Do you have the ambition to join an organisation with a remit to change the world, challenge yourself, and to make a real and positive difference to people’s lives?

This is not a normal role. We are looking for a confident, self-motivated problem solver who enjoys working with a huge range of people. You will be part of a small external engagement team, which is part of a wider, high performing marketing, communications and fund-raising team.

The engagement team has four key goals:

• Build our profile so our values and opinions are heard by more people more often
• Support our fundraising efforts to help us generate income to fund our work
• Create and manage relationships with key stakeholders engaged in and supporting our work
• Protect our reputation by providing crisis management support and ensuring consistent messages are heard by external audiences.

We have grown our reach both on and offline in recent years, and you will be rolling out a new PR strategy to enable the organisation to make real, lasting change for good through extending our network across the world.

The communication officer will play a key role in helping us achieve that ambition in a number of ways:

• By building on existing partnerships with key stakeholders and donors
• By unlocking new opportunities with donors, thought leaders and stakeholders
• By developing and managing excellent external events, both online and offline.
• By producing highly engaging content for use on digital channels.

You will have responsibility for developing and managing relationships with fundraising teams in the UK and communications teams in partner and donor organisations.

You will help develop communications plans for key international development projects and will also be responsible for overseeing content from these projects for our social channels by working closely with our international communications teams.

You will also be responsible for identifying, driving and leading high profile organisational events, such as our presence at bluedot Festival and New Scientist Live.

The role will also include supporting other areas of the communications team with excellent social and digital content, and through an ability to respond to media enquiries.

About you

This role offers an amazing opportunity to be part of a highly committed team dedicated to demonstrating that with the right approach and ingenuity, it is possible to create a better world for people and the planet. It can be highly demanding and requires flexibility and tenacity. If you like certainty and a normal 9-5 day, it probably isn’t for you.

A key focus of the role will be excellent relationship building and management, both with external partners and with many internal teams in the UK and around the world.

You will therefore be confident and enjoy working with a range of different people from a huge variety of backgrounds and in a variety of different ways.Critical to the success of the role will be the ability to prioritise multiple projects and demands and to be able to communicate sometimes complex material and ideas in an accessible way.

You will understand what motivates others and have a desire to solve problems and to lead, when required. However, we work in some of the world’s toughest places to live so you will also have the ability to be flexible when plans unexpectedly change or need a quick solution!

Experience or interest in the private sector, of international issues and current affairs and some experience in or with the media would be desirable. Experience of working in an external communications role is essential.

Why join us?

The opportunity to work for an organisation that is making a positive difference to the lives of people worldwide, a friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.

Our brand new open plan offices are located in the centre of Rugby and near to Rugby train station but we also offer free parking.

In addition, we offer the following benefits:

• Full time roles are contracted at 35 hours per week.
• Flexible working hours are encouraged and enabled – depending on the role, remote working is possible.
• 26 days holiday rising with continuous service, in addition to public holidays.
• A pension scheme that new employees can join from day one of employment - employer contributes 10.5% of salary and the employee contributes 5%.
• Enhanced family friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave.
• Life assurance (3 x annual salary).
• Bike to Work scheme.

About us

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality. We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

Additional information

Please note that should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.

We treat all applications for employment on their merits and do not take into consideration any factors that are not relevant to the job such as disability, race, age, religion, gender, gender reassignment or sexual orientation.

• Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and, as such, candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks.
• Please note that, should we recruit a suitable candidate before the closing date, we will close applications earlier than the specified date.
• The successful applicant must have the pre-existing right to both live and work in the UK.

This is a 12 months Maternity Cover Position

Closing date for applications: June 12 2020

Interview dates: Week commencing June 22