Associate Director of Comms in City of London

Role Overview

This role is a 7-month paternity cover contract. The Centre for Inclusive Money is a public-benefit research and innovation centre focused on improving people's financial security. If you're a collaborative communications leader who wants to stay close to delivery while making a wider strategic impact, this is an opportunity to do both. Joining Inclusive Money on an interim basis, you'll lead our six-person communications team, evolve our communications strategy and work alongside our CEO and management team to strengthen our reputation, reach and influence.

You’ll bring creativity, clarity and momentum to a varied portfolio spanning research publications, campaigns, digital and social content, media relations, public affairs and events. You’ll help turn complex evidence into compelling, accessible communications, build strong relationships with policy, industry and funding audiences, and create the conditions for colleagues across the organisation to communicate brilliantly. We welcome applications from people looking to step into a broader leadership role, as well as established communications leaders seeking a purposeful, hands-on opportunity.

Essential skills and experience

• Strategic communications leadership - Significant experience of developing and delivering an integrated communications strategy across relevant disciplines, such as stakeholder engagement, digital and social communications, events, public affairs, media relations and corporate communications.
• Delivery of high-impact communications - A strong track record of personally leading complex communications campaigns or programmes involving multiple projects, partners or stakeholders, with evidence of delivering to agreed objectives, timescales and budgets. This should include experience of publishing high-quality research, policy or insight-led content and delivering events of differing scale and ambition.
• People and team leadership - Experience of leading and developing a communications team, including setting priorities, maintaining high standards, managing competing demands and creating a supportive, inclusive and collaborative working culture.
• Exceptional written communication and editorial judgement - Demonstrable ability to turn complex technical, research or policy material into clear and compelling content for different audiences, alongside strong editing and quality-assurance skills. You'll understand how to adapt longer reports and shorter-form content for policy, industry and non-technical audiences.
• Audience engagement and senior stakeholder capability - Experience of building credible relationships with senior stakeholders and advising senior colleagues, combined with sound judgement in stakeholder engagement, public affairs and reputation management. You'll also understand how to use digital and social channels to extend the reach and impact of research and events.
• Relevant subject-matter capability and commitment - Knowledge of pensions, financial wellbeing, household finances or a related public-policy field, or convincing evidence of becoming effective quickly in a complex technical or regulated area. You'll also share our commitment to inclusive and accessible communications and our public-benefit purpose.

Flexible and agile working

Everyone's personal situation is different. To make the most out of hybrid working, we've introduced different ways of working, which include (subject to role requirements): hybrid of office (Canary Wharf, London) and home working (there will be an expectation to attend the office, once - twice a week, or more, as required), reduce or vary working hours, reduce or vary the days worked, work compressed hours, job share.

Directorate/Department Overview

About the Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest. Inclusive Money is a public-benefit research and innovation centre set up by Nest Corporation in 2016 to find ways to support low- and moderate-income workers to be financially secure, both today and into retirement. We conduct rigorous, cutting-edge research, working collaboratively with industry and academic partners to understand the needs and behaviours of the new generation of savers created by the UK's pensions auto enrolment system. We also consider how self-employed workers and others at risk of missing out on pension saving can be brought in. We use our data-driven insights into this wide range of financial challenges to identify and test practical, real-world solutions. Together our team of around 25 delivers an ambitious programme of research, publications and events, sharing best practice, both nationally and abroad. The team is passionate about the work we do and proud of what we are achieving. We are innovative thinkers, not afraid to challenge the status quo. We work flexibly, creatively and collaboratively. We are committed to supporting each other to learn and develop. Our findings are shared widely and freely to help inform industry and policymakers so that people around the world can benefit from our work. We amplify our learnings and spark debate through our publications and digital media and by convening events that bring together industry, academics and policymakers. The depth and breadth of our research garners attention. Our work is regularly covered by national media and financial trade outlets. Whilst Inclusive Money is a business unit of Nest Corporation, we are responsible for raising our own operating budget through sponsorships, grants and in-kind support from organisations with similar research interests, goals and values. By working in partnership with industry, academics, innovators and policymakers, and sharing our research widely and freely, we're generating insights that could improve the retirement outcomes of millions of savers worldwide. With lots of exciting projects ongoing and in the pipeline, and plans to expand our reach significantly, this is an exciting time to join Inclusive Money.

Organisational Overview

The Centre for Inclusive Money at Nest is a public benefit research and innovation centre, established by Nest in 2016, and recently rebranded from our original name, Nest Insight. Our Mission is to find what really works in supporting low and moderate income households to be financially secure, both today and into retirement, and to drive transformational change in the system. Our Approach is to build and amplify deep, rigorous insight into the lived experience of those households, seeking to better understand how people actually earn, spend, save, cope with the unexpected and invest for the future. We develop innovative solutions grounded in that understanding. We test them in the real world. We gather robust, rounded evidence about what genuinely makes a difference. And throughout, we work with the people who have the power to act to turn that evidence into lasting change; informing decisions and catalysing the adoption of what works at scale.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles and we particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnicity, LGBTQ+, and disabled candidates. Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of their age, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, pregnancy or caring responsibilities, race, religion/belief, sex, sexual orientation or socio economic background. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought and other forms of neurocognitive variation. Nest is a Disability Confident Leader, which is the highest level of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you have a disability, please declare that you're applying through the scheme. We aim to offer an interview to those applicants who apply through the Disability Confident Scheme and best meet the minimum criteria. However, there may be some circumstances where this is not possible due to the volume of applications.