Press and external affairs officer jobs

We are looking for a creative, organised and experienced media and communications professional to join our External Affairs team within the Policy and External Affairs Directorate.

The Senior Media & Communications Manager will manage our press office and lead our media engagement activity to support our strategic impact and communications objectives, aligned to our business plan and wider corporate strategy.

You will use your skills and experience to help engage a range of media outlets on our expertise, insights and evidence on youth employment, placing our spokespeople appropriately for a variety of opportunities.

• You will also work closely with wider External Affairs colleagues and teams across the organisation to build our corporate impact narrative.

• At a time when youth employment is a high priority for Government and the news agenda, the post holder must also be able to demonstrate policy and political literacy and high comfort levels when working with policy, research and public affairs colleagues.

• This role is perfect for a proactive and agile professional with strong writing skills, who is excellent at building relationships internally and externally and able to engage external stakeholders and partners.

At a time when the youth employment agenda is so prominent, this role presents an exciting opportunity to be part of Youth Futures’ mission to help every young person achieve good work.

This role can be based at our Birmingham, Leeds or London hub. We currently operate a hybrid model of two-days per week in the office and three-days from home.

Please download our recruitment pack for more information on this opportunity.

Due to receiving high volumes of interest in our opportunities, this vacancy may close earlier than the advertised deadline. To ensure your application is considered, please submit it as soon as possible.

Role Overview:
The Talent Set are delighted to partner with our client on a fantastic Media Officer role. This position involves supporting the charity’s public relations efforts across digital and traditional channels, enhancing their public profile, and inspiring action through impactful media campaigns and engaging content.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist in planning and delivering integrated, digital-first PR campaigns that generate media coverage at national, regional, and digital levels.
• Write and distribute press releases, media briefings, opinion articles, and other communications materials to secure positive media attention.
• Develop and maintain professional relationships with journalists, broadcasters, and media outlets, managing media enquiries and proactively pitching stories.
• Support media activities for campaigns, events, and partnerships to meet shared objectives.
• Collaborate with the Celebrity and Influencer team to maximise opportunities with ambassadors and high-profile supporters across various media platforms.
• Create, film, edit, and publish engaging digital content for platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Monitor media coverage, compile reports, and evaluate campaign effectiveness to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Assist with media visits, interviews, photo calls, and content gathering both in the UK and internationally as needed.
• Contribute to the out-of-hours media support rota and be willing to undertake occasional travel.
• Uphold the charity’s commitments to equity, inclusion, and safeguarding in all activities.

Person Specification:

• Excellent written and verbal skills, capable of producing engaging, accurate media content.
• Experience in a press office, PR agency, communications team, or journalism role.
• Good understanding of the UK media landscape and identifying newsworthy stories.
• Proven ability to create content for digital and social media platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Experience supporting integrated media campaigns across traditional and digital channels.
• Confidence in building and maintaining relationships with media professionals and external stakeholders.
• Organisational skills to manage multiple priorities and meet tight deadlines.
• Awareness of how media efforts can support fundraising, advocacy, and public engagement strategies.
• A collaborative, proactive attitude with a willingness to learn and develop.
• Commitment to principles of equity, inclusion, and safeguarding.

What’s on Offer:

• Salary: £35,000
• Location: Hybrid - 2 days onsite in London
• Contract: 6 month FTC

How to Apply:
To apply, please submit your CV demonstrating your suitability for this role by clicking the 'apply now' button (please do not apply via email). We aim to get back to all successful candidates within 48 working hours.

Commitment to Diversity
The Talent Set are committed to diverse and inclusive recruitment practices, ensuring equal opportunities for all applicants regardless of race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, disability, or age. We actively encourage applications from a wide range of backgrounds and are always happy to make reasonable adjustments to ensure a fair recruitment process.

We are seeking an exceptional advocate with a policy, legal or related digital rights campaigning background to work with us furthering privacy and civil liberties in the UK at one of the UK’s leading rights NGOs. Initially, this role will be principally challenging facial recognition surveillance and scrutinising police surveillance/AI powers.

The right Senior Advocacy Officer will help us to lobby UK Parliament to further privacy and wider rights at a critical time – when a legal framework on police use of facial recognition is very soon to be introduced, and police are expanding their use of AI and new surveillance technologies. You’ll build on your strong experience to be a credible and proactive lobbyist in Parliament, write expert briefings and be confident meeting parliamentarians, take a leading role liaising with policy stakeholders, advise on strategic litigation, be a leading advocate in the press and the public forum, develop policy positions on key issues, and help drive our public campaigns for change.

About you

You’ll have 3+ years experience in a legal or policy capacity, or in a comparable advocacy environment that relied on your expertise on technology and rights issues – ideally involving facial recognition. You’ll have a strong track record of advocacy success.

You’ll be familiar with key litigation and policy issues in the area. You’ll also have excellent knowledge of British politics and UK parliamentary procedures and strong political contacts to match.

You’ll be at ease working on a strictly non-partisan, cross-party basis and grounding policy analysis in human rights and liberal principles.

You’ll be proactive in pitching policy, litigation and campaign ideas for the organisation to pursue within our work streams.

You’ll be an experienced spokesperson, confident undertaking live and recorded TV and radio interviews, talking to a variety of audiences and representing the organisation and our campaigns.

If you’re committed to Big Brother Watch’s mission, we’d like to hear from you.

Senior Advocacy Officer job description

Policy

• Produce policy analysis, research, briefings and reports for dissemination

• Develop strategic policy recommendations informed by expertise

• Identify and explore new and emerging policy issues in our key work areas

• Communicate complex policy issues to varied audiences, whether Parliament, the press or the public

• Build strong relationships with parliamentarians and advisors across all parties

• Identify opportunities to further our strategic aims in Parliament, through committees, parliamentary questions and other activities; as well as regional assemblies and on occasion local government

• Work with stakeholders and pursue collaborative campaigns/coalitions on key issues

• Develop Big Brother Watch’s relationships with allies across Government, legislative bodies, international organisations, and NGOs

• Draft formal correspondence, blog posts, presentations, and other documents articulating Big Brother Watch’s policy positions

Advocacy

• Identify campaigns and advocacy opportunities, and feed into campaign plans and materials

• Write articles and give quotes to press

• Give pre-recorded and live interviews for TV and radio

• Uphold Big Brother Watch’s reputational excellence in public fora

• Help manage media enquiries (our 24/7 media phone is handled on a staff rota system)

Legal

• Help co-ordinate Big Brother Watch’s strategic litigation where appropriate, liaising with external lawyers

• Manage relationships with external counsel & build strong relationships with partners

• Produce legal and policy analysis and identify strategic litigation opportunities

Person specification

Essential

• Min. 3+ years experience in a similar role

• Familiarity/expertise with domestic policy matters relating to privacy, surveillance and/or free expression

• Strong legal and/or policy research skills

• Excellent and persuasive communications skills

• Demonstrable experience in privacy, freedom of expression, and other rights and technology areas

• Aptitude for managing and building relationships with partner organisations, parliamentarians and other stakeholders

• Proven ability to produce high quality work under pressure

• Creativity and energy in approaching a workload consisting of large long-term projects

• Willingness to work in non-partisan environment, and ability to recruit support of MPs across all parties

Desirable

• A track record of successful advocacy experience

• Experience of involvement in litigation, either in a legal or campaigns capacity

• Experience working with parliamentarians and/or producing policy briefings

• Project management experience

• Familiarity with relevant UK surveillance laws, human rights frameworks, and relevant case law

Big Brother Watch

Big Brother Watch is a UK civil liberties campaign group fighting for a free future. We’re determined to reclaim our privacy and defend freedoms at this time of enormous technological change. And we fight to win.

We’re a fiercely independent, diverse, non-partisan and non-profit group of campaigners and researchers who work to roll back the surveillance state and protect rights in Parliament, the media or the courts if we have to. We publish unique investigations and pursue powerful public campaigns to pursue real change. We work relentlessly to inform and empower the public to collectively reclaim privacy, defend our civil liberties and protect freedoms for the future.

We’re a small, dedicated and highly effective team of 8 staff and 7 volunteers.

Astra Foundation is seeking a Foundation Director; a dynamic, seasoned and strategic leader with a background in philanthropy who is motivated by their mission to combat loneliness in young adults, empower youth to reach their full potential, and reduce plastic pollution, primarily in the UK and France. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a young foundation and support the next phase of its evolution, building on strong foundations to further steward support for their priority areas and civil society partners. The ideal candidate will be collaborative, with a willingness to handle all aspects of the Foundation’s work, from high-level strategy and external relations to day-to-day administration.