Lead External Communications & Engagement Advisor in Bradford

Hours: 9am-5pm Monday- Friday

Hybrid working 1-2 days onsite

Performance bonus

Pension scheme (Up to 10% company contribution)

Life assurance cover of 4 times pensionable salary

25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a wellness day.

Critical illness insurance

Life assurance flex and partner cover.

Colleagues also have access to a retail savings scheme, online GP service, cycle to work scheme, gym membership discounts and many more!

Position Overview

Elevation Recruitment are excited to be recruiting for a national utilities business. The communications team is dedicated to telling stories that engage and inform the right people, at the right time, in the right way. You’ll be joining our team at a critical time for the business and our industry. We have our largest ever environmental investment to deliver before 2030, and it’s our responsibility to inform and engage our customers across the region in the work that we’re doing.

Role specific

This is an exciting role within the team and comes with the opportunity to really make your mark on how we tell the story about our £8.3bn investment programme from processes, ways of working, the work we do and helping to shape the future of communications and engagement. You will support in leading and driving the highest quality of work, whilst helping craft our company’s narrative and planning the delivery of communications around our infrastructure programme. There will be a requirement to be involved in the full range of communication and engagement activity; from supporting the team to build communications plans for our capital schemes, laddering all the schemes up into a marketing campaign that explains all the work we’re doing, meeting stakeholders, creating reports to measure success, and provide expert advice.

Brand responsibilities

• Manage members of the team to be their best, helping them grow and develop their skills.
• Develop and drive the comms and engagement strategy for our capital programme, maximising all brand touchpoints with customers to drive understanding of value for money.
• Drive the creation of compelling content, oversee the delivery of our engagement strategy, bringing out the best of the team when it comes to reporting and insights from our communications.
• Be a key support in managing workloads and priorities for the team.
• Work closely with the leadership team on building and delivering our company narrative.
• You’ll help us stay focused, work collaboratively, make sure we stay on plan and report our successes and challenges.
• Be an advocate of our brand and of what we do in the team, working with senior stakeholders from across all areas of the business.
• Manage our marketing campaign to support us to tell the story about why we’re investing in infrastructure.
• Manage our events support and ensure the health and safety of all colleagues of the team when they’re out in communities.

Skills and Qualifications

• Previous communications experience at a mid-to-senior level is essential.
• Excellent writing skills, using simple and clear language that colleagues will understand.
• You will have the ability to make complex information easily understood in both your work and others.
• Experience in leading a team in doing great things and have a passion for all things creative and with it.
• A proven track record in managing and developing a team to be their best and deliver amazing work.
• High standards of communication, bringing fresh ideas to the team and wider business.
• Highly organised and able to work on your own initiative, you will be able to manage your work priorities and time effectively.
• Effective interpersonal skills and able to build up good working relationships with a range of stakeholders from all levels of the business.
• Excellent influencing skills and be able to provide best practice advice and guidance on all internal communications matters.
• Previous experience in planning successful communications and engagement campaigns, helping us drive business outcomes across multiple channels.
• Excellent IT skills, in particular using Microsoft Office packages – Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint and Word and Adobe Creative software or similarly experienced in using other creative channels.
• Experienced in event creation/management.
• Previous experience in copywriting, proof reading, event management (in-person) or technical experience in relation to aspects of communication & engagement activity e.g. video (filming and editing), event management, channel and content development (intranets, magazines, briefings etc) would be desirable. Although, full training will be provided.