Head of Communications & Marketing

London | Hybrid (3 days a week in the office)

Competitive package

An exciting, growth-focused role with a highly successful, scaling insurance brand

Middlemore has been retained by a high-growth, investor-backed specialty insurance group in the London Market to appoint its first Head of Communications & Marketing. The business has built a significant market presence through its various brands, which pairs deep underwriting expertise with analytics and Ai capability, and it is growing quickly and deliberately.

This new appointment creates a dedicated senior owner for communications and marketing for the first time. The successful candidate will start with a relatively blank sheet of paper and shape how the group presents itself to the market as it enters its next phase of growth.

Reporting to the Chief People and Communications Officer, an Executive Committee member, you will lead communications and marketing across the group and its brands. You will also work closely with the wider Executive Leadership Team and the Business Development teams. This is a highly visible, high-value role. You will work alongside some of the most respected leaders in the industry, in a business backed by private equity and fuelled by ambition - so there's lots to do and achieve!

This is a hands-on role. External agencies will support you in delivering your strategy, and in time you will be expected to build an in-house team as the business requires. You will need to think and move quickly, be commercial and creative, and thrive in a broad role that spans:

• Internal and external communications;
• PR;
• Investor relations;
• Marketing;
• Supporting the Business Development teams with market-facing collateral.

Key responsibilities

Communications strategy

• Create and deliver an external communications strategy aligned to the group's growth plans, market positioning and reputation objectives.
• Develop distinct but coherent messaging for each stakeholder group: clients, brokers, investors and capital partners, regulators, the wider market and employees.
• Plan communications for strategic milestones, new business lines, organisational change and market developments.
• Advise the Executive Leadership Team on messaging, reputation risk, market visibility and sensitive communications.

Brand, PR and agency management

• Act as the senior owner of the group's PR and brand agencies. Decide when and how each is used, set clear briefs and KPIs, assess value for money, and hold them to account against the strategy.
• Guide the brand's evolution as the business scales, ensuring a consistent tone of voice and identity across every channel and business unit.
• Shape the group's PR and media approach, including proactive profile-building, executive interviews, opinion pieces and award submissions, and prepare senior leaders for media engagement.

Market engagement and Business Development

• Partner with the Head of Business Development on broker and client engagement, industry conferences, client events and sponsorships.
• Ensure every external touchpoint reinforces the group's positioning and commercial objectives.

Thought leadership and digital

• Work with underwriting, analytics and technology specialists to turn technical expertise into accessible thought leadership, including insights, market commentary and executive content.
• Own the group's digital presence across the website, LinkedIn and email, using data to improve engagement and measure impact.

Internal communications and employer brand

• Support communications on business updates, culture and organisational change.
• Partner with the People team on employer brand and recruitment marketing.

Leadership and governance

• Build the operating rhythm, governance and budget discipline for the function as it scales.
• Make the business case for future investment, weighing headcount against agency or technology alternatives.

Background

• Solid experience leading communications and marketing at Head of or senior manager level.
• Experience in the insurance sector (highly desirable).
• Experience of managing external agencies.
• Demonstrable commercial acumen.
• Experience in brand building and brand positioning.

This role is unlikely to suit candidates whose experience is mainly in consumer marketing, internal communications alone, or narrowly digital or content roles without ownership of a broader strategy.

What's on offer

• Package: base salary of £100,000 to £120,000, plus up to 30% bonus and a full benefits package.
• Working pattern: hybrid, with three days a week in the London office.
• Exposure: direct visibility with the Executive Leadership Team from day one.
• Scope: a genuine opportunity to build the function and shape the voice of a fast-growing business.
• Development: join as the first hire in a high-growth, PE-backed organisation, with full functional ownership and an ExCo-level manager to support and develop you.

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