Communications Officer – BBC (London)

Package Description and Job Introduction

Band: B
Contract type: 1 x Continuing
Location: Office base is New Broadcasting House, London. This is a hybrid role and will include office working, with some time at home. We expect Communications Officers on average three days a week in the office, and these days are agreed in advance on a rota.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

We are seeking a Communications Officer to work in the heart of the corporate press office. This is a permanent opportunity, based in London. You will work on a rota basis including evening and weekend shifts.

You’ll be part of busy press desk with three other Communications Officers and an Assistant Communications Officer and will be responsible for the day-to-day management of a busy press inbox.

You’ll be supporting a team of media relations managers in generating proactive press and digital coverage, as well as assisting in the handling of complex media inquiries.

In addition to working with all areas of the communications division and with executives from across the BBC, you will also be delegated your own projects to manage.

Main Responsibilities

You will work on the press office inbox, prioritising press enquiries from across the communications division, you will also monitor the media, and circulate stories relevant to the BBC. You will work on a rota basis with the team.

You will assist the Media Relations Managers and senior team on content issues, policy decisions and reputational matters. You’ll help to prepare statements, briefings and releases as well as day-to-day administrative tasks.

You’ll have a good news sense and ability to spot press opportunities for positive corporate stories, as well as identify risks. You will have an excellent understanding of the BBC and its core values.

The Corporate Press Office has specific responsibility for handling the media on the BBC’s corporate areas, such as the Director-General’s work, diversity, the licence fee, strategy, HR and editorial policy and complaints. It also provides a coordinating role for all the BBC’s communications from the Corporation’s divisional areas including TV and BBC iPlayer, Radio and BBC Sounds, News and Online.

Are you the right candidate?

We are looking for a professional with at least two years’ experience in a similar working environment, with established creative communications skills, in written and verbal communications; who can prioritise and manage tasks efficiently and be able to work well individually and in a team environment.

You will be passionate about the BBC, broadcasting and media relations.

You will have experience of proactive and reactive PR.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours here.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

Please mention the NCTJ when applying.