View Vacancy - Head of Campaigns - Africa Campaigns Hub (40/19 PTA) AU

Main purpose of job:

In Cape Town last summer, the British Prime Minister made a new and distinctive offer for the UK to work alongside, invest in and partner with African nations to deliver more opportunities, more jobs and greater stability – both in the UK and across Sub-Saharan Africa.

To deliver these new partnerships, HMG is rebooting its ability to deliver creative communication campaigns across the continent, with the launch of the Africa Campaigns Hub – and we are looking for an excellent, senior campaigns specialist with a passion for strategic communications to join this new team.

The Africa Campaigns Hub will be a team of 14 communications specialists split between London, Pretoria, Nairobi and Abuja, designing and delivering creative communications campaigns.

This role, with management responsibility for the pan-African campaigns team, will be based in the British High Commission in Pretoria, working closely with and complementing the existing HMG communicators network across Sub-Saharan Africa. The core team in Pretoria – with regional campaign support in Abuja and Nairobi – will bring specialist skills in campaign delivery, strategic communication, digital, insight, monitoring and evaluation to the network.  Working alongside the Head of Digital, you will be responsible for bringing these skills together to develop and deliver pan-African campaigns.

We are looking for a senior media and campaigns specialist with experience in planning, designing and delivering high-profile campaigns that are engaging and influencing, and deliver on policy or business objectives.

You will be enthusiastic and proactive; able to spot thematic links; engage with businesses, civil society groups and others; and take decisions based on audience insight. With an eye for emerging communications trends, you will have a passion for sharing your communications skills with others. You will also have experience of managing a junior team member, helping their deliver to their full potential.

You should also expect to travel, across the region and to the UK.

Roles and responsibilities:

• Work closely with Africa Campaigns Hub colleagues in London, as well as the regional campaign heads in Abuja and Nairobi, and the Head of Digital to design and deliver strategic media and digital communications campaigns – informed by robust audience insight.
• Lead on supporting the upskilling of communicators across HMG’s Africa Network in line with the latest Government Communication Service learning and development programmes, including in campaign planning, audience insight and evaluation.
• Build trusted relationships with local, national and international partners, developing and maintaining an active directory of third party stakeholder contacts – from academia, NGOs, think tanks, campaigners and social media influencers – for supportive engagement opportunities.
• Translate business and policy objectives into communications objectives, generating ideas and plans to meet them and being confident in providing strategic communications advice.  This includes working closely with policy colleagues in London and across the HMG Africa Network to identify excellent stories for media and digital communications that will advance our communications objectives, whilst also identifying and managing risks.
• Working with a Campaign Planning and Support Officer, maintain a grid of communications activity to help plan future campaigning and media stories.
• Manage a Campaign Manager, with responsibility for helping them deliver to their full potential, ensuring consistent delivery of their objectives, and supporting their professional development. This includes embedding a strong culture for evaluating activity and learning lessons, to continually improve performance and impact.

Resources managed:

1 Campaigns Manager in Pretoria

• Postgraduate degree and/or undergraduate degree and other professional qualification.
• At least five years professional work experience
• At least four years professional experience in media, communications or PR, with proven digital and social media skills  
• Strong leadership skills, ideally with experience managing from a distance, and proven ability to motivate and bring teams along.
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills, including stakeholder engagement skills to build credibility with senior government/business representatives as well as colleagues within the UK government network;
• Experience of engaging with the press and securing interview slots and other media opportunities
• Strong copywriting skills and experience of writing press notices and other written materials 
• Experience of organising and leading campaigns
• Excellent organisational and self-management skills to respond effectively to tight – and changing – deadlines and priorities;
• Sound knowledge of MS Office and project management tools.
• The ability to learn quickly and work with a high degree of autonomy;
• A positive “can-do” attitude that can see way through challenges. 
• Strong editorial judgment and ability to communicate effectively with different audiences. 
• Evidence of research to inform communications advice and of using evaluation to learn lessons and improve communications. 
• The ability to build and maintain networks with counterparts in other organisations.  
• Experience of leading proactive and reactive communications plans. 

Language requirements:

Language: English

Level of language required: Fluent