Communication and Design Officer in Cardiff

Looking to build your portfolio and gain real-world experience in communications and design? We’re offering a short-term, flexible opportunity to work with CASCADE (Children’s Social Care Research and Development Centre) at Cardiff University. This role is ideal for a student interested in design, communications, or marketing, and will give you hands-on experience contributing to a professional publication.

You’ll play a key role in supporting the development of our Annual Report, working with real content, shaping how it’s presented, and producing a polished, high-quality output. Along the way, you’ll hone practical skills in document design, branding, and content formatting.

About CASCADE: CASCADE is a leading children’s social care research centre based within the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. Our work aims to improve the well-being, safety and rights of children and their families, across areas such as family support, child protection, care experience, and adoption. A key part of our work is ensuring that research reaches the people who can use it, policy makers, practitioners, and wider stakeholders. We work closely with partners across Wales and beyond to share evidence, inform practice, and support positive change in social care.

Job Purpose: To provide practical communications and design support to CASCADE, with a primary focus on supporting the development of the CASCADE Annual Report. The post-holder will work closely with the Publicity and Engagement Manager to collate, organise and format content from across the centre, transforming it into a clear, engaging and visually consistent publication. This will include applying branding, supporting layout design, and ensuring a high standard of presentation. The role will also contribute to wider communications activity where needed, offering the opportunity to gain experience in research dissemination, digital content, and professional communications processes. This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working on campus you can also choose to spend some time working from another location, e.g. your home (UK based).

Key Duties:

• Support the development of the CASCADE Annual Report, including:

• Collating and organising content from multiple contributors
• Formatting and editing text for clarity and consistency
• Designing layouts using Canva, InDesign, or similar tools

• Creating simple graphics or formatted content
• Supporting content preparation for web or social media

General Duties:

• Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties.
• Work collaboratively as part of a small team, contributing positively to a supportive working environment
• Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality and Diversity.
• Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.

Person Specification:

• Practical experience of using design tools such as Canva, InDesign, or similar
• Experience of document formatting and layout design (e.g. reports, presentations, marketing materials)
• Strong attention to detail, particularly in written and visual content
• Understanding of brand consistency and ability to apply this in practice
• Ability to manage time effectively and work to deadlines
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Ability to solve problems using initiative and creativity; respond to queries and make recommendations, identifying and proposing practical solutions.
• Interest in communications, design, marketing, or social research
• Experience creating content for digital platforms (e.g. social media or websites)
• Familiarity with Cardiff University or a research environment