External Engagement Officer

We are seeking an enthusiastic external communications and engagement professional who is looking for a challenging and exciting short-term role.

Working as part of the Communications and Engagement team, you will be responsible for creating high-quality content to tell the University’s stories to drive advocacy and build community with external and community stakeholders, using a range of channels, media and activities.

About the role

This role sits within the Public Affairs and Community Relations team which is part of the wider Communications and Engagement team. The Public Affairs and Community Relations team works in partnership across the University to implement creative and impactful plans to support strategic priorities and ensure stakeholders and the community is engaged, informed and updated. You will work closely with other teams in External Relations, sharing expertise and best practice, and support and advise other University colleagues about external communications and engagement.

As the External Engagement Officer, you will have responsibility for supporting the delivery of external engagement plans and activities to help to build the University’s reputation and support external stakeholder engagement. You will identify opportunities and lead on activities that enable University staff and students to connect and engage meaningfully with key external stakeholders in line with University priorities.

Key deliverables:

• Working with the Public Affairs Manager to deliver a parliamentary event in Q2 2025
• Supporting the monitoring of events in Parliament, announcements from the Government and other relevant developments in the Higher Education sector
• Producing a comprehensive stakeholder map of key political and policy figures in Higher Education and other policy areas
• Preparing briefings for internal and external audiences
• Supporting the Community Engagement Officer in organising events in the local community
• Supporting the Community Engagement Officer in responding to queires and complaints from local residents
• Coordinating, delivering and evaluating engagement and communications activities and events with identified external stakeholder groups, including MPs, local government, anchor institutions, local residents and community/voluntary groups
• Working closely with colleagues across the University to create communication assets and support events aimed at key stakeholders, to ensure they are informed and engaged.
• Creating a range of digital communications assets including social media and web content to promote the University.

Key Requirements:

• Passionate, creative and proactive communications and engagement professional, always seeking to find solutions to ensure excellent internal communications and staff engagement. You will have great all-round communications skills including developing communications plans to meet the needs of key audiences and project objectives, content development for a range of formats (including video, intranet, podcasts, engagement events, photography and editing, and producing toolkits), campaign management, design and copywriting and project management.

• You will be excellent at engaging with others and working in partnership to deliver integrated plans, and have the ability to track, report and evaluate campaign results.

Communications and Engagement team

The team is responsible for building and managing the University’s profile and reputation both internally and externally to drive advocacy and engagement and help us to become known as the university of choice, the employer of choice and the partner of choice. We are going through exciting changes to put communications and engagement excellence and impact at the heart of how we work and how others work with us.

If you would like to join our people and share our ambition, we would love to hear from you!

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