Communications & Business Engagement Officer

Are you a creative and confident communications professional with a passion for promoting healthcare technologies, cutting-edge medical research and teaching excellence?  

The School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences at King’s College London is looking for a new Communications & Business Engagement Officer in support of its mission to engineer better health for patients in the UK and worldwide.

This is a fantastic opportunity to play a vital role in promoting the School, its strategic partnerships, and key healthcare stakeholders, across news stories, digital content, events and internal communications channels.

The successful candidate will join a dedicated communications and digital content team positioned directly within the school and the wider communications network across King’s, communicating and celebrating the work of its researchers, academics and students to a diverse range of internal and external audiences.

The primary function of the role is to support, deliver and measure the communications objectives for the School of Biomedical Engineering, the St Thomas’ MedTech Hub and other initiatives as required, including:

•         Raising the profile of the School and St Thomas’ MedTech Hub to key audiences through a strong digital presence, events, PR, marketing collaterals and assets 

•         Promoting the School and the St Thomas’ MedTech Hub to strategic audiences by developing a wide range of content (stories, social media, photography, videos, graphics, executive copy) on multiple communications channels  

•         Identifying and working with the School Communications and Business Engagement Manager and Faculty Senior PR and Communications Manager (Health) to write and promote potential stories to the media and through various communications channels 

•         Help develop and support various initiatives aimed at developing, improving and nurturing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders (including corporate, health organisations, NHS) 

•         Supporting and developing strategic events (some of which are organised jointly with partners and key stakeholders)  

•         Enabling and empowering School staff, researchers and students to produce/contribute to communications materials (including social media posts, conference coverage, blogs) and promote School’s success. This will be done through, for example, providing training and developing guidelines, assisting with media and marketing requests, creating a visual assets bank 

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract  

This is a full-time post

Communications:  

•         Support effective communications by developing and promoting a wide range of content on multiple channels and support event organisation

•         Manage and develop effective and appropriate communications channels for the School and MedTech Hub to share operational information and successes

•         Provide operational support and develop events and other communication channels for the School and MedTech Hub to build and maintain external stakeholders engagement

•         Write news stories and copy (articles, blog features, interviews, press releases, executive copy, newsletters)

•         Produce visual materials (photos, videos, graphics, collaterals)

•         Work with the senior leadership team to support development of strategic corporate messages and executive copy

•         Monitor content performance metrics and develop reports (post-event, post-campaign, quarterly/annually)

•         Occasionally, commission marketing collaterals (including printed literature and digital assets such as websites) and conduct related project management (including negotiating budget, ensuring on-time delivery, working with tight deadlines and competing priorities)

•         Support emergency planning and business continuity communications as required

•         Support School staff and students wishing to promote their work externally and/or to work with external partners, including researching potential media releases arising from newly published research, sourcing and creating content to demonstrate the impact of the School’s research and education, as well as of MedTech activity.

•         Play an active role in celebrating School’s diverse community and role models and in promoting the achievements of staff and students

Business engagement:

•         Raise the external profile of the Schools to key audiences and help develop external stakeholder collaborations

•         Develop and maintain core messaging and visual identity for the School and MedTech Hub to underpin external communications and marketing activity, seeking ways of ensuring these are utilised effectively by staff and students across the Schools (e.g. usage in grant applications, external presentations)

•         Help develop and support various initiatives aimed at creating, improving and nurturing strategic partnerships with key stakeholders (including MedTech start-ups and multinationals, health organisations, NHS)

•         Support and develop strategic events (some of which are organised jointly with partners and key stakeholders)

Other duties:

•         Facilitate an inclusive culture and ethos across the School and MedTech Hub working in partnership with academic staff and Professional Services colleagues

•         Undertake any other reasonable duties and projects as requested by the School  Communications and Business Engagement Manager

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.  

Essential criteria  

1.       Educated to degree level or equivalent experience   

2.       Excellent communication and interpersonal skills  

3.       Good working knowledge of all communication disciplines (written and visual), including social media and communications tools such as Microsoft software, Mailchimp, Eventbrite, creative content producing applications such as Adobe Creative Cloud, content management systems, SEO, digital metrics and their use as part of an integrated communications strategy 

4.       Excellent time management and organisational skills, able to manage own workload and prioritise tasks in a busy work environment, managing multiple work-streams independently 

5.       Experience of developing a wide range of written and visual content (news stories, blog features, interviews, press releases, executive copy, social media posts, newsletters, photos, videos, graphics, collaterals) 

6.       Experience of developing and implementing communications strategies and projects using marketing, media, public relations 

7.       Experience in using a variety of online and offline communications channels with proven ability to provide advice on most appropriate channels depending on context and user reach 

8.       Strong networking skills, with an ability to develop new relationships at all levels with internal and external colleagues, using a collaborative approach to work, supporting others, demonstrating tact and diplomacy 

9.       Methodical approach to producing high quality, accurate work within tight time-scales 

10.    Ability to communicate effectively in an assured manner with a range of stakeholders, including more senior staff and academic staff 

11.    Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team, being self-motivated and approachable, with great time management skills 

Desirable criteria

1.       Good level of numeracy and analytical skills including experience of budget management, web analytics, surveys and using data to improve communications 

2.       Understanding of the UK higher education system 

3.       Experience on developing and delivering external stakeholder initiatives 

4.       Experience of working as part of complex teams and structures (e.g. having had to work with various external suppliers or key stakeholders to deliver objectives and collaterals) 

5.       Experience of delivering projects within the Higher Education sector, science or health communications