Communications Manager

  

Tes believes in the power of great teaching. We support and connect teachers and schools worldwide, helping them improve children’s lives through education. We are a prominent and highly respected organisation in global education and one of the most recognised brands among UK teachers, school leaders and education stakeholders. Built out of the 100-year heritage of the Times Educational Supplement, today we are a digital business with over 11 million educators in a worldwide community. We are developing a growing platform of innovative digital products and services to help schools develop their workforce and teachers develop their practice and pursue successful careers.

Key responsibilities

In this role, you will be responsible for day to day external communications primarily through a series of exciting, high profile projects that demonstrate our commitment to our mission. Working closely with the Head of Communications, you will be comfortable building relationships with key stakeholders across Tes, including colleagues in marketing, digital product development, industry intelligence and data, and editorial. You will thrive in a busy environment with multiple internal and external stakeholders and will manage a pipeline of stories generated by developments and achievements in our core mission programme. You will also oversee the use of the pipeline for internal communications, with day to day responsibility for this held by the internal communications manager.

You will:

· Be a key point of contact for external stakeholders including the media, the Department for Education, education unions and other stakeholders such as think tanks, partner schools or school groups and commercial partners

· Offer leadership over each of our core mission projects each year, ensuring their delivery against agreed milestones

· Develop and manage an annual communications plan that turns our mission activity into an exciting narrative that can be told both internally and externally

· Contribute to content such as white papers, blog posts, speeches, data-led reports or press releases to communicate our mission activity to the media and the wider Tes community (via email, social media, editorial etc.)

· Work closely with our brand, advertising and sponsorship team to develop creative proposals with commercial partners including charities, businesses, government departments and public sector bodies who wish to engage with the teaching profession 

As a result of your work, we will build a strong narrative around key communications moments that demonstrates our commitment to our mission, builds confidence and trust in our brand and creates excitement about the difference we can make, both domestically and internationally.

Person specification

You will have experience of working in education or the public or third sectors and will be motivated by the positive difference education can make to children’s lives. You will be a team player, who has the experience and initiative required to drive strategic projects over the course of years, not just months. You will bring strong project management as well as creative, collaborative and communication skills and be confident in your ability to sell ideas and generate excitement in projects. You will have the confidence to build affinity with colleagues in different teams across Tes, including product design and development, data and strategy, marketing and editorial. You will be comfortable developing concepts and projects that encompass the full range of communications disciplines, from public affairs, media relations and event management, to social media, video and content programmes.

You will have experience of:

· public affairs, policy development or the media

· communications planning and project management

· external or internal communications planning and execution

· digital communications including social media strategy and email marketing

· public speaking or another form of public presentation

· creative proposal development and communications planning

· external agency management

It will help if you have a good working knowledge of a number of different related disciplines:

· Public affairs

· Media relations

· Market research and analysis

· Project management

· Events management

· Executive communications and speech writing

· Social media strategy

· Email marketing

· Internal communications

You will have a prominent role within a small but highly skilled and well-connected team to deliver strategically important outcomes. You will be comfortable communicating the ongoing work of the team with colleagues across the Tes business, including the Chief Executive and the senior leadership team.