View Vacancy - CPK - Head of Communications - China Prosperity Fund, C4(L)

The British Government is an inclusive and diversity-friendly employer.  We value difference, promote equality and challenge discrimination, enhancing our organisational capability. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, race, colour, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status or other category protected by law. We promote family-friendly flexible working opportunities, where operational and security needs allow.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Policy & Political roles)
Economic and Prosperity

We are looking for a confident and proactive Communications lead for the China Prosperity Fund. The role will oversee the development and delivery of the communication strategy for the programme covering the areas of Business Environment, Infrastructure, Financial Services, Energy and Low Carbon Economy, Skills, Health, Global Partners and Sustainable Urban Environments. 

The successful candidate will need to demonstrate creativity and initiative to maximise our communications to the China Network and key stakeholders across UK Government. S/he will develop communications products that will be read at a senior level within UK Government. The successful candidate will also be proactive in looking for new opportunities to promote the Prosperity Fund Programme in China, as well as showcasing the programme impact and UK-China collaboration.

S/he will work closely with the Prosperity Fund Programme teams and their suppliers and partners to ensure the communications strategy and branding guidelines are being followed and the programme work is appropriately magnified.

S/he will need excellent communication and influencing skills in order to build strong relationships with the different programme teams, to grip their priorities and support them in developing effective messaging. 

S/he is required to build and develop an excellent relationship with the Embassy Communications team and will ensure the Prosperity Fund communications strategy supports the overall China Network communications strategy. S/he is responsible for providing the Embassy media team with timely information about the programmes and will suggest story ideas for both media and social media channels.

Communication strategy:

  • Set the overarching China Prosperity Fund communications strategy, including developing an internal communications strategy and stakeholder management plan
  • Engage with UK Government departments to ensure that communications are aligned with Ministerial steers and other UK Government priorities
  • Proactively engage with programme teams to understand their communications priorities, and support them in developing, delivering and evaluating communications plans and activities
  • Engage with programme teams and their suppliers and partners to ensure that programme branding guidelines and requirements are being met
  • Identify opportunities to promote the UK’s Prosperity Fund work in China and find ways to maximise the impact of our messages

Activities include (but not limited to):

Internally facing (60%)

  • Drafting communication plans and stakeholder maps
  • Developing communications materials including briefings, impact stories and scripts
  • Working with programme teams to create clear, impactful messaging
  • Evaluating success of communications activities and feeding into Monitoring, Reporting, Evaluation and Learning activities as appropriate

Externally facing (40%)

  • Organising media briefings
  • Leading on Freedom Of Information requests, providing briefing materials to FCO teams in London and responding to information/reporting requests
  • Writing communication materials (press releases, speeches etc)

Visit co-ordination:
Work with the Embassy media team supporting with media activities for regular visits by senior Ministers, VIPs, experts and visits by senior Embassy officials to regional cities, where there is a clear Prosperity Fund programme element.  Develop ideas for media opportunities to deliver the visitor’s objectives, provide high quality briefing and advice and achieve high impact coverage.

The position is advertised as only being up to end of November 2020, however, all Prosperity Fund positions will be subject to an annual review (as part of the wider programme annual review cycle). 

  • Degree level qualification or equivalent
  • Native English speaker
  • Minimum of four years’ experience working in a communications/media role
  • Experience of working with a range of external stakeholders
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills to engage with China Network teams
  • Experience of working with UK and Chinese Government stakeholders
  • Understanding of international, especially UK-China, relations
  • Understanding of the Prosperity Fund, particularly in a China context
  • Chinese speaker
3 November 2019
Higher Executive Officer (HEO)
Full-time, Fixed term, with possibility of renewal
35
Asia Pacific
China
Beijing
British Embassy
1
CNY
37,488
2 December 2019

We offer a competitive package, which includes basic salary, good leave entitlement, and insurance plan, etc. The gross starting salary (before all deductions) for this  position is CNY 27,596 / month for Chinese Nationals and an abated monthly salary of CNY 35,959 / month for British Nationals and spouses/ partners (all nationalities) of diplomats who are ‘W’ (diplomatic) visa holders and meet passport criteria.

We also offer excellent development opportunities and a 22-day annual leave entitlement in pro rata.  For more details on our Total Rewards Package, please visit our website http://www.gov.uk/government/world/china.

Staff recruited locally by the British Embassy Beijing is subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local Chinese employment law.

All applications must be received before 11:55PM (China Standard Time) on 03 November 2019.

Incomplete application forms will not be taken into consideration, so please ensure you provide the information requested. We regret to advise that we will only be contacting short-listed candidates. Applicants called for an interview will be assessed on the core competencies listed above.

To those applicants not short-listed, we extend our appreciation for considering the British Government as a potential employer.

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.

This opportunity is closed to applications.