Head of External Communications and Media

Affinity Water; Hatfield; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Car allowance

Office in Hatfield

Learning & development

Senior Manager bonus scheme

Annual leave 26-30 days

Celebration Day

Double match pension

Family benefits

Menopause policy

Wellbeing Centre

Tap4Perks discounts

Affinity days for volunteering

Life Assurance

Job summary

Affinity Water seeks a Head of External Communications & Media to lead brand strategy and customer-facing communications. You will shape a trusted voice across campaigns, events, digital content, and channels, reporting to the Director of Customer Experience.

A team of ~18 colleagues supports delivering consistent, customer-centric messaging. You will drive governance, use data insights to improve impact, and collaborate with senior leaders to protect and grow the brand.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership in brand, marketing, events, or customer communications.
• Strong digital, social media, and campaign experience.
• Excellent written, editorial, and presentation skills.
• Experience influencing Executive and Board-level stakeholders.
• Passion for customers, sustainability, and organisational purpose.

Responsibilities

• Define and manage brand strategy, tone of voice, and voice of the customer across all external communications.
• Ensure communications are consistent, accessible, and mapped to customer journeys.
• Lead campaigns, events, digital content, and social communications that build engagement and trust.
• Collaborate with senior leaders and manage external agencies to deliver high-quality campaigns.
• Maintain governance frameworks and use data and insight to drive continuous improvement.
• Participation on Emergency Controller standby rota.

Skills

Senior leadership

Digital & social

Campaign management

Editorial skills

Stakeholder management

Data-driven decisions

Customer focus

Strategic thinking

Job description

We are looking for a Head of External Communications & Media to lead our brand strategy and customer-facing communications. Reporting to the Director of Customer Experience, this senior leadership role will define, protect, and deliver our brand across written, digital, social, web, campaigns, and events. You will lead a team of approximately 18 collègues, championing the voice of the customer and building meaningful engagement.

The Role

You will own our external brand and customer communications strategy, ensuring messages are clear, consistent, and accessible. You’ll oversee campaigns, events, digital content, and channel communications, using customer insight and performance metrics to drive continuous improvement and trust in the Affinity Water brand.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and manage brand strategy, tone of voice, and voice of the customer across all external communications

• Ensure communications are consistent, accessible, and mapped to customer journeys

• Lead campaigns, events, digital content, and social communications that build engagement and trust

• Collaborate with senior leaders and manage external agencies to deliver high-quality campaigns

• Maintain governance frameworks and use data and insight to drive continuous improvement

• Participation on Emergency Controller standby rota

About You

We are looking for a strategic, creative, and customer-focused leader with a proven track record in brand, marketing, or communications.

Essential experience:

• Senior leadership in brand, marketing, events, or customer communications

• Strong digital, social media, and campaign experience

• Excellent written, editorial, and presentation skills

• Experience influencing Executive and Board-level stakeholders

• Passion for customers, sustainability, and organisational purpose

Desirable experience:

• Understanding of customer journeys in service-based organisations

• Experience in regulated environments (e.g. Ofwat)

• Track record of delivering large-scale campaigns and managing agencies

Skills and attributes:

• Strategic thinking and creativity with attention to detail

• Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills

• Confident using data and insight to guide decisions

• Ability to mobilise teams to deliver ambitious results

Advert closes: Friday 9th October

Benefits:

• Salary circa £100,000 dependant on skills and experience

• Car allowance

• Minimum 2 days per week in our Hatfield office

• Learning and development opportunities, including mentoring and a range of formal courses and open learning resources.

• Entry into the Senior Manager bonus scheme.

• Annual leave from 26-30 rising with length of service, and the option to purchase up to 5 extra days.

• A ‘Celebration Day’ in addition to public holidays that people can use to celebrate a religious festival or other occasion that is important to them.

• A generous 'double match pension scheme' that doubles the contributions you make (company contribution capped at 12%)

• We offer a range of family benefits including enhanced Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave, Fertility Support Leave and up to 5 full or 10 half days of paid Carers Leave.

• Menopause policy and Reasonable Adjustment policy to help everyone perform at their best.

• Access to our Wellbeing Centre with support for looking after your physical and mental health.

• Discounts at a Range of Retail Outlets through our Tap4Perks scheme

• Discounts on Dental and Medical Insurance through our Tap4Perks scheme through salary sacrifice

• Up to 4 Affinity days a year to volunteer in the community.

• Life Assurance.

Disability Confident

As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to offering interviews to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria and opt in on the application form. Ask the Talent Acquisition lead for the full job description to see all the criteria. If we have a very high volume of applicants and we’re not able to offer interviews to all, we’ll take a fair and proportionate number of disabled candidates through.

Affinity Water recognises the benefits of greater diversity in our workforce to better reflect the communities we serve. We are committed to building a more inclusive culture where every member of our workforce can thrive.

You can find out what it’s like to work at Affinity Water through our career site https://www.affinitywatercareers.co.uk/ where our colleagues share their career development stories and you can get a feel for our company culture.