About the job

Summary

Join the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and have a future that matters: Be proud; Be challenged; Be unique.

Job description

The Challenge

The Corporate Communications team is at the heart of DIO, sharing news and information about the crucial role that DIO plays within the Ministry of Defence.

Made up of four key disciplines; Strategy and Planning, Internal Communications, External Communications and Campaigns and Marketing, we inform, engage and influence a diverse range of audiences.

We are looking for creative communications professionals to join our growing team, who will help us to continue to transform and modernise our approaches and channels.

Working in the External Communications team, the External Communications Assistant plays a meaningful role within the press office, assisting with responses to media enquiries as well as proactively promoting key projects and programmes that support Defence and its personnel.

The post holder will be responsible for delivering a variety of engaging content that can be used across the full mix of DIO’s corporate communications channels, including on digital and social media.

Working as part of a small, specialist team, responsibilities will also include the day-to-day monitoring of DIO’s corporate social media channels and media coverage.

We employ approximately 4,900 staff from a very diverse range of professions, and we work across the world; in Germany, Cyprus and the Falkland Islands, Norway, Poland, Kenya, Belize, Nepal and Oman.

Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities

• Support the press office in responding to enquiries from regional and specialist press to ensure DIO’s role in supporting Defence is accurately represented.

• Support the press office in the planning and delivery of media events and interviews.

• Build productive working relationships with partners across DIO, MOD and industry partners, and work with them to support the creation and implemention of communications plans, products and campaigns.

• Create high-quality, innovative content for communications channels, including digital, and evaluate its effectiveness.

• Support the development of reactive communications products such as Defensive News Briefs, briefings and lines to take.

• Monitor DIO’s social media channels and daily news coverage.

Post Location

The DIO corporate communications team is primarily based at Whittington Barracks in Lichfield (WS14 9TJ). We offer a flexible base location for this role and for candidates who wish to work more remotely, we will look to assign an alternative MOD establishment as their duty station. Some key Defence locations are listed but others will be considered pending approval.

Regular travel to the DIO HQ in Lichfield will be required, as well as visits to other Defence locations in the UK and occasionally overseas.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Experience in using social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, blogs and LinkedIn to share communications messages.

• Experience of communicating a message to a specific audience and how you targeted your message to that audience.

Desirable Experience & Skills

• Professional qualification (NCTJ/CIPR/PRCA)

• Membership of CIPR, CIM or PRCA

• Experience of graphic design products eg. Adobe suite, Visme.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Leadership

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Government Communications Service Framework – Impact (Digital: Advise on, monitor,summarise and provide analysis of effectiveness indicators for digital communication.)
• Government Communications Service Framework – Insight (Press and Media: Maintain an awareness of the news agenda and emerging news events. Understand how to optimise audience reach through a mix of media channels, including news aggregators.)