CHASM Communications and Impact Manager - School of Social Policy and Society - 101836 - Grade 7

Position Details

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £36,130 to £45,413 with potential progression once in post to £48,149

Grade: 7

Part Time (30 hours per week)

Fixed Term contract up to September 2027

Closing date: 18th June 2025

‘Open House’ Drop In Session: We will be holding an ‘open house’ drop in session at the University’s Exchange building, in Centenary Square, Birmingham, between 10am and 5pm on Friday 6th June 2025. If you’re interested in working at the University of Birmingham and perhaps have a few questions, this is an opportunity to meet colleagues in the Recruitment team.

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do. The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success. We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high quality subsidised day nurseries.

Background

CHASM is an interdisciplinary research centre for financial security, wellbeing and inclusion. It is hard for some people to maintain or achieve financial security and wellbeing, and the number of people struggling has been increasing in recent years. There has been a massive shift in responsibility for financial security, with Governments passing more responsibility to households to cover the costs of, for example, precarious work, becoming ill, losing a job, paying for care, and planning for retirement. At CHASM, we carry out rigorous, policy-relevant research to understand and address the disadvantages and inequalities created by this shift.

Role Summary

We are looking for a proactive individual with a track record of successfully developing and delivering impactful communications and stakeholder engagement programmes. Using your skills and experience you will help us to achieve our mission of translating our research into policy and practice, by ensuring our communications are persuasive and impactful and that our messages are heard by our stakeholders. This includes Parliamentarians, regulators, businesses and civil society.

Main Duties

• Develop a detailed knowledge of the research, impact, and engagement landscape in the Centre and the research development needs and plans of individual academics in CHASM.
• Ensure that CHASM builds on its reputation as a centre for research excellence, taking an integrated approach across media (social and traditional).
• Generate authoritative and engaging digital content.
• Develop and coordinate the production of key stakeholder communications, including reports and briefings.
• Secure media coverage.
• Work closely with the Centre Manager to develop and promote an impactful event programme.
• Develop high quality partnerships with external stakeholders.
• Undertake project management to ensure digital and communications projects run to time and cost.
• Provide hands-on support to CHASM members, for example in the form of co-producing policy briefs/blogs/media content; responding to calls for evidence and leading the collection and evaluation of impact-related metrics.
• Keep up to date with key policy and media debates relevant to the project, and where necessary explain links to project research.
• Liaise with relevant external partners regarding joint initiatives, events and exhibitions leading to improved public engagement.
• Work with CHASM members to evidence and communicate their research impact for a variety of purposes including the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
• Develop and maintain databases to monitor and evaluate the centre’s impact.
• Promote equality and values diversity, acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture.
• Support the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to Degree level (or equivalent qualifications) plus relevant practical experience.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy, with the ability to write clearly, and to produce and analyse information and data.
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010.
• Initiative – you must be a self-starter who can drive a communications campaign with limited guidance.
• Experience and skills in creating digital outputs including podcasts and videos.
• Significant experience of creating and marketing compelling narratives.
• Demonstrable experience of working with bespoke software for producing digital outputs of engaging high quality.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to co-produce, edit and draft/re-draft material effectively.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Effective negotiation and influencing skills at all levels.
• Working to agreed timelines, well-developed prioritising and organisational abilities.
• Absolute discretion and the ability to maintain confidentiality.

Desirable

• Experience of working with the press and wider media.
• Demonstrable evidence of leading and/or supporting academic research and related impact activity.
• Understanding and/or experience of the political and parliamentary process.
• Previous experience of working in a knowledge exchange or research impact environment.

Informal enquiries to Davina Weston, CHASM Centre Manager, email: d.weston.1@bham.ac.uk

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life.