Communications & Engagement Lead

Job description

King’s College London’s vision is to make the world a better place through our excellence in teaching, research and our service to society. Key to executing on this vision is the Analytics team, who are focused on delivering insights and analysis to senior partners across King’s. We’re looking to fill our lead communication and engagement role, as we continue to enhance the value derived from our data assets.

The Communications & Engagement Lead will plan and deliver the communication and engagement activities for the Strategy, Planning and Analytics (SPA) Directorate, with a primary focus on the Analytics Department.

As the Communication & Engagement Lead, you will be responsible for developing, implementing and managing a communication and engagement strategy and road-map that supports the strategic and rapidly growing priorities of the Analytics department and the wider SPA directorate.

This role is responsible for building awareness and promoting data literacy and analytics within the university through the creation and management of a range of assets, including range of different media, and playing a leading role in the design and delivery of a range of events. This will include internal training programmes,  bespoke faculty engagement plans, and by playing a lead role in the Business Intelligence Group (an internal professional network).

You will work closely with all members of the Analytics team to ensure consistent communication and engagement of service and capabilities, and provide leadership in the communications and engagement space, guiding the leadership team of Analytics on best practice in this area and where priorities should lie.

The role will be working with and contributing to a range of teams around the university in order to communicate successes, improve awareness, increase adoption and generate interest in services and capabilities of the Analytics Team during current and future reporting and analytics initiatives. You will create strong relationships with faculties and directorates across King’s to be close to the ground around their requirements of the Analytics team and how to best support them in increasing data literacy.

Whilst you will be working with minimal supervision and have ownership of the strategic direction of communications in Analytics, you will be part of the Communications Professional Network which is a community of practice that provides support, guidance and strategic direction to communications across King’s and have a reporting line into the Central Communications team.

At King’s, we are deeply committed to embedding good equality and diversity practice into all of our activities so that the university is an inclusive, welcoming and inspiring place to work and study, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

We believe that our differences make us stronger, and encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to employing a team that has diverse skills, learning styles, ways of thinking, experiences and abilities. 

As a multi-award-winning data team, we are committed to investing in our people by offering growth through:

• Dedicated learning days to support your career development
• Hybrid and remote working arrangements and,
• A culture of collaboration and teamwork  

King’s offers a variety of benefits to support staff wellbeing, including:

• A highly competitive pension scheme, 
• 27 days’ paid leave each year on top of public holidays, and four extra days at Christmas 
• Paid time off to volunteer 
• Employee Assistance Programme 
• Leave and assistance to support parenting and caring commitments  
•  Flexible working 
• Support with travel costs 
• Two wellbeing days a year

This post will be offered on an indefinite contract. 

This is a full-time post, but part time arrangements may be considered.

Key responsibilities 

• Be responsible for the overall strategic direction for Analytics communications, working with a range of teams around the university to communicate success, improve awareness, increase adoption and generate interest in services.
• Manage the Strategy, Planning & Analytics intranet pages  
• Lead on the Data Digest, a quarterly newsletter keeping staff across King’s up-to-date on the latest activity and future provision 
• Demonstrate the value of a data informed approach to the organisation and foster a positive data culture
• Lead on the Analytics training plan, specifically the Power BI training assets, organizing the events and planning future developments 
• Identify future development requirements in this space and support the department to deliver this effectively
• Lead on the organization, communication and events planning aspects of the Faculty Engagement Data and Analytics Plan, designed to improve data literacy across King’s and improve Analytics understanding of faculty needs. 
• Co-ordinate major network events, drawing together people from across King’s to maximise the impact and benefits derived 
• Play a leading role in the activities associated with the internal professional network, the Business Intelligence Group 
• Organise the events and communications for the Business Intelligence group activities which are delivered both online and in person. 

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.

Skills, knowledge, and experience 

Essential criteria

Tertiary qualifications with relevant experience in communications, engagement, marketing, change management and/or an equivalent combination of relevant training and experience. 

High level of technical aptitude (including use of Office, video editing programmes, e-newsletter software, content management systems). 

Experience developing and delivering communication and engagement strategies and plans involving challenging and complex issues and competing stakeholder interests. 

Experience managing social and digital media channels to reach and engage target audiences. 

Ability to write high quality communications with a strong customer and a strong end user focus  

Excellent time and workload management skills with demonstrated ability to prioritise effectively, manage multiple comms related tasks, meet deadlines and achieve required outcomes with minimal supervision. 

Excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills with a creative flare and a thinking outside the box approach to create on-going engaging content. 

Experience in planning, booking, and overseeing events, including venue liaison, marketing and catering requirements. 

Experience of building effective relationships with sponsors and senior leaders. Strong influencing, and stakeholder management skills. 

Commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion 

Desirable criteria

Knowledge of the Higher Education sector  

A working understanding and knowledge of the current analytics and data science space. 

Microsoft Power Platform experience (e.g. Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate) 

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers review your application, please take a look at our How we Recruit  pages.

Interviews will be conducted remotely. You will be asked to complete a piece of analysis in advance of the interview and there will be a 10-minute presentation of your findings via Microsoft Teams at the start of the interview.  

This advertisement does not meet the requirements for a Certificate of Sponsorship under Home Office regulations; therefore, the university will not be able to offer sponsorship for this role.