Judicial Appointments Commission

**Judicial Appointments Commission - Senior Strategic Communications Manager - 64959**
**£43,647 - £48,067**
**London**:
**About the JAC**

The JAC is responsible for designing, planning, and running recruitment campaigns to select judicial office holders up to and including High Court Judges. We have a statutory duty to select solely on merit, while keeping our selection processes open to the widest range of applicants. We launch a new campaign for judicial posts every one to two weeks. These range from high volume campaigns for ‘entry level’ posts, attracting upward of 2,000 applicants, to small campaigns for senior roles, attracting a handful of highly qualified people.

Though located at Clive House, Petty France, London, SW1H 9AJ JAC staff are currently working in a hybrid way with some days in the office and some days working remotely. It will be necessary for the successful postholder to work at the JAC location regularly to support business need.

We offer a range of benefits including an attractive annual leave allowance, flexible working, and choice of pension schemes. We actively encourage all staff to undertake learning and development as part of their personal objectives.

**The Role**

We are looking for a **Senior Strategic Communications Manager** (grade SEO) to join the Diversity and Engagement team. The Senior Strategic Communications Manager will lead on strategic communications at the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) for both internal and external audiences. A key focus will be working with senior stakeholders to promote the work of the JAC and maintain its reputation as a centre of excellence in selection. You will provide communications advice to the JAC Chair, Chief Executive, Commissioners, and teams across the JAC to support the delivery of strategic objectives.

Working closely with colleagues across the organisation, you will also deliver engaging editorial material at pace. You will have the autonomy to develop stories; create content, manage communication campaigns, events, and projects. You should relish the challenge of working in a small but dynamic team, collaborating with colleagues who are passionate about the JAC’s mission. This is an exciting and varied role with many opportunities to be involved in new projects and initiatives.

**Main Responsibilities**

Reporting to the Head of Diversity and Engagement, your main responsibilities will be to:

- Lead on the implementation and evaluation of our Communication and Engagement strategy and helping to develop future communications strategies
- Be the main internal and external strategic communications advisor to the JAC Commissioners and senior leadership team.
- Manage the relationships and expectations of a range of key external stakeholders, tailoring messages appropriately and paying close attention to detail
- Working closely with policy and operational staff to develop and implement communications and engagement plans, including advising on audience targeting, messaging, channels, and evaluation
- Working with the JAC external communications adviser to devise, deliver and oversee all media handling
- Providing communications support to the JAC Digital team in the creation and launch of our new website
- Overseeing the delivery of internal communications in line with our values, including intranet content
- Line managing 2 communication managers (HEO/IO)

**Recruitment process details**

**Behaviours**

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the recruitment process:

- Communicating and influencing
- Working together
- Seeing the big picture
- Making effective decisions

In addition to the core behaviours and strengths, it is expected the successful applicant will have:

- Strong understanding of all communications tools and channels, the communication landscape, how audiences react to messages and how to influence behaviours and attitudes.
- The ability to manage the complex needs of a range of high-profile and influential stakeholders within a specialist area
- Knowledge of communications evaluation techniques and methods
- The ability to provide concise oral and written briefing for the JAC Chair, Commissioners and Chief Executive
- The confidence and persuasiveness to communicate with people at all levels, offering advice to our Senior Leadership Team and colleagues across the organisation
- Experience of the design and delivery of digital communications.

**Desirable criteria**
- Understanding of legal sector

**Application process**
- Your CV
- A statement of suitability detailing the relevant experience and skills you have that would make you suitable for the post (500 words max).
- Written evidence of the 4 core behaviours for this role**:Communicating and influencing, Working together, Seeing the big picture, Making effective decisions**

**Sift**

**Interview**

At interview you we will assess you against all 4 behaviours: Communicating and influencing, Working together, Seeing the bi