View Vacancy - Scottish Affairs Officer – Communications and Diaspora lead

Main purpose of job:

This part-time role will join a four-person team leading on all aspects of strategic and operational communications, as well as diaspora, stakeholder and wider audience engagement on behalf of the Scottish Affairs Office (SAO) located in Ottawa.

The jobholder will be responsible for delivering proactive communications in both French and English, ensuring content chosen is relevant to a Canadian audience and promoting modern-day Scotland through the ‘Scotland is Now’ campaign. Using this approach, the jobholder will also lead on stakeholder, diaspora and audience identification, research, mapping and outreach.

This post will have line management responsibilities for the part-time Assistant Scottish Affairs Officer.

Roles and responsibilities / what will the jobholder be expected to achieve?

Social media and strategic communications (45%):

• Developing a communications strategy that includes a review of existing channels, scopes options for social media expansion, analysis and audience segmentation.
• Designing and delivering local campaigns and events relevant to the SAO office’s priorities.
• Working with partners and stakeholders to leverage their existing platforms to showcase Scotland’s offer.
• Developing a clear understanding for engagement with Canadian audiences and identification of specialist media in line with SAO’s priorities.
• As lead for the Channel, developing a clear Twitter strategy to grow followers and engagement by generating content which is relevant, creative and forward thinking.
• Producing a forward plan for daily Tweets, to increase followers and engagement. Ensuring responses to queries and comments on Twitter are timely and appropriate.
• Producing monthly analysis of Twitter performance against predetermined KPIs and using this to develop methods to improve engagement based on evidence.    
• Proactively engaging with marketing teams in Scotland to develop Canada specific content.
• Developing and delivering a newsletter for the office, with the aim of providing regular updates to a wide stakeholder group.

Stakeholder /Diaspora Lead (35%):

• Researching, developing and delivering a strategic plan for diaspora engagement.
• Identifying, researching and delivering activity with think tanks, academia, and civic society to explore potential platforms to partner and showcase Scotland’s policies.
• Producing a stakeholder map for the office, which prioritises outreach and engagement.

Line Management (10%)

• Proactive line management of the part-time Assistant Scottish Affairs Officer, as well as providing cover for duties (e.g. financial monitoring and office management) during absences.

Ad Hoc Duties (10%)

• Supporting wider SAO business as necessary, including annual business evaluation.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with an eye for detail, creativity and ability to communicate effectively.
• Strong knowledge and understanding of social media and ways to enhance audience engagement.
• Proactive with excellent organisational and planning skills. Ability to forward plan and manage time appropriately.
• Ability to apply strategic thinking and demonstrate good judgement with an ability to identify opportunities and proactively solve problems.
• A self-starter who can work independently and also works well as part of a team.
• Strong people skills (will be managing relationships with external partners), ability to establish new relationships and foster old ones on behalf of the office.
• Research skills and ability to collate and analyse information.

Language requirements:

Language: French

Level of language required: Advanced French – ability to read, write and speak in French.