About this role

To help build and protect the reputation, and support the commercial objectives, of Openreach. You will support, develop and implement impactful communications programmes to influence and reach a wide variety of external stakeholders through a broad range of channels - including national and regional media, trade media and social media.

You'll have the following responsibilities

Proactive media relations – Along with the rest of the press office team, identify, build and maintain strong relationships with key journalists that build our reputation with national, regional and trade media. This will include proactively generating and attending meetings and hospitality opportunities during and outside of normal working hours. 

Proactive campaign development and support – work with the wider Strategic/External Comms team and across the Corporate Affairs unit to develop and execute proactive campaigns, activities and announcements that support broader company objectives, from tactical short-term opportunities to long-term campaigns. This will include writing/developing news releases, case studies and entries for Awards. 

Reactive press office management – Support the day-to-day reactive management of the Openreach Strategic/External Communications function. Respond to journalists and other stakeholders in the press office, manage queries and review a wide range of press, social media, customer and policy requests to determine the best course of action. Draft reactive responses for sign-off by a senior colleague and manage requests and enquiries end-to-end for the best possible outcome. 

On-call rota – You’ll support the on-call press office rota, providing 24:7 cover including out of office hours, approximately one week in eight, when you’ll also be responsible for compiling the weekly PR report and monitoring social media. Our crisis management function occasionally requires out-of-hours work, when you’ll be responsible for monitoring, assessing and preparing responses to crises across all channels.

Social media – find and develop story leads and other content using internal contacts and tools like Workplace for use across our social media channels and liaise with our social media agency to drive engagement and positive sentiment. 

Trend tracking and insight – watch trends that affect our business and are of general interest to our audience & use insights to inform our communications activities. Learn how to use Social Studio and enhance external comms monitoring streams. 

Counsel and advice – Support the press office team to provide day-to-day counsel and direction for incident management communications, to ensure consistency of messaging to internal and external audiences. Work to establish yourself as a trusted advisor to key internal contacts, from frontline advisors who help us manage reactive enquiries to senior managers and directors across our functions.

Content development – develop and maintain a wide range of external communications content, such as images and video, fact sheets and background documents.

Customer communications – whether for crisis communications or proactive customer messaging, the External Communications team has a critical role in reviewing and providing feedback on a wide range of customer communications.

Cross team planning – help plan and co-ordinate activity across the broader Strategic/External Communications and Corporate Affairs team, working into the Senior Manager, External/Strategic Communications. 

You'll have the following skills & experience

Experience of working in a fast-paced, consumer-oriented press office environment either in-house or at a PR agency or similar fast-paced service orientated role.

Understanding of the UK media landscape and the ability to build key relationships with relevant media.

Experience of landing successful proactive campaigns and content creation.

Experience of handling reactive enquiries and crisis management preferable. 

Background in and passion for technology or telecommunications a significant plus. 

Excellent writer, with some experience writing reactive media statements, features, press releases and content for social media.

Logical, curious, detail-oriented – ability to analyse complicated situations and communicate them in a clear and understandable way.