Senior Press Officer

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 308582**Salary**:

- £37,064-
**Job grade**:

- Senior Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Type of role**:

- Communications / Marketing**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Bristol, London, WolverhamptonAbout the job

**Job summary**:

- Call to give region’s leaders £1bn a year to help level up - p1, Yorkshire Post, 1 August
- CAN HE FIX IT? Rishi ‘steps in’ to sort London’s housing crisis - and blames Sadiq - p1, Evening Standard (28 July)
- Sunak ready to overhaul green targets for landlords as general election nears - p1, Financial Times (26 July)
- PM bids to demolish his housing critics - p1, The Times, 25 July
- Sunak: Tories won’t concrete over Green Belt - p1 Daily Telegraph, 24 July
- Gove: Net Zero can’t become a crusade - p1 Sunday Telegraph, 23 July
- M&S boss attacks Gove over planning curbs - p1 Daily Telegraph, 21 July

If you want to work on front page national news stories day after day, then come and work with us. As you can see from a recent week - above - the press office at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) handles plenty of big issues and we want some amazing Senior Press Officers to help tell our stories.

This is a great opportunity for talented and confident communications professionals to join a busy and friendly press office that delivers a high quality 24/7 media relations operation for the DLUHC Secretary of State and Ministers.

As a Senior press officer, you’ll be managing a team and using your well-honed media skills to both shape the communications strategy around key policies and deliver impactful announcements.

You’ll be responsible for helping us communicate government work on some of its most important and high-profile priorities, such as: levelling up, holding developers to account for fixing dangerous cladding, supporting more people to own their own homes, housing families from Ukraine, shifting power to England’s regions through devolution, tackling anti-social behaviour, improving the quality and decency of social and private rented housing, creating investment zones and freeports across the UK, promoting community and faith cohesion and strengthening the Union.

You can find more detailed information about the work of the Department here.

**Job description**:
As a senior press officer, you will be very comfortable speaking with journalists and briefing media to generate and influence coverage.

Working to a Chief Press Officer, you will manage your team in creating and executing media plans to a demonstrably high standard and use your superb press skills and contact book to brief journalists sensitively on high-profile issues.

Your team of press officers will work with you to create compelling stories and output across print, broadcast and digital channels; deal with reactive news swiftly and robustly; and consistently provide senior officials and Ministers with expert media advice and accompany Ministers on media visits. In more detail, you will be expected to:

- Manage a modern media team in developing and implementing proactive long-term handling strategies that set the agenda across the full range of channels.
- Understand departmental and Ministerial priorities so you can communicate key messages clearly, accurately and creatively.
- Anticipate and spot breaking news stories and manage your team to issue swift, robust and appropriate responses at short notice and under pressure.
- Have personal impact in the full range of press office work from skilfully and effectively briefing journalists to advising ministers face to face with authority.
- Work effectively with communications colleagues in all disciplines across the department, so that press plans are joined up with overall communications strategies.
- Provide support and direction to your team, with particular attention to managing and developing their skills to build their potential.
- Play a full part in both the wider management team - helping create a professional and friendly office.
- Develop and maintain strong working relationships with Ministers, private offices, special advisers, senior officials, journalists, stakeholders and colleagues in other departments including No.10 Downing Street.
- You will also be expected to take part in the unit’s out-of-hours media service, for which overtime and allowances are paid.

**Person specification**:

- You must have demonstrable experience of a sharp news sense, excellent drafting skills, sound judgement and strong political awareness.
- You will have significant media skills gained from working in a fast-paced communications environment. You should also be comfortable working flexibly: priorities can shift quickly, so resilience and initiative are vital.
- We need to know you can manage a team,