Communications Manager

Overview

Whether you’re talking about length, mass, time, temperature, electric current, amount or the brightness of light, the National Physical Laboratory sets the standards by which these things are all measured. It means we’ve got a lot of great news to share. As our Communications Manager, you’ll manage our corporate communications, including all external content and digital channels, so that we engage with different audiences, strengthening our reputation with customers and the general public.

Your communications need to connect with your audience, reflect best-practice, be on brand and be executed to the highest quality, on time and within budget. You will also take on the day-to-day management of the team, carrying out their reviews and helping them fulfil their potential. At NPL, we touch ordinary lives in extraordinary ways, and you could too.

About You

A communications expert, you ideally have experience of working on corporate communications. Highly organised, creative and with an eye for detail, you understand audiences and know how to produce engaging materials. You’re also used to motivating a team, you have good communication skills and you are results-driven. Beyond that, we’re looking for someone who’ll thrive in an environment like ours. At NPL we learn from each other, respect each other and work together to do better. For ourselves and for our customers. And while we’re always looking to stretch beyond what we know, we don’t make things more complicated when there’s no need.

Key responsibilities

• To act as the Corporate Communications deputy, supporting the Corporate Communications Leader to maintain the reputation and profile of NPL externally.
• To raise the profile of NPL to external stakeholders, including but not limited to: NMIs, peers, collaborators, students, industry, policymakers and influencers through external content and communications, enhancing NPL’s brand.
• To lead a team responsible for promoting the impact of NPL, raising our profile and ensuring we always put at the forefront of our communications who we are and what we do, and why you need to know.
• Develop a planned content and communications strategy, including thought leadership, to present NPL externally in a thoughtful, clear and engaging way.
• To be a brand guardian and representative internally, becoming the go-to person for brand related questions, as well as monitoring and reporting on brand awareness and to show how our brand perception is increasing/decreasing.
• Copy edit content efficiently, to deadline and to a high standard.
• Write engaging content for different audiences, including scientists, different industries and the general public.
• Be confident working with subject matter experts and senior stakeholders to obtain the information you need for different content types, through a combination of speaking to them and researching the topic.
• Ensure our brand, tone of voice and style guide are understood by our employees, and they know how to use it externally.
• Lead on ensuring material is in line with existing guidance.
• Work towards a content strategy that raises our profile and showcases our science and services, looking at where and how we engage different audiences using great multi-channel content.
• Be the go-to person for what ‘good’ looks like and how it can be used to position us against our objectives, working with the wider marketing and communications team to get strong content out externally.
• Lead a high performing team of content and communications specialists, setting objectives and managing performance, as well as providing steer and direction on deliverables.
• Providing insight and experience to the wider team across different communications outputs including social media, PR and writing for the web, bringing skills and understanding of audience insight and SEO to make our content stand out from our peers.
• Manage and optimise processes to streamline the delivery of content across channels to different audiences.
• Oversee the communications content calendar and delivery of content against campaign deadlines.
• Manage reporting of content and digital performance across external channels, iterating the strategy to grow audience and increase leads.
• Responsible for taking reasonable duty of care for Health & Safety of themselves and of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work and always follow direct instructions given with regards to Health & Safety.

This is a fixed term contract opportunity (up to 12 months) based at NPL in Teddington, with hybrid working you'll be based on-site twice per week.

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in specific departments means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitment process. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance.

Please note: Applications will be reviewed, and interviews conducted throughout the duration of this advert therefore we may at any time bring the closing date forward. We encourage all interested applicants to apply as soon as practical.