Director of External Affairs and Corporate Communications

Essex Police is seeking an exceptional communications leader to join our Chief Officer Group as Director of External Affairs and Corporate Communications. This is a rare opportunity within one of the UK's largest police forces to bring communities and businesses together to help prevent and detect crime, build trust and confidence, and make Greater Essex an even safer place to live and work.

We are looking for a visionary professional, someone who can bring fresh perspective, strategic direction, and executive-level leadership to a complex and high-profile environment. Whether you come from the private, public or third sector, if you have the credibility, agility, and ambition to lead external affairs and corporate communications at scale, we want to hear from you.

About the Role

As a member of the Chief Officer Group (Executive Board), you will lead the development and delivery of Essex Police's external affairs, corporate communications, and marketing strategies. You will be responsible for shaping how we engage with the public, partners, and stakeholders locally, regionally, and nationally.

This role is about more than just leading a high performing public affairs and corporate communications function. The role will help unite people and organisations to reduce crime, respond effectively to critical incidents and emergencies, keep the public informed and safe, and build a strong workforce and volunteer network of over 6,000 individuals dedicated to protecting and serving the entire county.

You will provide strategic advice at the highest level, lead through critical incidents and represent the Force across multi-agency partnerships and national forums, so that emergency services, local government and private businesses work together to make everyone safer.

As Head of Profession for external affairs and communications you will set standards, drive innovation, and inspire our teams to deliver excellence across all communications and public affairs activity.

You will ensure that people and businesses across Greater Essex know how to avoid becoming a victim of crime, how to contact or to work with police officers and staff to get help or advice and –most importantly – you will help make the county a great place to live and a bad place to try to commit crime.

What We Are Looking For:

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced leader with:

• Extensive executive-level experience in external affairs, communications, media relations, marketing, employee engagement, and stakeholder engagement.
• A proven track record of operating at board level in large, complex organisations in the private, public or third sector.
• Strategic expertise in managing reputational risk, building trust and long-term brand development to support recruitment of the very best people and the creation of effective crime prevention campaigns.
• Political acumen and the ability to build effective relationships across agencies and sectors.
• Experience of leading high-performing teams and embedding long-term planning into a large-scale communications function.
• Exceptional communication and negotiation skills, with a personal ethos of transparency, integrity, and professionalism.

Prior experience in policing is not essential, but the ability to understand and navigate the public sector and landscape is.

Why Essex Police?

Essex Police is a values-led organisation committed to innovation, inclusion, and public service. We offer a unique opportunity to lead at the highest level, influence public trust and confidence, and make a tangible difference to the communities we serve.

You will be joining a collaborative and forward-thinking executive team, with the autonomy to shape strategy and the support to deliver it.

Crime is falling in Greater Essex; this is your chance to join our officers, police staff and volunteers to make a fast-growing region an even safer place to work, to study, to travel through or to live in.

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact:
Geraldine Hetherington on or by

To apply or find out more, visit:
Ellwood Atfield