Senior Communications Officer
37 hours
Salary £31,099- £34,723
County Hall
What’s in it for you:
Dorset is a leader in digital innovation, skills, leadership and the use of emerging technology in a rural place. Join the council’s Digital Place Team and help ensure the county makes the most of all the digital opportunities available.
Our four programmes cover connectivity, skills, leadership and innovation: this role will work across all four. We have a clear Digital Vision to become a digital council in a digital place, which structures our activity.
Dorset is known for its stunning Jurassic Coast and Thomas Hardy villages: agriculture and tourism. It’s a popular place to retire. Poor connectivity and digital skills have been major challenges, which we have faced head on.
Thanks to the council’s highly successful Superfast Dorset programme and other initiatives, we have excellent connectivity for a rural county. Our track-record saw the government this year choose Dorset as the first county in the UK to benefit from its £5bn Project Gigabit initiative, bringing lightning-fast broadband to very rural areas. You will help us to reach more of them with future proof gigabit-capable connections.
With a high percentage of older people and substantial pockets of deprivation, the council realised that its shift to digital would only succeed if it addressed digital deprivation. In 2022, the council developed its digital skills programme, reaching more people than ever before.
You will help us ensure people have the right skills to benefit from this new connectivity technology so that businesses flourish and no-one gets left behind.
Building on innovative initiatives such as the award-winning 5G Rural Dorset programme, the council adopted digital innovation as one of its ten political commitments, promising to continue to pioneer new technologies for long-term economic prosperity. Specifically, it agreed to safeguard and encourage job retention and growth, working with the private sector.
We aim to improve economic prosperity at all levels, by attracting new tech businesses to grow the number of high-skilled jobs, ensuring our workforce has the skills it needs and supporting all our residents to join us on the digital journey. You will help us attract inspiring leaders and businesses to Dorset to improve the way we deliver services and so people can access great jobs in new industries that suit our rural county.
Our #DigitalDorset brand represents the innovation and skills activity taking place across the county. Its e-newsletter has over 10,000 recipient and a strong social media presence, enabling it to reach residents, businesses, visitors and many partners from within and beyond the area. Dorset’s digital journey is celebrated every year in our annual Festival of the Future (FutureFest). You will network among inspiring digital leaders and help us celebrate existing innovation.
What you can expect to be doing:
We need a communications ace with a “can-do” attitude to join our supportive, fast-paced team delivering innovation and next generation connectivity projects.
Working flexibly with two other communicators in the wider team, you will create best-in-class products in digital and physical formats, often working with key partners from government, industry, academia and other parts of the public sector.
In a typical week you might work on a short video, write an awards submission, produce an e-newsletter, help run a hackathon, write a news release and promote all these via social media.
We are never short of a story to tell - many of those we work with are experts in their field responsible for world firsts in technology and digital innovation.
About you:
We want to hear from positive thinkers who are excited by technology and love to understand/explain the benefits of innovation to others. Every story you tell – whether it’s via a short film clip or a piece of writing - will be human in tone and genuinely engaging.
A quick learner and used to a faced-paced environment, you will be comfortable managing your workload across a range of projects.
Most importantly, you must be easy to work with, have a fantastic attitude and make our multi award-winning team even better.
We operate a flexible working policy and remote working has become a well-established feature of our day-to-day operations. However, the substantive base for this role wherever you live is County Hall in Dorchester and specific claimable mileage rules apply. In person attendance at certain meetings or events will be required to meet service needs and we also encourage staff to consider working from County Hall in our dedicated team area.
This position has an occasional travel requirement. The post holder must have a current UK eligible driving licence to enable use of their own or pool vehicle if required.
Please contact Colin Wood, Programme Manager - 5G & Mobile on 01305 228825 for an informal discussion about the role.
This post requires significant travel. You must have a vehicle (or transport we deem suitable) available for use as needed.
This role is UK based and we will need to establish your Right to Work as part of the appointment process.
We use generic job descriptions and person specifications. This means the job title on any attachments may differ from the job title in the advert. We may provide specific information in a context statement if relevant.
We cannot accept CVs in the place of an application form as we need the same range of information from all our candidates.
Find out more about how to apply.
Dorset Council: A great place to work
We’re passionate about making Dorset a great place to live, work and visit. Working for us should be no exception.
At Dorset Council we:
- provide more than 450 services to over 300,000 residents
- have ambitious aspirations
- are excited about our future
- care about Dorset and all the people who live here
- know that all roles make a difference and that our employees are key to our success
You will:
- have access to a range of employee benefits
- be part of an organisation that supports each other to grow and succeed
- have access to range of training opportunities which will help with your personal development and career progression
We are challenging ourselves to become a more diverse and inclusive organisation. We recognise that recruitment and inclusion of individuals with diverse skills, perspectives and backgrounds will bring real strength to the council and our communities. We have a commitment to equality and welcome applications from everyone.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer. We offer an interview to everyone who declares a disability and meets the essential criteria for the role.
We are keen to make our interviews accessible. Let us know on your job application if you have a disability and need any reasonable adjustments.
We also look for applicants who share our commitment to our behaviours. We will ask you to evidence when you have demonstrated them as part of the selection process.
If appointed, the personal information we collect from you will be shared with Cifas who will use it to prevent fraud, other unlawful or dishonest conduct, malpractice, and other seriously improper conduct. If any of these are detected, you could be refused certain services or employment. Your personal information will also be used to verify your identity. Further details of how your information will be used by us and Cifas, and your data protection rights, can be found at https://www.cifas.org.uk/fpn.