Guide Dogs is looking for a fast-paced media hound, with extensive experience in media relations and strong contacts. You will have a relentless passion for securing high quality media coverage and have a deep understanding of the media landscape.

The role holder needs to have strong written, verbal and presentation skills and should be comfortable regularly writing compelling press releases, media advisories, features, thought leadership pieces and statements, as well as engaging social media content.

We need someone who is creative, innovative, and agile; with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think on your feet. As well as leading campaigns and supporting the communications team, the role will work closely with colleagues across Guide Dogs including in digital, marketing, operations, volunteering and fundraising.

This is a hybrid role working 2-3 days per week from your nearest Guide Dogs office, the remaining days can be worked from home. This role is 35 hours per week, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

We offer a generous pension scheme, annual leave, life assurance and enhanced pay for parenting and sickness leave. In addition, we provide an Employee Assistance Programme, flexible benefits package and discounts and cashback scheme to care for our people.

More details can be found in the attached candidate pack and job description.

We reserve the right to close adverts earlier than the closing date.

Diversity
Guide Dogs welcomes applications from all sections of the community and actively encourages diversity to maximise achievements, creativity, and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or nationality.

We encourage applications from people with disabilities as they are currently under-represented in the organisation and guarantee an invitation to interview for all applicants with disabilities who demonstrate, within their application form, sufficient evidence to meet the essential criteria for the job.

Safeguarding
Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and adults at risk of harm with whom we work. We expect all our employees and volunteers to fully share this commitment.

At Guide Dogs, we believe in fair and equitable hiring practices. A criminal record will not automatically disqualify an applicant from consideration for a position. Each case will be evaluated individually, taking into account the nature of the offense, its relevance to the role, and the time that has passed since the incident. We encourage all candidates to disclose relevant information, and we assure you that it will be handled confidentially and fairly.

To be able to fulfil this role, the skills and experience we are looking for in a potential candidate include;

Essential

• Experience of working within a busy press office and as part of an integrated communications team
• A demonstratable track record of identifying, developing and securing high quality media opportunities which meet strategic objectives and KPIs
• Experience of telling people’s real-life stories in an engaging, inspiring and respectful way to bring our Brand and services to life
• Ability to build a rapport and strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Experience with developing engaging, creative content for owned digital channels
• An up to date and encyclopaedic understanding of the media landscape and communications best practice, with strong journalist contacts
• A creative thinker able to identify and develop campaign concepts and turn them into media gold
• Good understanding of the larger marketing mix and how PR and communications fit in
• Excellent writing and communication skills with the ability to write for a range of audiences and sectors
• Comfortable pitching to target media on a regular basis including national, regional broadcast; online and print as well as specialist trade
• The ability to spot a gap in the comms calendar and develop ‘news out of nothing’ by mining content from the organisation independently

For the complete list of essential and desirable criteria necessary to be successful in this role please see the Person Specification within the Job Description below. The candidate pack contains more information about this role & the recruitment process at Guide Dogs.

If you are successful you will need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. We cannot provide sponsorship for this role.

How to apply
If you have any accessibility issues or if you require any support with your application, please contact our Recruitment Team on 0118 3540345 or TATeam@guidedogs.org.uk

Applications need to be made using the online application form, accessed using the ‘apply’ button above.

As part of your application ensure you provide evidence and examples of how your skills & experience meet the criteria as set out in the attached job description.

The system has a one-hour time limit. We would advise you to prepare your answers separately and then copy and paste into the online form once finalised.

If any mandatory fields are missed, a pop-up box will appear at the top of the page advising which sections require completion.

Guide Dogs follow Safer Recruitment practices to ensure we are safeguarding the vulnerable people we work with. As part of this, we require a full work history with any gaps accounted for & a minimum of 2 professional referee details fully covering the past 5 years. If there is not enough space in your application form to provide this information, please ensure you upload additional documentation containing the additional detail.