Location
City of Westminster

Hours
Full Time

Salary
£50,714 per annum

About the Role
We are recruiting for an exceptional Senior Media Officer to lead work on a high-profile policy portfolio or manage relationships with consumer or digital media. You will be at the forefront of driving a campaigning approach to media and communications, using the full breadth of earned media to tell the story of our work to improve children and young people’s lives.
As part of the Department for Education, our work is guided by the desire to build an education system that works for everyone – regardless of background or location. You will join a busy, high-performing communications team that works closely with Ministers and senior officials to communicate key public policy and education priorities.
You will collaborate with the digital content team, campaigns, stakeholder management, and wider colleagues in internal and strategic communications to deliver consistent, high-quality content.
Responsibilities include creating and delivering creative and stretching media and communication handling plans and longer-term strategies that keep us proactive and build public confidence. You will lead creative ideation across teams to keep the Department’s stories in the news and media agenda, landing stories with outlets and channels to achieve maximum audience reach.
You will embed media and communications thinking throughout the policy-making lifecycle, build relationships with a diverse group of journalists and stakeholders to maximise earned media opportunities, and provide advice and constructive challenge to policy teams, the Permanent Secretary, Ministers, and special advisers on communication implications.
You will represent the Department for Education in cross-government meetings, work with external stakeholders to gain insight and influence, and contribute to joint initiatives.
Working constructively across communications teams including social, digital, stakeholder, and strategy, you will act as a key part of the management team alongside other Senior Media Officers and the Chief Media Officer.
You may have line management responsibility or task manage and support the team on projects, developing and coaching media officers to ensure they are motivated, skilled, and high-performing.
Participation in the out-of-hours duty rota providing an on-call service to members of the media is also required.

Experience
Strong knowledge of the role of insight in developing excellent communications plans and the ability to support your team in applying insight consistently.
Proven self-starter who can motivate themselves and a team to stay ahead of the news agenda and communications trends.
Excellent written communication skills with the ability to set standards for content, messaging, tone, and consistency in media communication.
Comprehensive understanding of traditional and digital media, with awareness of emerging trends across channels.
Sound understanding of reputation management, including high-quality reactive media handling and rebuttal, with confidence to make rapid, well-judged decisions under pressure.
Skilled at relationship building, influencing, and negotiating to achieve excellent communications outcomes.

About you
Motivated and creative individual with a passion for public service communications.
Ability to work collaboratively across teams and manage multiple priorities.
Committed to inclusion and diversity, aligned with the Department’s values.
Comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-profile environment with senior stakeholders.
Willingness to participate in an out-of-hours media duty rota.

Qualifications
There are no specific formal qualifications required for this role; however, relevant experience in media, communications, or a related field is essential.
A strong track record of delivering impactful media strategies and managing media relations is expected.