Summary

We are the public body that looks after England’s historic environment. We champion historic places, helping people understand, value and care for them.

Historic England have a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Head of Media, where you will be overseeing and generating Historic England’s presence in media. You will help shape the direction of Historic England’s communications, ensuring our vision and mission are well-understood, building widespread support and engagement with Historic England. You will lead the media strategy and the Media Managers to drive up interest and engagement in the work of Historic England among opinion-formers and the interested public. Working closely with other heads of team you will ensure that our brand continues to grow and gain positive recognition among key audiences and that we are in a two-way conversation with them about the future of the historic environment and how everyone can help to protect it. You will ensure that our approach to engagement encourages Active Participation, is inclusive and supports our corporate priorities.

This is a fixed term contract up to 12 months.

What you will be doing

Strategy

To create and execute a media strategy as part of our wider engagement approach, that supports Historic England’s corporate objectives.

To assist with the work of the Communications Director to ensure that Historic England’s vision and mission is well-understood and supported in society.

Leadership

To lead a team of media professionals to work across print and broadcast to maximise uptake of Historic England stories and coverage of our work.

To ensure the Chief Executive and other senior staff are media trained and well supported in their dealings with the media.

To advise the Chief Executive and senior staff on how Historic England should handle media issues.

To run the Historic England press office. The team will focus on driving up HE’s presence in the mainstream and specialist media and will integrate its approach to on and offline media, mirroring the way that news organisations are doing this. It will respond to the day’s news agenda; it will plan media work that supports engagement in HE campaigns and uptake of HE stories. It will focus on developing relationships with key journalists and opinion-formers.

Use the Historic England Public Value Framework to achieve and demonstrate maximum impact for campaigns across audiences.

Delivery

To respond to sensitive stories that may put the organisation’s reputation at stake, and to manage issues and crises sensitively and professionally.

To identify and agree key media targets for long-term campaigns and smaller, one-off stories, ensuring Historic England’s media presence grows and our stories and campaigns reach key audiences.

To manage and promote evaluation of our outcomes against agreed targets. Success will be measured in news coverage and in external engagement in HE campaigns.

To work with the Head of Regional Public Engagement, Head of Participation Programmes, Head of Content and Head of Marketing to develop and oversee campaign plans, materials and evaluation, to ensure maximum take-up in the media.

To develop insights to improve uptake of our stories and drive public and specialist engagement in our campaigns, so that we have a cycle of continuous improvement.

To develop partnerships and responsive relationships with strategically important titles and platforms, to support particular aspects of HE’s work.

To develop partnerships with other important organisations in culture and heritage and beyond, and work together to achieve shared objectives through media work.

To help the team prioritise time and input into stories.

To make full use of the Government Communications Service to bring best practice to Historic England, and to be alert to best practice in the outside world, bringing new ideas and methods as the media world changes and develops.

Cross-Group working

Participate in cross-Group projects which support corporate priorities and take a lead where appropriate in such projects.

Develop knowledge and understanding of all the areas of work undertaken by the group to offer an integrated service to internal and external customers.

Develop internal and external networks and partnerships to further the mission of HE.

Management

As a manager, ensure Historic England’s legal obligations are met within the postholder’s areas of responsibility, including in relation to media law, health and safety, equality and diversity, finance and data security, and people management.

Who we are looking for

• Proven experience of effectively leading and managing a team

• Experience of working with print, broadcast, digital and social media to deliver an organisation’s aims.

• Ability to grasp issues quickly and deal effectively with complex situations, and simplify them for others

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Proven experience of recognising risk and calculating and advising on risks in relation to media opportunities.

We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having just won the Gold Award from MIND, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.

We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.

We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.

Why work for Historic England

We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive pension scheme starting at 28% contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.

We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.

Historic England want all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at recruitmentTeam@Historicengland.org.uk if you have any recruitment queries. 

To ensure a fair and inclusive recruitment process for everyone the use of AI or automated tools is not permitted.

Interview dates: 1st July 2024 - MS Teams

Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –

https://historicengland.org.uk/media/2h0ll0kk/head-of-media.odt