NIHR Press Office Lead (MHNCC1129)

Are you a highly collaborative media relations professional looking for a new challenge? Would you like to raise the media profile of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), its people, programmes and centres of research excellence?

You will be a member of a small NIHR corporate communications team that works closely with the larger coordinating centre communications teams. The corporateteam includes a senior communications officer who spends the majority of their time on press office work. You will lead the press office, mobilising the team through your influencing skills and by role-modelling desired behaviours rather than through a traditional hierarchical structure. This is a hands-on role requiring energy, tenacity and emotional intelligence.

You will attend the NIHR Communications Programme Board (CPB), which provides strategic oversight for NIHR communications, and work closely with a number of CPB working groups. These include the Infrastructure Group, which sources many of the NIHR’s best stories from the field; the Campaigns Group, which spearheads campaigns such as NHS70; the Digital Group, which owns the NIHR’s digital and social channels; and the Branding Group, which owns the corporate narrative and key collateral such as the annual report.

Your organisational base will be the NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) Coordinating Centre (which is provided jointly by the University of Leeds and Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust) and your direct report will be to the NIHR Director of Communications. Your employer will be the University of Leeds and you will be based in London. This post is offered on a fixed-term basis to 31 March 2020 to align with NIHR contracts and secondment opportunities will be considered.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact in the first instance from 9th April:

Frances Beves, Director of Communications, NIHR

Tel: +44 (0)20 3328 6741, email: frances.beves@nihr.ac.uk 

Further Information

The University of Leeds is committed to providing equal opportunities for all and offers a range of family friendly policies. The University is a charter member of Athena SWAN and holds the Bronze award. We will be happy to consider job share applications and are committed to flexible working for all our employees

Closing Date: 18 Apr 2018
Category: Professional & Managerial