Press Officer

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

- 436193

**Salary**:

- £34,765 - £41,375
- National: £34,765-£37,080.
London: £38,795-£41,375.
Plus additional overtime payments for out of hours duty shifts.
For details of our pay on appointment policy, please see below under the heading ‘Salary’.
- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer

** Contract type**:

- Permanent

** Business area**:

- DEFRA - Strategy - Communications

** Type of role**:

- Communications / Marketing

** Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

** Number of jobs available**:

- 3

**Contents**:

- Location
- About the job
- Benefits
- Things you need to know

** Location**:

- Bristol, London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York

** About the job**:
** Job summary**:

- We are looking for ambitious, talented and motivated press officers.
- Whether it's actions to enhance and improve the environment, protecting the nation from flooding and animal disease outbreaks, or preparing new approaches to farming and fishing, the work of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is of huge public interest.

You will have an excellent knowledge of the news agenda, combined with strong news judgement, political awareness and the ability to confidently present your work.

Job description**:

- Providing timely proactive and reactive media handling advice to ministers, senior officials and leaders from across the Defra group.
- Producing external communications products in the forms of press releases, reactive media lines and social media content.
- Helping organise ministerial or senior leader interviews, visits, announcements and publicity around speeches and events.
- Effectively briefing journalists accurately and with authority.
- Provide a monitoring service across online, print, broadcast and social media.
- Work with colleagues across the communications team to develop strategies to communicate our work.
- Developing an understanding of issues across the Defra group, enabling you to play an effective part in the wider communications team.
- You will also be expected to participate in the out of hours duty rota for which there is additional pay.** Person specification**:

- Experience of working in a fast-paced communications role with the ability to prioritise and manage competing demands.
- Strong knowledge of the national news agenda and media landscape including new and multi-media; strong news judgment and political awareness.
- Excellent written and oral communications skills.
- Strong influencing skills, the ability to build rapport with a range of stakeholders.
- Track record of working collaboratively with colleagues in a team.** Behaviours**:

- We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Working Together-
- Communicating and Influencing
- Delivering at Pace**Benefits**:

- Alongside your salary of £34,765, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £10,071 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%** Things you need to know**:
** Selection process details**:

- This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

** Application Process**
- Your personal statement should provide detailed evidence of how you meet the essential criteria as noted in the person specification section of the job advert.
- **Sift**
- Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
- **Interview**-
- Communicating and influencing
- Delivering at pace
- Working together
- Seeing the big picture- A presentation/additional exercise may also be assessed.
- Interviews will take place online via Microsoft Teams.
- **Artificial intelligence**
- **Location**
- Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
- Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.
- The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organ