Communications & Engagement Officer in London

Reports to: Senior Communications Manager

Location: Contracted to Breaking Barriers’ office in London, with some expectation of travel

Terms: 22.5 hours per week over 3 or 4 days – open to flexible working arrangements

Contract: Permanent

Salary: £30,500 - £33,500 (inclusive of London weighting), pro-rata

Purpose of the Role

The Communications & Engagement Officer is a key role within Breaking Barriers’ Income and Engagement Directorate. It helps refugees find meaningful employment through communications and fundraising activities that maintain and grow relationships with partners, funders, supporters and relevant influential organisations and individuals. The post holder reports to the Senior Communications Manager, and works closely with the Head of Public Engagement, Senior Digital Marketing Manager and Fundraising & Partnerships Officer. They also lead or participate in activities involving colleagues across Breaking Barriers’ teams and our refugee clients. This role contributes to the implementation of our communications, engagement and fundraising strategies, and is closely involved in team planning – including input into operational plans and communications campaigns to steward and inspire key audiences.

The Communications & Engagement Officer is responsible for the planning and creation of day-to-day communications across our owned channels, with a particular focus on social media. They are also responsible for managing social media interactions and outreach, and for creating selected content for Breaking Barriers’ website. The post holder helps the Senior Communications Manager to ensure that organisational content complies with brand guidelines. And they play a key role in data management – maintaining our multi-media asset bank and the storytelling data within our Salesforce CRM. This role will suit a team player who is able to build strong relationships across Breaking Barriers to support content creation, ethical storytelling and impact. The post-holder should be comfortable in a fast-paced environment, solution-focused and creative, whilst having a good eye for detail. And, of course, they should have a passion for stewarding, inspiring and mobilising audiences through high-quality, engaging communications.

Key Responsibilities

• Communications planning and delivery (60%)
  • Work with the Senior Communications Manager to manage the communications calendar.
  • Collaborate with colleagues across Breaking Barriers, especially the Income & Engagement and Services teams, to source content that reaches, engages, stewards our key audiences – including partners, funders and individual supporters.
  • Plan, create and schedule written and multi-media (graphics, videos, photos) content on social media platforms.
  • Plan and create or coordinate longer-form content, including case studies, articles and blogs.
  • Contribute to the delivery of integrated communications campaigns that support income generation, brand awareness and positioning amongst key audiences.
  • Support the continual improvement of our communications by monitoring and evaluating their own work and implementing recommendations.
  • Support the development of communications, engagement and fundraising strategies and input into team planning.
• Community and supporter engagement (30%)
  • Manage and engage with our organic social media communities.
  • Pro-actively engage with relevant organisations and individuals via social media, in line with agreed strategies.
  • Help develop and manage our growing community of storytellers with lived experience of life as a refugee.
• Other responsibilities (10%)
  • Update storytelling data in the Salesforce CRM, and undertake other administrative tasks.
  • Take responsibility for maintaining Breaking Barriers’ asset bank of photographs, videos and graphics.
  • Advise and support colleagues on compliance with brand guidelines, and create brand resources.
  • Represent the Public Engagement team at selected events, including photographing or filming key moments and activities.
  • Support other teams with ad-hoc requests for communications support.
  • Take a proactive approach to professional development.
  • Take on other marketing and communications tasks as required.

Person Specification

Essential

• Demonstrable knowledge of and/or interest in refugee, employment or migration sectors
• Experience in a communications or fundraising role (this doesn't have to be in the UK)
• A demonstrable understanding of key communications and fundraising principles, whether through direct experience or study, and including:
• Understanding audiences
• User journeys
• Developing key messaging
• Audience stewardship
• Working with brand guidelines
• Experience of creating high quality campaigns or content to inspire or drive action
• Experience creating written and multi-media (photography/graphics/video) content for social media, websites and/or emails
• Strong copywriting, editing and proofing skills, and the ability to tailor content for different audiences and channels
• Excellent relationship-building skills, and confidence working with colleagues at all levels of seniority
• Ability to work on own initiative, take responsibility for work, and learn from challenges and successes
• A proactive and creative approach to problem solving and idea generation
• Comfortable within a fast-paced team and able to prioritise multiple projects
• Ability to pay close attention to detail, to maintain communications quality and accuracy
• Experience with administrative, team communication and workload management applications, preferably including the Microsoft Office 365 suite.
• Experience with one or more of the following:
• Design tools such as Canva
• Photography and film editing
• Website CMS software
• Email broadcast platforms
• Social media scheduling platforms

Desirable

• Lived Experience of Breaking Barriers’ cause
• Experience using Salesforce, or another CRM system
• Knowledge of GDPR and data protection principles as they apply to communications and fundraising
• Experience of monitoring and evaluating communications or fundraising activities

Other considerations:

• Breaking Barriers is committed to protecting an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect and for their views, wishes and beliefs to be fully taken into account when deciding action.
• We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, marriage and civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief.
• Breaking Barriers particularly welcomes applicants with experience of seeking asylum and/or a refugee background.
• As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we are committed to offering an accessible recruitment process and guarantee an interview to all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for the role.