Communications Officer
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland
The succesful candidate will be responsible for devising and delivering communications strategies which align with the university’s strategic priorities and will develop communications plans for specific initiatives, integrating traditional media relations activity with digital and stakeholder engagement to build RCSI’s profile.
They will keep abreast of developments in external communications and ensure that our strategies integrate emerging trends in digital and stakeholder engagement.
Title: Communications Officer
Department: Communications
Tenure: Three-year contract. Full-time.
Location: Hybrid - Dublin City Centre
Reporting to: Head of Communications or nominee
Closing Date: 23:45pm on Thursday 2nd of October
RCSI Communications
This role is an opportunity to join the award-winning RCSI Communications team, recognised as in-house communications team of the year, for two consecutive years, at the PRII/PRCA Awards for Excellence in PR 2020 and 2021.
RCSI’s Communications team manages the university’s internal and external relations. Our overarching objective is to enhance and protect RCSI’s national and international reputation as leaders in healthcare education and research and to showcase the university’s societal impact.
The team is proud to be part of a community of professionals who are ambitious for the institution we work for, where innovation is part of the culture, and where our expertise is valued and respected.
Purpose of this role
We are looking for a creative and ambitious team-player to play a central role in the next phase of RCSI’s strategy to build its national and international reputation. This is a rewarding, exciting and challenging position in a team that is driven to continuously build and improve so we have the capability to support the university in achieving its strategic goals.
The Communications Officer will play a pivotal role in driving RCSI’s corporate communications strategy which aims to enhance and protect the reputation of RCSI as a world-leading health sciences university. They will play an important role in profiling the work of RCSI’s research community and demonstrating RCSI’s impact in Ireland and globally.
They will be responsible for devising and delivering communications strategies which align with the university’s strategic priorities and will develop communications plans for specific initiatives, integrating traditional media relations activity with digital and stakeholder engagement to build RCSI’s profile.
They will keep abreast of developments in external communications and ensure that our strategies integrate emerging trends in digital and stakeholder engagement.
Specifically, the duties of the post are:
Strategic communications
- Contributing to the development of communications strategies, with a focus on key national stakeholders and international partners and academic peers Implementing external strategic communications campaigns to promote RCSI’s education, training, research and outreach activities
- Ensuring RCSI’s social media activity is fully integrated as part of the communications strategy
Media relations
- Writing compelling press releases and securing media coverage for publications, events and initiatives
- Developing and maintaining strong relationships with relevant media nationally and internationally and pitching news items / features to media, highlighting university activities
- Dealing with media queries in an accurate and timely manner
- Identifying media opportunities for RCSI academics to provide expert media commentary and interviews part of the RCSI Expert Directory
- Organising photoshoots and creating media photo call opportunities
Stakeholder communications
- Developing and issuing key stakeholders newsletters
- Writing content and curating visuals for RCSI websites
- Creating and coordinating key documents and briefing materials including messaging documents, media fact sheets, presentations, report writing, speeches etc.
- Supporting new and emerging communications activities that will drive the strategic objectives of the university
Digital engagement
- Supporting the development and delivery of RCSI’s social media strategy, to enhance and protect RCSI’s national and international reputation
- Curating compelling organic social media content
- Developing, managing and reporting on dynamic paid social campaigns and strategies and campaigns
- Continuously exploring new channels to engage with audiences as technologies emerge that could add value to RCSI’s reputation
- Providing social media training to RCSI research community
- Managing effectively the cost of campaigns
Collaboration
- Working collaboratively with members of the communications team and key stakeholders to develop communications plans and materials
- Communicating with internal and external stakeholders and others in a professional, positive and appropriate manner
Knowledge and Experience
- Third level qualification in communications /science communications/ public relations/ digital communications or relevant discipline
- Third level qualification or training in digital marketing desirable
- Experience in science communications is desirable
- Experience in PR /communications
- Experience of driving social media strategies aimed at building reputation
- Experience of building organic and promoted social media campaigns
- An understanding of how to measure success of campaigns and leverage lessons learned to inform future campaigns
- Success in driving external communication campaigns with print, broadcast and online media.
- Good knowledge of the Irish media landscape and success in achieving national media coverage
- Experience of international media relations desirable
- Knowledge of producing and issuing newsletters using email marketing platforms/ CRMs
- Experience writing and editing news and feature content for the web,
- Experiencing writing and editing internal and external newsletters
- Candidates should possess excellent communication, organisation and administrative skills
- Working knowledge of Photoshop and video editing would be an advantage
- Strong commitment to learning and own continuous personal development
- Flexibility to work irregular hours
- Strong attention to detail with strong results focus
- A collaborator and team player
We are all too aware that imposter syndrome and the confidence gap can sometimes stop fantastic candidates putting themselves forward, so please do submit an application — we’d love to hear from you.
Application Process & Informal Enquiries
Informal enquiries are invited in the first instance through Florencia Raimondo (Recruitment Partner), [email protected]
Please apply online through the RCSI careers portal, www.rcsi/careers before the closing date. Please include your CV and cover letter, note we do not accept CVs directly.