Overall Purpose of the role 

You will lead and deliver Arts Council England’s communications around Music, working with the national Music and Advocacy and Communications teams to communicate information about the work of the national Music team and related investment and other opportunities including Arts Council England’s delivery of DCMS’ Music Growth Package scheme, the Supporting Grassroots Music programme and other initiatives.

Arts Council England is responsible for delivering the Music Growth Package (MGP) on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The Arts Council will facilitate DCMS investment of up to £10 million pa over the next three years in a spectrum of music industry organisations, artists and industry professionals to help sustain and grow the sector in line with the objectives of the Creative Industries Sector Plan.

This work builds on Arts Council’s extensive existing investment in Music across programmes including the National Portfolio, National Lottery Project Grants, Develop Your Creative Practice and a range of other sector development investment initiatives.

You will work across two teams: based in the national Music team, you will also work very closely with colleagues in the advocacy and communication team, drawing on expertise from colleagues who lead on different comms specialisms including media, social media, public affairs and internal comms.

The main purpose of this role is to lead and deliver impactful, strategic communication for different audiences, including a broad range of prospective applicants from across all elements of the music sector, as well as with stakeholders from freelance artists to sector bodies, media and other stakeholders; and providing sound communication advice to colleagues as delivery of the Music Growth Package progresses.

Acting as a champion for accessible content and plain English, you will support the team in developing information and guidance. You will also lead on producing advocacy content for Music Growth Package delivery, and the wider benefits of Arts Council’s music investment work nationally and internationally. Working with grantees to create compelling content, the assets you develop will support and showcase investment impact and strengthen Arts Council’s engagement with both current stakeholders and new audiences.

You will create communications and engagement plans, using a mix of channels to cut through to your audiences. You’ll have a focus on developing clear messaging and narrative that gets our story across in a way that cuts through. You will also build in evaluation measures to your work to make sure you can assess and report on your impact.

The successful applicant will have strong project management and personal communication skills and will comfortable working effectively with senior colleagues in a complex, fast-paced environment to develop an effective strategy to clearly communicate the work we do across the full range of music genres, geographies and other priorities in which we invest.

Main day to day responsibilities 

  If thinking strategically, championing the use of creativity in your work and others’, and simultaneous working across multiple interesting projects excites you, then you could be the person we’re looking for. You will put your personal communication, prioritisation and problem-solving skills to good use.  

We’re looking for someone who can deliver the following on a day-to-day basis: 

• Work with national Music and communication management colleagues to develop and implement a strategy for music communication: connecting to the Arts Council’s wider work and helping colleagues to make the most of existing opportunities.   

• Provide advice for colleagues across different departments and at all levels. Your proactive ideas will shape projects from the start – from the best way to engage our audiences with new information, to how best to share information with our staff. Reactively, you can also be relied on when issues arise, helping us set the best course of action across multiple channels, including web, social, email, media and internally.  

• Develop, manage and implement communication tasks and campaigns, of different scales, with creativity, precision, and enthusiasm. You will be skilled at measuring and reporting on impact. Whether promoting a research report or a fund deadline, or setting out a web content strategy or feeding into a media release, we need someone who can work with multiple colleagues and suppliers to get the best from them – on time and on budget – so our proactive communication excites audiences and gets results.  

• Ensure and manage the contributions from others in a matrix working setting (i.e. managing input from colleagues in other teams, for the projects you lead), including the Music Growth Package Project Group and Advocacy and Communications team. You will champion your own work and projects and connect dots/seek opportunities between two very busy teams, helping us all get the results we need.  

• Use your own skills and knowledge to translate complicated information into effective communication – with a deep understanding of the marketing mix, and other elements of communication, to drive complex communication projects both in short bursts and over longer periods.  

• Your curiosity and interest will bring new ideas and perspectives to the team.  

Key relationships 

  This role will work with lots of stakeholders, external as well as internal: these relationships are important and will need to be managed closely. At the Arts Council they include our executive board and chair, directors, and other senior leaders. Externally, they include music industry sector bodies, the Music Growth Package Advisory Group, as well as music businesses, freelance artists and bands, and government partners such as MPs and the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport (DCMS).  

Organisationally, we operate as a fully interconnected structure and you will be expected to work in an environment that relies on collaboration, flexibility and the ability to manage both formal and informal reporting relationships. The role also involves managing others, at different levels, in a matrix way of working (for example, leading a project across different teams within the wider communication family).  

This role doesn’t have direct budget responsibility, but it will be required to track, approve, and account for spend as needed.  

Essential (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviours) 

• You will have strong writing and editorial skills, and the ability to exercise sound judgement.  Experience of communicating to music sector audiences and/or stakeholders would be highly desirable.

• You will have knowledge of developing and executing communication strategies, from responding to organisational priorities, to establishing audiences and from devising content to evaluation.  

• You will have significant knowledge of developing, using and managing a range of communication channels and platforms (web content management systems social media, e-marketing systems, and internal channels), along with sound knowledge of stakeholder development, public affairs and/or media handling. (NB enabling effective use of social media communication channels will be a key priority within the role to support the national Music team’s focus on reaching new music sector audiences.)

• You will have specific experience of project managing complex campaigns or projects e.g. commissioning a new website, and working with external partners as required; or leading a communication project with a number of different stakeholders. 

• You will be skilled at managing stakeholders (examples of which are listed above), and comfortable working with colleagues to map and manage interaction with key stakeholders to further our work – for example MPs or music industry leaders.  

• You will have experience of commissioning work from external organisations and agencies and leading these relationships.  

• You will be digitally fluent and adept at using digital tools to work in a hybrid, collaborative environment.  

• You will be comfortable in working under pressure and managing difficult situations to a successful outcome and providing sound advice to stakeholders. Your judgement on communication risk will be sound.   

• You will be able to demonstrate experience working in, and a passion for, music. Though this experience may be rooted in any genre music or element of the music industry, you will be able to demonstrate understanding of the differing needs of different elements of the sector.  

• You will have experience in managing budgets and delivering value for money.  

• Finally, you will also have a good understanding of the Arts Council’s duty as a public body under current diversity legislation, the current diversity agenda and its relationship to arts and culture. 

Desirable (Skills, Knowledge and Behaviours)

• You will bring a breadth of perspective on the wider music education and/or arts sector to the table. This sector knowledge will help inform decision-making within the organisation, from communication approaches, to understanding the challenges the sectors face.  

We are a Disability Confident Employer and we participate in the ‘Offer an Interview’ scheme, which means that we offer an interview to any disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria for the role they’re applying to, subject to the volume of applications received. Disabled candidates, those living with a long-term condition and/ or neurodivergent candidates may be eligible for this scheme.

Our Code of Ethics requires that employees of the Arts Council are not able to receive an Arts Council grant, investment or loan funding - either in person, as a member of a partnership, or for any organisation they own. There are also limitations on board or CEO positions employees can hold in organisations we fund. For more information on this, please talk to the recruiting manager or contact recruitment@artscouncil.org.uk

1st Interview: (Virtual) 09 and 10 February 2026

2nd Interview: (In-person) 23 and 24 February 2026