Senior Communications Manager

About us

UCL is a radically different university. Founded in 1826 in the heart of London we are a multidisciplinary university, with more than 16,000 staff and 50,000 students from over 150 countries. We were the first university in England to welcome students of any religion and the first to welcome women on equal terms with men. UCL is a diverse community with the freedom and courage to challenge, to question and to think differently.

UCL is regularly ranked amongst the top 10 universities in the world and recently named University of the Year 2024 by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024. Our progressive approach to teaching and research, our world leading academics, curious students and outstanding staff continually pursue excellence, break boundaries, and make an impact on real world problems.

The Vice-President External Engagement (VPEE) team delivers communications and marketing activity for UCL, working to ensure UCL’s public prominence, reputation and influence reflects the university’s excellence in knowledge creation, education, and innovation.

About the role

We are recruiting for a Senior Communications Manager who will deliver communications to ensure that UCL's narrative is coherently and consistently communicated through impactful content and campaigns. They will play a vital role in enhancing and safeguarding UCL’s reputation by managing complex internal communication challenges and mitigating potential risks and will work closely with our Head of Communications to help lead UCL’s internal communications response to issues and incidents of reputational significance, including both reactive issues and longer-term positioning around strategically important topics.

About you

To be considered for this role, you must have previous experience working in PR communications, brand or agency marketing in a complex, stakeholder focused environment, with experience in responding to critical incidents that represent a threat to an organisation’s brand integrity, reputation or safety. You have excellent written and verbal communication skills with faultless attention to detail and an ability to write, edit copy and present to a variety of audiences, including ability to translate complex material in lay terminology.

You are an innovative thinker, and are a self-motivated and adaptable who is capable of working effectively on numerous projects simultaneously and at fast pace, and with the ability to deliver through other people, including bringing together informal teams with speed to deliver on a common goal. You are a clear and confident communicator, comfortable and competent in presenting ideas to others and advocating for VPEE’s professional opinion, and you have the flexibility to work on a small number of evenings and weekends with time off in lieu if so.

What we offer

As well as the exciting opportunities this role presents we also offer some great benefits including 41 Days holiday (including 27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days) and much more, which can be seen on our website.