Senior Communications Manager
FCDO Research Commissioning Centre (3ie)
1. Background
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Research Commissioning Centre (RCC) has been established to commission and manage research to enhance development and foreign policy impact. The RCC, co-led by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) and the University of Birmingham, provides support to FCDO teams for commissioning and delivering high-quality and impactful research. It addresses challenges associated with research bureaucracy by providing a streamlined process for commissioning and delivering FCDO-funded research.
This role is based at 3ie, working closely with colleagues at the FCDO, University of Birmingham and across the RCC consortium. This is a fixed-term position for the RCC, which is a pilot project that began on the 6th June, 2023, and is due to run until the 5th June, 2028. The role is linked directly to the project funding.
The International Initiative of Impact Evaluation is a mission-driven, non-profit organization dedicated to using evidence to transform people's lives in low- and middle-income countries. We are the global leader in funding, producing, and synthesizing high-quality evidence of what works, for whom, how, why and at what cost. We believe better policy-relevant evidence will make development more effective. 3ie is a registered non-governmental organization in the US. It has offices in New Delhi, London and Washington, DC.
2. Position summary
3ie is inviting applications for a Senior Communications Manager to join the FCDO Research Commissioning Centre (RCC) team at 3ie. With the RCC entering its third year of operation, this is an exciting time to join the project.
The role will be responsible for the strategic management of RCC communications and for the oversight and management of the Global Research and Technology Development (GRTD) website . The position will work closely with the team of the FCDO Chief Scientific Adviser and FCDO’s Deputy Head of Research to support the development and rollout of GRTD, suiting a strategic thinker with experience or knowledge of leading communications and engagement campaigns.
The successful candidate will be a highly organised, skilled communicator with excellent command over producing a range of communication and knowledge products such as blogs, policy briefs, infographics, impact stories and case studies, as well as editing technical writing. Prior experience in social media and event management, is desirable. They will be a self-starter with a can-do, team-player attitude.
The ideal candidate will be based in the UK and have the flexibility to travel to London for in-person meetings and events as required. The candidate will need to work according to UK office hours. The role will largely be remote working with dedicated in-person time with the RCC team and with FCDO.
3. Key job responsibilities
a) GRTD website development oversight and strategy; FCDO GRTD communications, branding and development
- Work with FCDO to develop a coherent strategy and campaign for engaging with and communicating GRTD to external partners. Manage the relationship with FCDO communications counterparts in delivering the vision for GRTD
- Lead engagement with FCDO to determine design of enhancements and new features for GRTD; oversee these developments, managing external contractors (when required) and working with technical colleagues to ensure developments are fit for purpose
- Collaborate with FCDO teams to support the rollout and visibility of the GRTD brand
- Contribute to the development and implementation of editorial standards, templates, and guidance for GRTD content, in coordination with FCDO and RCC stakeholders
- Assist in the dissemination of impact stories and research outputs that align with GRTD branding and strategic objectives
- Support stakeholder engagement activities and campaigns led by FCDO to promote the GRTD platform, where relevant to RCC-funded research
- Monitor digital engagement with and develop KPIs to track performance, with a focus on continuous improvement and optimization
b) RCC presence on GRTD
- Ensure the RCC is adequately presented on GRTD and that the design and structure of RCC pages is coherent and promotes the RCC vision
- Create, edit and post new website content for the RCC on GRTD as required
- Coordinate with the 3ie Strategic Communications Office to monitor the website regularly to ensure content is updated and bugs are identified.
c) RCC Communications
Strategy:
- Lead the development, implementation and monitoring of the RCC’s overall communication and engagement strategy, including areas of thought leadership around best practice evidence led by the RCC.
Content:
- Strategise on new communication products (including website content, impact stories, blogs, media articles, social media and multimedia content), launches, events, and online promotions Edit, manage and publish research commissioning call documents and participate and manage related events such as Early Market Engagements, FAQ sessions, etc.
- Work with RCC Grantees and project teams editing and publishing RCC publications and deliverables, including reports, briefs and other publications.
- Create social media content and manage dissemination through 3ie’s social media channels, working with 3ie colleagues (NB: RCC social media channels may be established and in this case the role will directly manage these).
- Events and engagement: Provide end-to-end support for workshops and events, including content, budget, logistics, communication and marketing
- Provide inputs for communication and implementation plans for research funded by the RCC.
d) Project management: Ensure that RCC publications and communications products are processed in a timely manner and published on GRTD
- Maintain and update process documents, guidelines and templates for external communications for the RCC and for communications from grantees.
- Oversee the implementation of and improvements to RCC’s branding and logo suite as needed.
e) Stakeholder support: Work closely with RCC staff to cultivate relationships across the research ecosystem, consortium and with grantees. This is likely to include RCC representation at external events.
f) Support RCC grantees: Provide guidance and advise on dissemination activities to grant recipients. Review and approve the engagement and dissemination products and plans submitted by RCC grant recipients as part of their work on RCC-funded projects and support the wider RCC team to monitor engagement activities undertaken by grantees.
g) Knowledge sharing: Collect and collate impact stories for the RCC to support both learning and reporting requirements
4. Qualifications and skills
- Master’s degree in journalism, public affairs, marketing, or a field directly relevant to international development, including formal communication training. Exceptional candidates with a bachelor's degree and extensive work experience may be considered
- At least seven to ten years of experience in a communication role in development sector.
- Proven ability to plan and implement communication and engagement strategies for organizations and research projects
- Knowledge of tools for graphic design, content management, social media and event management is desirable (e.g., InDesign, Photoshop, Mailchimp, Canva, Drupal, etc.)
- Proven project management and coordination skills to ensure on-time delivery
- Excellent English writing and editing skills; cross-platform writing experience is desirable
- Self-motivated, creative, and multi-tasker with a proven ability to work under tight deadlines accurately and professionally
- Excellent interpersonal skills and willingness to work in a matrix-organized team environment
- Experience working with UK government departments is desirable
5. Eligibility
3ie is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of sex, age, ethnicity, disability, caste, religion or sexual orientation. We particularly encourage women, ethnic minorities and persons with disabilities to apply.
6. Terms of employment
The salary range for this position is competitive and commensurate based on qualifications and experience. Our policies and procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults from abuse. We follow a zero-tolerance policy for any form of bullying or harassment in the workplace.
7. How to Apply
Your application must include the following information*:
• A cover letter (not exceeding two pages) highlighting your qualifications and experience relevant to the terms of reference.
• Curriculum vitae along with names and contact information for at least three professional references.
*Incomplete applications will not be considered.
The deadline for receiving applications is 21 December, 2025. Only the shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Registered Charity
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The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as applications come in. They're ready to hire as soon as they find the right person. Don't miss your opportunity, apply now!
Business Planning & Performance Specialist
Permanent. Full Time. Hybrid working. (You will be required to attend the office for a minimum of 2 days per week with the option to work remotely for the remaining 3 days).
Location: The role can be based in the following locations:
UK - Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, or Warrington
Salary:
London: £53,459 (including London allowance) per annum
Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Warrington - £48,576 per annum
Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis. We will be conducting interviews as suitable candidates apply and we'll ready to hire if we find the right person before the job ad closes. So, if you're interested in this role we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.
About us
Christian Aid exists to create a world where everyone can live a full life, free from poverty. We are a global movement of people, churches and local organisations who passionately champion dignity, equality and justice worldwide. We are the changemakers, the peacemakers, the mighty of heart.
We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, and recognise the value this brings in forming strong, creative and high performing teams. We welcome applications from all sections of the community, and from those with experience from outside of the voluntary sector. And no, you don’t have to be Christian to work here – we encourage people of all faiths and none to apply. We just ask that everyone lives out our values of dignity, equality, justice and love. We value a good work-life balance, so we’re open to part-time and flexible working. We also offer hybrid working for our office-based colleagues and the option of being a homeworker for most of our roles too.
About the role
Reporting in to the Strategy & Performance Lead, the Business Planning & Performance Specialist will co-lead the corporate planning and reporting cycle, cascading the global strategy into annual corporate plans and OKRs, while fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
The post-holder will partner with their assigned departments to support them to be high performing teams with business plans aligned to organisational values and goals, and together with the Strategy and Performance Lead and the Business Insights & Intelligence Analyst, they ensure alignment between departmental objectives, operational plans, measures of success and support high performance.
Some of the main responsibilities of the Business Planning & Performance Specialist will include:
- Support the Strategy and Performance Lead in setting and maintaining the strategic planning framework cascading strategy into annual business plans for all business units, enabling alignment with organisational values and goals.
- Co-Lead Corporate Planning and Reporting: Co-lead the organisation-wide corporate planning and reporting cycle—shaping the organisation annual corporate plan, defining OKRs, and tracking progress. Work alongside the other Business Planning and Performance Specialist to drive a consistent and effective business planning process.
- Lead Development of Business Plans and OKRs: Lead the development of annual departmental business plans and OKRs, ensuring alignment with corporate OKRs and integrating budgeting and risk management to produce coherent, strategically connected plans.
- Support Departmental Leadership: Work closely with Senior Management Teams—particularly within Income and Public Engagement, Finance, and Governance—to develop and deliver clear, trackable business plans aligned with organisational strategy. Serve as an active member of relevant departmental management teams to ensure Christian Aid’s strategy and corporate plan are fully embedded across both operational and strategic workstreams.
- Manage Corporate Performance Reporting: Oversee organisation-wide performance tracking and reporting, ensuring timely and accurate updates for senior leaders and key external stakeholders, including inputs to Christian Aid’s Annual Report & Accounts.
- Ensure Strategic Alignment: Liaise closely with the Strategy and Learning Manager and the Impact and Evidence Manager to ensure departmental plans are aligned with the overarching organisational strategy and can support effective reporting and performance management.
- Facilitate strategic decision-making, prioritisation, and tracking of performance against plans in the department, feeding back continuously to improve performance.
- Strengthen Leadership Engagement: Coordinate with senior leaders to support strategic engagement with business plans and performance reports, enabling strategic thinking, accountability, and maximising impact.
- Champion Data-Driven Culture: Promote and embed a data culture across the organisation, working closely with Business Insights & Intelligence Analysts to support data-informed decision-making.
- Promote Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement and lead enhancements to planning and performance processes to improve organisational effectiveness.
- Collaborate Across the Organisation: Work collaboratively with internal stakeholders to ensure quality engagement, consistent approaches, and alignment across planning, performance, and learning activities.
About you
Who we are looking for
Essential:
- Significant experience in leading organisational planning and performance within a complex, multi-unit environment, including translating strategy into coherent, actionable operational and business plans.
- Strong analytical skills, with significant experience using a range of qualitative and quantitative data sources to inform planning, prioritisation and performance monitoring.
- Proven ability to work collaboratively across departments and leadership groups, building consensus on strategic goals, OKRs and performance measures.
- Experience producing high-quality organisational reporting, such as Annual Reports, Progress Reports, Results Reports or similar publications.
- Broad organisational understanding, with knowledge and experience of working finance and governance, or fundraising teams
- High-level facilitation and engagement skills, with the ability to communicate planning and performance concepts clearly, run effective workshops, and ensure corporate processes are accessible and well understood- fostering high ownership and accountability behaviours in teams.
- Strong financial literacy, including understanding of budgeting and financial management practices, and the ability to integrate financial planning with business planning.
- Advanced planning, performance and prioritisation skills across diverse functions and operating contexts.
- Solid grounding in project management, including practical tools and methods for tracking and delivering multi-stream plans.
- Highly developed problem-solving skills and the ability to find innovative and practical solutions.
- Excellent negotiation and influencing skills, with the ability to secure buy-in, shift behaviours, and support adoption of new processes and ways of working across the organisation.
Desirable:
- Highly developed communication skills and the ability to understand and translate complex information to a variety of audiences.
- Experience working in multicultural and diverse environments with a strong commitment to Christian Aid’s values and mission.
- Experience of working in a dispersed team.
- Highly developed ability to think strategically and laterally, combining big picture thinking with practical application.
Further information
At Christian Aid we strive to be an inclusive and diverse employer and recognise the value that this brings in helping to build strong, creative and high performing teams.
We are actively encouraging racialised minorities, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, returning parents or carers who are re-entering work after a career break, people with caring responsibilities, people from low socioeconomic backgrounds, women, and older workers to apply. This is because these groups are under-represented within our teams, especially at senior level, and we recognise and value the contributions members of these groups make to strong, creative and high performing teams.
We have a strong Christian ethos and we encourage applications from all faiths. Applicants will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of and sympathy with Christian Aid’s faith identity.
All successful candidates will require a DBS/police check appropriate to the role and location and a Counter Terrorism Sanction check as part of your clearance for commencing your role with us. We also participate in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this Scheme, we will request information as part of the referencing process from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.
This role requires applicants to have the right to live and work in the country where this position is based and undertake the role that you have been offered. If you are successful and we make you an offer for the role, we will be required to conduct a right to work check on your immigration status in the UK. We will contact you regarding the documentation you will need to provide to evidence this.
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales.
Thank you!
Job Purpose
Within the National Influencing & Networks team, the Digital Communications Officer is responsible for delivering core communications functions. The postholder will work directly with the Director of National Influencing and Networks to plan communications activity in line with organisational objectives, and to deliver planned, regular and ad-hoc outputs. They will also work closely with the Area Engagement and Partnerships Team. It is desirable for the postholder to bring innovative video editing and production expertise, along with strong digital content creation skills, to enhance Clinks’ communications reach and impact.
Duties and key responsibilities
· Contribute to the continued development of communications outputs of relevance to the voluntary sector working in criminal justice
· Deliver Clinks’ communications functions to ensure our work and the voluntary sector is promoted in an accurate and timely manner.
· Contribute to Clinks’ communications outputs through oversight of the organisational communications planner, supporting the development of timelines and executing as appropriate
· Responsible for publication and design of organisational policy reports, e-bulletins, newsletters, blog posts, ad-hoc publications and other relevant digital outputs
· Responsible for the collation and distribution of Clinks’ Light Lunch on a weekly basis as well as newsflashes, women’s network updates and art alliance updates
· Provide communications and digital expertise to all Clinks staff, including planning of social media, publications or key deliverables including Clinks’ annual State of the sector research
· Work closely with the Membership and Digital Development Officer to ensure coordination of Clinks’ digital output, and supporting the Clinks digital era by contributing to project managed task groups from a communications perspective
· Work with Clinks’ partners on the delivery of local communications outputs
· Lead on Clinks’ regular programme of reporting and benchmarking, with relevance to communications metrics, triaging responsibility within the organisation, and escalating as appropriate, as well as liaising with third parties as needed
· Track and evaluate the impact of Clinks’ communications and digital outputs and advise colleagues accordingly
· Responsible, with the Membership and Digital Development Officer, for keeping information on the website up to date.
· Ensure the implementation of Clinks’ Content Creation Strategy and social media strategy, and contribute to development of wider organisational digital strategy
· Continuously review comms process’ and outputs to ensure a continued high standard to Clinks overall delivery
· Support fundraising activity and bid applications to help secure income for development work.
Additional responsibilities
· Contribute to team activity, including the communication of policy positions rooted in evidence, expertise and experience
· Ensure high standards across all Clinks communications products
· Support the development and operation of the various groups, networks and structures facilitated by Clinks
· Represent Clinks at external meetings and events
· Work with colleagues to maintain and develop Clinks’ database of stakeholders to support the distribution of published materials and other communications.
General responsibilities
· Represent and be an ambassador for Clinks
· Work to support the mission, ethos and values of Clinks
· Be flexible and carry out other associated duties as they may arise, develop or be assigned in line with the broad remit of the position
· Support and promote diversity and equality of opportunity in the workplace
· Work collaboratively with others in all aspects of our work.
This job description does not form part of your contract of employment and can be amended from time to time as the needs of the organisation require.
Person specification
Education and experience
- 2-3 years’ experience in a communications-related role
- Experience in innovative video editing, production, and digital content creation is highly desirable.
Knowledge, skills and abilities
· An understanding of issues related to:
- The role of the voluntary sector in addressing social exclusion and inequalities
- The criminal justice system, in particular prisons and probation.
· The ability to engage audiences, persuade, and encourage understanding and participation in written and/or other communications, with a focus on social media output.
· Ability to manage multiple workstreams and competing priorities
· A collaborative approach to working with colleagues
· Strong IT skills, including knowledge of Microsoft Office, and an ability to support online platforms, including Drupal and Simple News, as well as proficiency in web development
· An eye for design, with the ability to liaise with external designers and to use design software, for example InDesign to create documents and manipulate document templates and Canva to produce assets.
· Clear, concise and engaging written and online communication skills
· A scrupulous approach to proofreading and a high level of skill in written English.
· Good knowledge of social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Bluesky, how to create and schedule engaging content for social media, and how to track engagement
· Monitor feed, share content and engage with Clinks’ members via social media
Personal attributes and other requirements
· Working well in a team with a flexible approach to work
· Ability to manage multiple and sometimes competing priorities
· Personal resilience and ability to stay focused in a rapidly changing environment
· Commitment to anti-discriminatory practice and equal opportunities, including for people with lived experience of the criminal justice system
· Ability to apply awareness of diversity issues to all areas of work
· Commitment to upholding the rights of people facing disadvantage and discrimination in the criminal justice system.
