Communications Officer

Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 33,000 - 37,000; Part time

Job summary

Cardiff University is seeking a Communications Officer for the Women's Health Research and Innovation Centre. The role involves developing communication strategies, managing digital content, and coordinating events to promote women's health. This part-time position offers flexibility, allowing a blend of in-office and remote work.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Mentorship from experienced staff

Family friendly policies

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in a communication role.
• Professional knowledge in events and digital content production.
• Fluent in Welsh preferred.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement the Centre’s communications strategy.
• Manage and evaluate events and engagement activities.
• Create digital content for various platforms.

Skills

Exceptional communications skills

Relationship-building skills

Ability to manage content management systems

Digital marketing knowledge

Attention to detail

Education

Degree/NVQ 4 or equivalent

Tools

Microsoft programmes

Job description

Advert

Communications Officer

Women’s Health Research and Innovation Centre for Wales

School of Psychology

An exciting communications role has arisen to join a new Women’s Health Research and Innovation Centre for Wales within Cardiff University.

You will create, manage and deliver a communication strategy and plan, and develop high quality digital experiences to inform, inspire, involve and influence in a range of channels, including a website, intranet and other digital platforms and newsletters.

You will have exceptional communications and relationship-building skills, proven experience of creating effective digital content and communications and the ability to manage content management systems. You will be able to interpret complex information and communicate it effectively to a range of audiences.

You will work closely with the Centre Manager, Director and other members of the Centre to support the Centre and its researchers with communications and events to promote the work of the Centre providing advice, guidance, and support, and leading on projects within this area. This will include holistic development of events, from sourcing speakers and making the arrangements to promoting events, delivering on the day, and evaluating the impact of the events. A Centre administrator will be able to support event administration.

You will be responsible for maintaining and reviewing content to ensure its accuracy, consistency, accessibility, and effectiveness, and you will plan and deliver new content and features as required. You will proactively research customers’ needs, using your findings to help inform the development of impactful and effective content.

You will be expected to ensure that all related communications and engagement are targeted to reflect audience needs and information consumption habits and are both timely and well planned and reactive according to the communication plan.

This role is eligible to be offered on a blended working basis, meaning that as well as spending time working in the School of Psychology where the centre will be based you can also choose to spend some time working from another location, e.g. your home. Discussions around these arrangements can take place after the successful candidate has been appointed. The University is committed to offering this flexibility, wherever the role and business need allows, supporting work-life balance.

The Centre funding is up to 5 years, subject to a satisfactory Centre performance report after the third year.

This position is part-time (17.5 hours per week), available from 1st April 2025 and fixed term until 31st March 2028, with potential for further two years following satisfactory Centre performance report.

Salary: £33,482 - £36,130 pro-rata per annum (Grade 5). Appointments to roles at Cardiff University are usually made at bottom of scale unless in exceptional circumstances.

The post holder will be responsible to the Centre Manager. For informal enquiries contact the Centre Director, Professor Jacky Boivin (email: [e-mail] )

Date advert posted: Tuesday, 10 June 2025

Closing date: Friday, 27 June 2025

Applications may be submitted in Welsh, and an application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application submitted in English.

Cardiff University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. We believe this can be achieved through attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse range of staff from many different backgrounds. We therefore welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of sex, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, trans identity, relationship status, religion or belief, caring responsibilities, or age. In supporting our employees to achieve a balance between their work and their personal lives, we will also consider proposals for flexible working or job share arrangement.

Job Description

Job Purpose

You will work closely with the Centre Manager, Director and other members of the Centre to support the Centre and its researchers with communications and events to promote the work of the Centre providing advice, guidance, and support, and leading on projects within this area.

Key Duties

• Develop, implement, maintain and update the Centre’s communications and engagement strategy and work according to the objectives outlined in the strategy.
• Engage effectively and maintain appropriate professional communication links with a range of stakeholders and audiences including commercial, public sector and professional organisations, as well as other academic institutions, charities, the public including underserved communities of women, media outlets, etc., regionally, nationally, and internationally to effectively communicate about the need to women’s health, to cultivate strategically valuable alliances, and to pursue opportunities for collaboration across a range of activities.
• Provide professional advice and guidance on digital content production and communications processes, using judgement and creativity to suggest the most appropriate course of action where appropriate.
• Investigate and analyse specific issues within communications effectiveness data, establishing basic trends and patterns, interpreting results, and creating recommendation reports to inform and influence decisions.
• Deliver high-quality, engaging, and effective communications and digital content for a wide range of audiences and purposes including the website, press releases, marketing materials, blogs, policy and practitioner briefings, and newsletters, consistent with the key messages of the Centre and adhering to quality standards (e.g., accessibility, equality and diversity). Proactively change and adapt delivery according to customer requirements.
• To work with the Centre Manager and colleagues in the Centre to manage, develop, deliver and evaluate an annual programme of online and in-person events to include: seminars, workshops, conferences, ‘lunch and learn’ sessions, networking events, and cross-Research Centre meetings.
• Work with research and academic colleagues to secure external funding for engagement work, including writing funding applications for specific engagement projects (e.g. public engagement events) and supporting the Executive Group in Centre-related grant applications with an engagement component.
• To manage administration and plan for all Centre events (with administration support) and manage relationships with external agencies. This includes sourcing and booking venues, organising catering, liaising with speakers, marketing events, managing enquiries and bookings, organising, and producing papers/delegate packs, managing ‘on-the-day’ arrangements, and evaluating events via feedback surveys. To act as the point of contact for all events related queries. Work with external agencies may also involve commissioning films, publications, photography and design work.
• To manage, develop and deliver integrated systems for managing events and communications.
• To manage, develop and deliver the annual communications plan, using internal and external (including social media) platforms for delivery.
• To continuously review and develop other communications methods and channels
• To lead on bilingual communications via social media; intranet; blog; other communications channels and newsletters including managing the mailing list
• To work with the researchers to develop content ideas and to support the team to develop content based on their research. Use judgement and creativity to suggest the most appropriate course of action where appropriate and ensure complex and conceptual issues are understood.
• To work with the Centre Manager on event costings, ensuring that events are organised and delivered in line with agreed budgets.
  
  

Continued in Additional Information.....

Person Specification

Important Note

It is the University’s policy to use the person specification as a key tool for short-listing. Candidates should evidence that they meet ALL the essential criteria as well as, where relevant, the desirable. As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide this evidence via a supporting statement. Please ensure that the evidence you are providing corresponds with the numbered criteria outlined above. We recommend formatting the statement using each criterion as a sub-heading and providing your relevant experience/evidence below each sub-heading. Your application will be considered based on the information you provide under each element. Please ensure when submitting this document / attaching it to your application profile you name it with the vacancy reference number, i.e. 'XXXXXBR - Supporting Statement'.

Essential Criteria

Qualifications and Education

• Degree/NVQ 4 or equivalent Professional membership/experience
  
  

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Substantial experience of working within a communication role with specialist knowledge of key advances in these areas, along with expertise in delivering multiple events and projects with overlapping timescales and deadlines, diverse communities, whilst maintaining excellent attention to detail.
• Able to demonstrate professional knowledge within a communication role including events and communications to give advice and guidance to internal and external customers including a broad knowledge of writing for online platforms, content management systems etc
• Excellent IT skills and proficient use of Microsoft programmes, with previous experience of digital marketing, website content management systems, social media and using online booking and evaluation tools and working with and updating databases.
  
  

Customer Service, Communication and Team Working

• Evidence of ability to explore customers’ needs and adapt the service accordingly to ensure a quality service is delivered
• Evidence of ability to work unsupervised to deadlines, planning and setting priority for own work and any work shared with others, and for the monitoring and reporting of progress.
• Excellent interpersonal and written skills, including the ability to communicate professionally with a range of organisations and individuals at all levels, including senior staff and team members.
• Ability to communicate conceptually detailed and complex information effectively and professionally with a wide range of people and proven ability to develop professional networks in order to contribute to long term developments.
• Experience of producing high quality publications using standard desktop publishing packages.
  
  

Planning, Analysis and Problem Solving

• Evidence of ability to solve expansive problems and challenges using initiative and creativity; identify and propose both practical and innovative solutions
  
  

Desirable Criteria

• Fluent in Welsh, oral and written.
• Experience of working in a Higher Education environment or within women’s health.
• Postgraduate/Professional qualification in communication
• Skills in producing engaging graphics or visuals to communicate complex ideas or data (e.g., infographics) using appropriate graphics design or data visualisation software packages (e.g., Tableau).
• Familiarity with stakeholder management software (e.g., CiviCRM).
• A willingness to undertake further training and development
  
  

Additional Information

Continued from Job Description….

• To prepare evaluation reports and present and share relevant forthcoming events and communications information with Centre Executive Team and liaise closely with colleagues in the University’s Central Communications Team to seek out positive news stories, write engaging copy, and deal with media enquiries.
• To ensure all events, event bookings and delegate information is recorded and used to monitor engagement and to look at how this can be diversified in the future.
• To manage the online presence (through the Intranet and web pages), through social networking platforms
• To work with colleagues to identify relevant stakeholders and key audiences for each communication activity and create targeted mailing lists and promotional activity
  
  

General Duties

• Ensure that an understanding of the importance of confidentiality is applied when undertaking all duties.
• Abide by University policies on Health and Safety and Equality Diversity and Inclusion.
• Perform other duties occasionally which are not included above, but which will be consistent with the role.
• Establish, manage, and maintain relationships with relevant staff across Cardiff University.
• Undertake professional development, as required.
  
  

Additional Information

The Women’s Health Research Wales centre is a £3m investment by Health and Care Research Wales with a Head Office in Cardiff University, and core partners at Bangor University, Swansea University and University of South Wales. The Centre aims to be a global hub for women’s health research and innovation with a mission to eliminate inequalities in women’s health. We established that transformative change for women’s health will require action in four thematic areas: prevention and health(y) transitions (Theme 1), early and life-long conditions (Theme 2), rare and stigmatised conditions (Theme 3), and underserved communities (Theme 3). The Centre will have deep and sustained engagement with communities, business and governments, and a research culture that reflects our aims and promotes action. We will bring together multi-disciplinary expertise from across Wales and foster collaboration with experts in the community, the third sector, government, NHS and industry, and partners elsewhere in the UK and internationally to develop cutting-edge research capable of addressing inequalities in women’s health. Our work will be underpinned by substantial UK and international research funding and projected rapid growth in research staff.

The first Centre Director, Professor Jacky Boivin, will take up her post on the 1st April 2025. The Centre offices will be in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University.

The Centre will offer a stimulating, supportive, inclusive and collegial work environment based in one of the UK’s largest Schools of Psychology, with a world leading reputation in Women’s Health and Health Psychology (see more here: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/psychology ). Cardiff University has an international profile as a successful, research-intensive University, confirmed by the recent Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021, placing us 14th for research power in the UK and first for impact across the devolved nations of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The University provides family friendly policies, pathways for flexible working arrangements, a pension scheme and many other benefits: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jobs/what-we-can-offer including a wealth of training opportunities. Mentorship from University staff with experience in leading Centres is available to support career development. Other Cardiff University schools involved in supporting the Centre are the School of Medicine and Computer Science.

Salary Range Min.

33,482

Salary Range Max.

36,130

Job Category

Marketing, Media and Public Relations

Grade

Grade 5