Communication Planning, Impact and Evaluation Manager in London

Location: London

Job Type: Permanent, hybrid working with 3 days in the office

Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role: This new role in our Communications and Marketing team will lead LifeArc’s integrated communications planning as well as insight, evaluation and learning across the Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs function. The role brings clarity, structure and evidence‑based decision making to an increasingly complex and high‑volume communications environment. It ensures communications activity is well‑planned, prioritised and aligned to corporate goals, while also being informed by insight, evaluated for impact, and continuously improved. The postholder will act as a strategic partner to senior leaders, supporting confident choices about where to focus effort, how to sequence activity, and how communications contribute to LifeArc’s mission, reputation and influence.

About you:

• Key responsibilities include:
• Integrated communications planning
• Owning and maintaining LifeArc’s integrated communications plan, bringing together corporate, policy, marketing, internal, external, digital and events activity into a single, prioritised view aligned to organisational goals.
• Working closely with senior communications leads (Strategic Comms, Policy, PR & Media, Internal Comms, Marketing, Brand, Digital and Events) to agree priorities, dependencies, risks and delivery trade‑offs.
• Translating corporate strategy, annual goals and executive priorities into clear communications plans, cycles and milestones.
• Acting as the central coordination point for forward planning, horizon scanning and sequencing of activity, balancing ambition with available capacity and capability.
• Providing clear visibility to the Chief Communications Officer and senior stakeholders on upcoming activity, pressure points, resourcing constraints and implications for decision‑making.
• Insight, evaluation and learning
• Leading a practical and proportionate approach to communications insight and evaluation across the function.
• Defining success measures for major communications activity, campaigns and organisational moments, ensuring evaluation is built in from the outset.
• Using performance data, insight, feedback and lessons learned to assess effectiveness and inform planning and prioritisation.
• Translating insight and evaluation into clear recommendations that strengthen impact, focus and value.
• Supporting and build confidence across the team in using insight and evaluation to improve communications effectiveness.
• Strategic support and ways of working
• Acting as a trusted adviser to senior stakeholders on planning, sequencing, impact and evidence‑based decision‑making.
• Supporting planning around major moments such as campaigns, events, announcements, policy interventions and organisational change, ensuring communications are timely, coherent and joined‑up.
• Developing and embedding consistent planning, insight and evaluation tools and ways of working that improve efficiency, reduce duplication and support collaboration.
• Contributing to the continuous improvement of how the Communications & Marketing function operates, helping the team work with greater clarity, confidence and focus.
• Working relationships and scope
• Regularly working with Heads of Communications disciplines, senior managers, project leads and Business Support.
• Advising and supporting senior stakeholders, including the Chief Communications Officer, on planning, prioritisation, impact and sequencing of communications activity.

Essential experience required:

• Extensive demonstrable experience of communications planning, programme planning or campaign coordination within a complex organisation.
• Track record of working in a high performing, fast paced communications team.
• Experience using insight, performance data or evaluation to inform planning, prioritisation or improvement.
• Proven ability to manage multiple, competing priorities and bring structure and clarity to high‑volume workloads.
• Experience working with senior stakeholders to agree priorities, timelines and delivery trade‑offs.
• Demonstrable understanding of how different communications disciplines (internal, external, policy, marketing, events and digital) work together to deliver impact.
• Experience working in a mission‑driven, research, charity, public or policy‑adjacent organisation.
• Experience operating within, or supporting delivery of, a corporate or organisational strategy framework.
• Familiarity with evaluating communications activity and translating learning into practical change.

Education:

• Relevant degree or equivalent professional experience in communications, marketing, project planning or a related field (desirable).
• No formal qualification is essential if equivalent experience can be demonstrated.

Skills & abilities:

• Strategic planning and prioritisation
• Strong organisational and coordination skills
• Stakeholder management and influencing
• Clear and confident communication
• Analytical thinking and judgement
• Collaborative, solutions focused approach
• Ability to work with ambiguity

About us: LifeArc is a not-for-profit life science organisation, leading the way for change in rare diseases in the UK and supporting promising initiatives in global health. We seek out research in areas of unmet need that has great potential, providing support to help it become breakthroughs that change lives.

What we can offer you: Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of ‘putting patients at the centre of everything we do’.

LifeArc is committed to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible and developing a culture that values differences. As a Disability Confident Employer, we guarantee an interview to candidates with a disability or long‑term health condition who meet the essential criteria for the role. Please note that in certain situations, such as high volumes of applications, it may not be practical to interview all eligible candidates. In these cases, we may need to select those who best meet the essential criteria.

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles. We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.