Communications and Engagement Officer

Job Purpose

Working closely with the CaCHE senior management team, the Communications and Engagement Officer plays a critical role supporting the centre’s wider strategic development. They manage the overall brand, build strong productive relationships with press, public affairs and policy contacts, and work to raise the profile of the centre, establishing it as the leading voice in UK housing policy.

This post is based in the University of Glasgow, College of Social Sciences but will be situated within the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE), part of the School of Social and Political Sciences. CaCHE is a UK-wide collaboration aiming to become the leading independent centre for the production, analysis and dissemination of research related to housing.

We are seeking a Communications and Engagement Officer to share their expertise and provide key strategic insights as we embark on the next stage of our research journey. The role will work closely with our knowledge exchange and research teams across the UK to embed communications from the outset of all projects, ensuring that our research reaches our target audiences and has maximum impact.

The Communications and Engagement Officer promotes the achievements and activities of CaCHE through a wide range of social media channels, press and engagement activities including in person, hybrid and online exclusive events. Our stakeholders are from across the research, policy, private, and practice sectors and include international as well as national colleagues. The postholder will be responsible for producing a range of outputs including reports, briefings and infographics, managing the website and social media channels, and drafting external and internal newsletters.

The post-holder will be expected to have a close daily working relationship with the Director, including attending the CaCHE management meeting, and maintain regular internal communications across the CaCHE consortium. They will also be expected to work closely with communications colleagues within the School of Social and Political Sciences and College of Social Sciences to support joint strategic objectives of benefit to the wider university.

The postholder will have an overview of all communications and engagement activities taking place across the whole of CaCHE including the five knowledge exchange hubs. Their role will be to ensure that activities are strategic, responsive to sector developments, coordinated, in-line with the centre guidelines and objectives, and that the information is recorded for reporting purposes.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

• To manage all aspects of the CaCHE brand and to champion the brand internally to all academics and researchers across the collaboration making sure its purpose and goals are understood and that all messages and tone are consistent with it.
• To lead in the production and implementation of social media for CaCHE; to promote engagement with key stakeholders across different markets.
• Use specialist knowledge to develop proactive web-marketing approaches to increase traffic to the CaCHE website, and user engagement opportunities.
• To be responsible for development of high quality and effective materials that promote CaCHE to stakeholders and correctly align with the overall communication strategy. Be responsible for assets including the formatting of reports, production of artwork, sourcing images, collating and/or writing copy for all marketing collateral.
• To develop relationships across multiple institutions to ensure the involvement and input of CaCHE’s researchers, academic staff and sector partners to the communication activities of the collaboration
• Undertake regular reporting on activities taking responsibility to ensure a strategic approach is taken to stakeholder engagement and adjust and refresh approaches accordingly, as required.
• Empower staff across CaCHE and at all levels to improve the way we work by providing support, training and advice on how best communicate research and engage with target audiences.
• Lead the organisation, and support delivery, of all CaCHE events, maintaining an overview of all planned and completed activities across the five knowledge exchange hubs.
• To work with colleagues in the Public Affairs and Communication Office at the University of Glasgow and their counterparts in the other collaboration institutions to write media releases for local and national media to ensure consistent and effective communication of key messages to key audiences.
• To support with selected College-level initiatives and undertake other reasonable tasks and duties as required by the line manager.