Director of Communications - Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office - London

The Role

You will lead the FCDO Communication function, whose purpose is to help deliver our foreign policy and development objectives by changing attitudes and behaviours amongst domestic and global audiences and engaging our workforce to enable them to be the best they can be.

If you believe in the power of words and images to improve lives, are a proven inclusive and inspiring leader, and thrive in an ever-changing communication environment then this is the role for you.

Key Responsibilities

As the most senior professional communicator in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, you will lead a team of over 150 communicators based in the UK, covering the full spectrum of communication disciplines: news, digital, internal, insight and evaluation, strategy and planning. The communication function has been redesigned recently following the merger of the previous Departments and you will find an energetic, enthusiastic and capable team focused on audience-led communication that delivers tangible outcomes. You will manage an annual budget of £11.5 million (TBC).

You will be responsible for ensuring that the Department has the communications capability it needs as the leader of the communications function. You must be able to act as lead adviser to the department and its ministers on all aspects of communication activities, ensuring they are provided with high quality professional advice. You will demonstrate expertise and sound judgement. You and your team will work alongside Special Advisers to identify practical solutions for managing the reputation of all parts of the department, ensuring that the communication team deals quickly and proactively with politically sensitive issues.

You will lead the communications strategy, aligning activity to departmental and cross-government priorities and ensure it is firmly based on audience insight. You will relentlessly drive public understanding and support for the government’s mission, display judgement and political acumen, articulate a clear plan of action, spot and manage reputational risk, and provide calm, authoritative and inclusive leadership for your team

You will need to work closely with FCDO colleagues in every time zone of the world and will have the opportunity to travel in your role as Head of Profession with responsibility for the quality and continuous improvement of professional communication across the FCDO network. You will advise Ambassadors and their communication teams, seeking to ensure a consistent global narrative on the Government’s foreign and development policy while tailored to local audiences. You will also have the opportunity to build

strong relationships with Directors of Communication in foreign governments around the word as you identify areas for collaboration.

Additional Responsibilities

As a senior leader in the Government Communications function, you will work closely with Directors of Communication (DoCs) from other Departments and the Chief Executive of Government Communications. Together, you will champion and implement the Government Communications functional strategy to improve join-up, build trust across and beyond government and lead a modern, expert profession. As a Director of Communication, you are responsible for growing the communications skills of your team, maintaining the highest professional and ethical standards and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration across government. You will attend regular DoCs meetings and ensure delivery in the FCDO of best practice in government communication. You will also lead on the delivery of cross Whitehall communication strategies as part of the National Security Council official level structures.

Shaping the FCDO as it transforms and leading the culture we all want to see will be a key part of this role. The FCDO expects its leaders to be accountable for our ambitions on inclusion and diversity, leading teams with kindness and respect, and to role model our cultural vision:

• · We draw on the expertise, insight and diverse perspectives (and diversity of thought) of people across and outside the FCDO in our decision-making. We frame our decisions within a long-term approach. We are transparent about the rationale for decisions.
• · We encourage and reward innovation including in use of data and digital. We are agile in our approach, and our use of resources, alert to emerging opportunities / challenges and open to change. We are all clear on what we are expected to deliver and supported in doing so. We all look to reduce duplication and unnecessary process.
• · We put respect and kindness first. Our senior leaders lead by example ensuring that we value expertise, collaboration and wellbeing.

Person Specification

• Working at the FCDO will be the most challenging and rewarding time of your career. We want to be the best diplomatic and development ministry in the world, with jobs that are the envy of Whitehall and the rest of the world.
• We aim to recruit and retain the best people; those are delivery focused and have a strong track record in high impact outcomes.

The Civil Service is open to talented people from any career background; we will always seek to identify transferable skills from the individual’s experience. It is important that in your application you provide evidence and examples of proven experience of these selection criteria. These responses will be developed and discussed with candidates invited to interview.

Essential criteria

• Proven success developing and implementing compelling and creative communication strategies with experience evolving operations to take advantage of the changing media and news landscape
• Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to establish credibility quickly with a diverse network of stakeholders internally and externally including up to Board and Ministerial (or equivalent) level, and to effectively challenge and manage conflict and negotiate.
• Excellent judgement and political acumen to understand the changing geopolitical context, to manage reputational risk to the department and to reach sound judgements on a range of strategic and reputational issues
• Evidence balancing strategic and reactive communications, using data-driven, measurement-led techniques to inform end-to-end communications activities.
• Experience in crisis management; leading a communication function to prepare for, respond to or recover from crises
• Experience leading large teams in a distributed work environment. A track record of building engaged, inclusive and high-performing teams; established approach to building communications capability across an organisation.
• A track record of supporting change programmes in highly complex organisations.