Head of Communications

Location: Woods Mill
Salary: £37,025.63
Contract Type: Permanent
Hours: 35pw
Closing Date: 22nd July 2024
Interview Date: Beginning of August TBC

Would you love to have a key role in connecting people with the amazing wildlife and
wild places in Sussex?

Do you have experience across a breadth of communication channels and a desire to use
these skills to reach diverse audiences and inspire them to take action for nature?

Sussex Wildlife Trust is currently recruiting for a Head of Communications, an exciting
opportunity for a experienced communications professional to lead our talented and creative
team. This role would help deliver the Trust’s new strategy “Our Wild Sussex” to support our
vision of a Sussex rich in wildlife, valued and protected by everyone.

Sussex Wildlife Trust

Sussex Wildlife Trust (SWT) is a conservation charity for everyone who cares about nature in
Sussex. We focus on protecting the wonderfully rich natural life that is found across our
towns, countryside and coast. By working alongside local people we create opportunities for us
all to connect with nature and for nature to thrive in even the most unlikely places.

We are now in a critical decade for change to protect and restore nature with the help of more
people taking action for wildlife. Now is the time for an ambitious action plan to match the
scale and urgency of the challenges we are facing. Our new Strategic Plan – Our Wild
Sussex – was launched in April and sets out our vision and commitment to turning the
tide for wildlife so that by 2030, nature in Sussex will be in recovery.

To deliver our new strategic aims, we have recently completed a comprehensive restructure of
the charity to align to our goals. This restructure has generated a suite of new roles and
opportunities which will enable us to achieve our ambitions of restoring and protecting at
least 30% of Sussex land and sea for nature, inspiring one in four people in Sussex to take
meaningful action for wildlife, building a stronger more inclusive and diverse organisation and
becoming a net zero and climate resilient organisation.

In order to encourage diversity and inclusivity within the environment sector, we particularly
welcome applications from people who have an ethnically or geographically diverse background,
who are non-graduates and/or are living in economically deprived areas

The Role

To enable Sussex Wildlife Trust to deliver effective action for wildlife in Sussex by leading
the Communications Team to deliver high quality communications, excellent customer engagement
and engaging visitor experiences.

This requires a strategic approach to ensure the creation of inspiring communications,
delivered to diverse audiences, through a wide range of media, whilst safeguarding the Trust’s
reputation.

The Person

We are seeking a highly skilled and creative individual who will work as part of the Trust’s
senior management team to communicate and engage audiences in our exciting new strategy.

They will be a experienced leader who will provide direction, management and development for
the Trust’s talented Communications Team. With a track record of originating and executing
engaging communications across a range of media, to maximise media exposure and to reach and
inspire diverse audiences including our members and supporters,.

They will be confident and experienced in budget management and performance monitoring to
ensure the effectiveness of the Trust’s communication activities. These include interpretation,
publications and communications across all key media and digital platforms. Experience of PR
would also be beneficial.

Experience of campaigns would be useful as this role will support local campaigns as well as
working closely with the national Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts on nation-wide campaigns and
communications.

Benefits

• 25 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays each year (pro-rated for part time staff)
• Pension – company contribution from 6% and employee contribution of 3%
• Life Assurance – Pension Scheme Members 2 x Salary, Non-Pension Scheme Members 1 x Salary
• 2 days paid leave for volunteering each year
• Flexible working policy
• Enhanced Sick Pay
• EAP
• Employee discounts
• Informal car share arrangements

For more detailed information see what we offer page in the Recruitment Pack on our website.