Senior Communications Planning Associate

at  Financial Conduct Authority

Senior Communications Planning Associate
Salary: National – ranging from £43,300 – £57,000 and London from £46,400 – £60,000 per annum
In the Communications directorate at the FCA we change opinions and behaviours to enable a fair and thriving financial services market for the good of consumers and the economy. It’s an exciting time as we’re expanding our team and changing how we do things to deliver more engaging, insight-led, audience focused communications. If you want to be part of a supportive and fun team, work across a wide range of issues and are ready to be challenged, curious and creative then come and join us.
The team/department
The Strategy and Planning team drives the overall strategic direction of our Communications directorate. This team plays a crucial role in ensuring that all communications activities are coordinated and aligned with our Business and Communications Plan. By leveraging and sharing insight and evaluation, we continuously refine and enhance the effectiveness of our communications efforts.

What you will be doing (the role)

• Line management of two Associates, responsible for performance management and developing team skills
• Chairing of divisional grid and coordination meetings to ensure that all different parts of the Communications directorate are communicating consistently with all of our audiences in a coordinated manner
• Develop and run a new central triage or coordination process, working in close collaboration with Strategic Communications & News teams and others across the directorate
• Develop and run an improved horizon scanning function, ensuring that information on risks and opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of our communications are shared with all colleagues
• Develop business relationships with different areas of the FCA to track and understand their workstreams and input these into FCA planning grid products
• Oversee and coordinate the development of the monthly Regulation Round Up external newsletter, ensuring content sourced from all of the directorate. Evaluate and take forward improvements to this product

What you will get from the role

• This is an exciting role that will involve working closely with the Senior Management team across the Communications directorate and other senior leaders across the FCA
• You will have considerable scope to input to developing processes and support the FCA in effectively prioritising its communications work
• A role with a unique insight and ability to influence and contribute to the full range of the FCA’s communications activity, helping shape the positive reputation of the FCA
• You will enjoy a unique insight into the full spectrum of the financial services industry, with the opportunity to have a real impact whilst working collaboratively towards a common goal alongside a range of internal and external stakeholders

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
• Private healthcare with Bupa
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
• Income protection

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.
The skills and experience you will have
Minimum

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Previous experience of working in a Communications function
• Proven experience of maintaining large amounts of information about different outputs and announcements with proven ability in summarising the key issues quickly and simply to colleagues
• Demonstrable stakeholder management skills with experience of dealing with stakeholders at a variety of levels both internal and external

Essential

• Proven ability to work independently while understanding when it is appropriate to raise issues to a more senior level
• Experience of maintaining a process and ensuring others follow them
• Experience of successfully delivering strategic planning initiatives
• Excellent and persuasive communication skills including the ability to manage upwards, influencing, and negotiating with confidence
• Proven ability to analyse and make judgements on a wide range of issues, to advise on the best way to address those issues and defend those judgements where necessary and appropriate
• Rigorous attention to detail, takes pride in work, and ensures it is consistently of the highest standard
• Experience of supporting and coaching more junior team members would be advantageous

About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
The FCA’s Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our role.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multi-location
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
Applications for this role close at 23:59 on Thursday 5th September 2024.
This role is graded as Senior Associate – Corporate.
Got a question?

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at

Melanie.Dubock@fca.org.uk

• For external applicants, please contact Ifrah Azam at

Ifrah.Azam@fca.org.uk
What to expect from our interview process
The interview process will be over one or two stages where your core competencies will be assessed.
Application support
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible

What you will be doing (the role)

• Line management of two Associates, responsible for performance management and developing team skills
• Chairing of divisional grid and coordination meetings to ensure that all different parts of the Communications directorate are communicating consistently with all of our audiences in a coordinated manner
• Develop and run a new central triage or coordination process, working in close collaboration with Strategic Communications & News teams and others across the directorate
• Develop and run an improved horizon scanning function, ensuring that information on risks and opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of our communications are shared with all colleagues
• Develop business relationships with different areas of the FCA to track and understand their workstreams and input these into FCA planning grid products
• Oversee and coordinate the development of the monthly Regulation Round Up external newsletter, ensuring content sourced from all of the directorate. Evaluate and take forward improvements to this produc

What you will get from the role

• This is an exciting role that will involve working closely with the Senior Management team across the Communications directorate and other senior leaders across the FCA
• You will have considerable scope to input to developing processes and support the FCA in effectively prioritising its communications work
• A role with a unique insight and ability to influence and contribute to the full range of the FCA’s communications activity, helping shape the positive reputation of the FCA
• You will enjoy a unique insight into the full spectrum of the financial services industry, with the opportunity to have a real impact whilst working collaboratively towards a common goal alongside a range of internal and external stakeholder

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Previous experience of working in a Communications function
• Proven experience of maintaining large amounts of information about different outputs and announcements with proven ability in summarising the key issues quickly and simply to colleagues
• Demonstrable stakeholder management skills with experience of dealing with stakeholders at a variety of levels both internal and externa

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at