22925 - Communications Manager

**This vacancy is only available to existing Civil Servant employees and employees of accredited non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs). Please review the "Eligibility" section before you apply.**

### General Information

Salary

The national salary range is £42,914 - £46,182 London salary range is £49,325- £53,081 Your salary will be dependent on your base location

Working Pattern

Full Time, Part Time, Part Time/Job Share, Flexible Working

Vacancy Approach

Cross Government

Location

National

Region

National

Closing Date

16-Oct-2026

Post Type

Permanent

Civil Service Grade

SEO

Number of jobs available

3

Reserve List

12 Months

Job ID

22925

### Descriptions & requirements

Job description

**Job role: Communications**
**Manager – Operational Communications**

Role overview

We are looking for an enthusiastic communications professional with experience of working in large organisations and with senior leaders, to lead and deliver operational and wider cultural campaigns and updates to HMPPS staff.

You will:

* help develop and deliver campaigns, updates and strategies which reach and engage the frontline, keeping them up to date with the latest operational and corporate messages
* be comfortable working with senior leaders in a nationally dispersed and hierarchical structure to support their priority messages
* spend time in operational settings, developing good relationships with staff networks and the frontline to better understand how they consume content and champion their needs
* be a champion for GCS standards, supporting the development and upskilling of embedded communicators across the Agency
* be an advocate for insight and evaluation, ensuring all your products are robustly evaluated and are based on evidence
* play an active role in the HMPPS and wider MoJ Communications Team culture
* thrive in a fast-moving, high pressure role supporting people who work in difficult circumstances, often with the most vulnerable and complex personalities

**Key responsibilities**

* become a trusted advisor to senior leaders, supporting your Head of Communications to deliver impactful and engaging products to the frontline, to those we supervise and their families

* develop and deliver operational campaign strategies that demonstrably reach the audience and drive the changes required by the business

* proactively account manage operational and policy teams. You will champion our standards, ensuring products and communications are designed appropriately for the operational frontline and are planned effectively
* build and nurture a positive relationship with local staff or communication leads, ensuring they are an effective channel for national communications, and they are supported to deliver local campaigns
* working with the content, channel and digital teams, manage and develop corporate channels including the intranet, GOV.UK, social media and where applicable, launchpad and owned newsletters
* respond tactically during times of significant operational pressure, including the ability to develop communications at pace to respond to unexpected incidents.
* develop forward-looking operational campaign plans which feed into our strategic communications priorities, is founded on insight and evidence, and which support our strategic objectives
* lead the commissioning and creation of stories which support the Strategic Communications team to deliver the Agency’s priority corporate objectives and cross-cutting campaigns including Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, reducing reoffending, People Survey strands and senior leader champion areas
* responsible for robust and up-to-date insight and evaluation metrics for your policy area and campaigns, working with content teams and Strategic Communications to maintain your KPIs and ensuring your team actively engage with an evaluation culture
* responsible for the account management of your policy area’s intranet managed content sections and drafting any required updates and news articles for your channels, clearing at the appropriate level
* engage with and be an advocate for internal processes, ensuring you and your team adhere to planning and content standards and policies

* play an active and visible role developing, embedding and championing a positive and supportive team culture. This includes leading cross-team working groups, leading on team projects and supporting the Senior Management Team on ad hoc projects, and encouraging your team to contribute to our shared culture
* take an active corporate role within the team, participating in the daily global rota, media monitoring rota, and presenting at Team Business Meetings

**Behaviours**

In addition to delivering your core duties and responsibilities, as a member of HMPPS Communications team, you will be expected to:

* support colleagues beyond your own area of responsibility, taking the initiative to work on areas outside your immediate team to help HMPPS Communications achieve its objectives
* create an environment where people feel safe to challenge and know their voice will be heard by effectively managing conflict, misconduct, and non-inclusive behaviour, raising with senior managers where appropriate
* understand your own level of responsibility and empower others to make decisions where appropriate
* take your responsibility as a line manager seriously; be a role model, know well the people you manage, be visible and accessible, give honest and timely feedback, provide stretching and timely objectives and overall inspire your people to produce their best
* invest time to develop a common focus and genuine positive team spirit where colleagues feel valued and respect one another
* promote a culture of following the appropriate procedures to ensure results are achieved on time whilst still enabling innovation
* be responsible in handling public money by ensuring financial accountability on your projects and through your teams; manage project budget, including procuring and managing external suppliers
* adopt a positive, proactive attitude, seeking out opportunities to contribute and improve the running of the HMPPS Communications team

Additional Information

**Working Arrangements & Further Information**

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity.

Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

**For nationally advertised roles:** All successful candidates will be appointed to the nearest viable office nearest to their home postcode and on its respective pay scale.  This will be at either a HQ building (subject to desk allocation, a Justice Collaboration Centre (JCC) or a Justice Satellite Office (JSO) – See [Map](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1CsJxWFinu4iFbA0Tnq-KrwUAkbvLOZwQ&ll=52.299500948398546%2C-2.14717333593752&z=7). All employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in an office, subject to local estate capacity). 

For current MoJ employees, your base location will need to be changed to the nearest viable office (to your home postcode), either at a HQ building, JCC or JSO within the National Office Network and moved its location’s respective pay scale (any legacy arrangements/locations will need to be amended).

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on 'modernised' terms in their current post or onto 'unmodernised' MoJ terms if they are on 'unmodernised' terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain their grade on lateral transfer.

All candidates who are currently in receipt of Mark Time / Pay Protection should ensure they are familiar with the new policy on permanent and temporary promotion which can be found on the employee intranet.

**Flexible working hours**

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices. Standard full time working hours are 37 hours per week. MoJ welcomes part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns, where they meet the demands of the role and business needs. All applications for part-time, flexible and job-sharing working patterns will be considered in accordance with the MoJ’s Flexible Working policy.

**Benefits**

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

**Annual Leave**

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

**Pension**

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

**Training**

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

**Networks**

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities