managee(s)

• Support line managee(s) to celebrate their achievements, be recognised within the organisation and grow, through line management, coaching and training. 

• Work closely with the management team to foster a culture of allyship and wellbeing in the department.

• Demonstrate and role model organised, accountable and integrated working practices.

• Foster a reflective team that ensures Climate Outreach is continually learning, updating and growing to deliver the most relevant and impactful work

Climate Outreach works with partners and contractors located in different time-zones. Therefore the post-holder may be asked to travel or work outside of core hours to support project delivery. 

The role needs these skills

• Strategic skills: ability to plan communications calendar and activities in a way that maximises impact as per our organisational strategy

• Written and verbal communication skills, especially for public facing work

• Media skills: ability to identify media opportunities, write compelling articles, press releases and comments for the media, respond to press enquiries

• Creative skills: ability to generate ideas with project teams and think outside the box when designing communications activities

• Brand management skills: ability to champion, protect and develop our brand in a way that is aligned with our values and organisational strategy

• Public speaking skills and in particular media spokesperson and presentation skills

• Networking / relationship management skills, in particular with journalists

• Monitoring and evaluation skills: ability to assess, learn from and report on projects

• Analytical skills, in particular audience insight skills ie an ability to understand our audiences and how to best reach them

• Marketing skills: ability to support the organisation in selling its services to clients eg via marketing materials 

• Quality assurance skills: excellent attention to detail when providing comms sign off of new resources and creating accompanying messaging

• Line management and people development skills, or a willingness to learn

• Committed to personal professional development

• Interest in building public engagement with climate change and a commitment to the values of Climate Outreach

How to apply

To get started, pop your email on the top right of this page.

You’ll answer 4 competancy-based questions that are related to the role. You will also be asked to upload your CV. The deadline to submit your application is 9am, 2nd October 2023.

After the job closes, your answers will go through our sift process: all answers will be anonymised, randomised and then reviewed by a panel of reviewers.

If you are shortlisted, we’ll invite you to the next step, which includes an in-person interview at our office in Oxford on Monday 9th October.

Also, we love giving feedback, so at the end of the application process we'll share how well you performed.

If you have any additional questions about the job or recruiting process, please contact us by emailing recruitment@climateoutreach.org.

We are an equal opportunities employer

Climate Outreach is committed to providing equal employment opportunity in all of its employment programs and decisions. We recognise that a diverse and inclusive movement is critical to solving climate change and that we must ensure that those directly impacted – particularly those who have been excluded in the past – are at the centre of the movement for change. 

We do our best to make staff positions accessible to all potential team members, regardless of race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, assigned gender, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation or identity, religion or creed, veteran status, and marital or parental status. We strive to recruit team members from communities most impacted by climate change or impacted by other kinds of environmental, social, and economic injustice. We therefore strongly encourage applications from people of colour, women, LGBTQ people and members of marginalised communities. Climate Outreach Oxford Office is wheelchair accessible.

If you are invited to interview for the position, do let us know if you would like any carer's costs that you incurred due to attending this interview to be reimbursed.