Job: Marketing & communications officer

Posted: Thu 24 October 2019
Closing date: Thu 21 Nov 2019

HOURS: 4 days a week (30 hours a week – 0.8 full-time equivalent), with potential to extend to 5 days (subject to additional funding)
START DATE: By agreement
SALARY RANGE: £21,000-£24,000
DURATION: Fixed-term contract for 1 year following appointment (with potential to extend subject to additional funding)
LOCATION: Eden Rural Foyer, Old London Road, Penrith, CA11 8ET

We are looking for an experienced, creative and enthusiastic marketing professional with superb written and verbal communication skills. You’ll be the dedicated marketing officer for an exciting new project to install 200 electric vehicle charging points in the north of England, and you’ll also support our marketing manager with the wider communications work of CAfS.

The job description is below. You can also download it as a pdf:

Job Description and Person Specification Marketing and Communications Officer Nov 2019

Application & Interview Process

To apply, please download and fill in the application form below. Instructions for submitting your application are included in the form.

Application Form – CAfS Marketing & Communications Officer Nov 2019

Closing date: The closing date for return of applications is 9am on Thursday 21 November 2019.

Candidates to be invited for interview will be informed by 6pm on Thursday 21 November 2019.

Interviews: Interviews will be held on Friday 29 November 2019.

If you are selected for interview, you will also be asked to carry out a short marketing exercise in addition to a formal interview. Within the interview itself, you will be asked to deliver a 10-minute presentation on a marketing / environmental theme. (We’ll give you more details about this if you are selected for interview.)

If you have any examples of previous press releases or marketing materials, we will ask you to bring these with you to the interview.

Job Description

THE EMPLOYER Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS)
REPORTS TO: Marketing & Communications Manager

CAfS ROLE AND PURPOSE

Our vision is a zero carbon Cumbria and we strive to bring about a better way of life, in balance with our environment. Our mission is to empower and enable people, communities and businesses to live and work more sustainably by sharing our knowledge, practice, skills, networks and practical experience.

MAIN PURPOSE OF ROLE

There will be two aspects to this role:

1) The postholder will be the dedicated marketing and communications officer for an exciting new partnership project that will see two hundred new electric vehicle (EV) charging points deployed across Cumbria and the wider north of England.

2) The marketing officer will work with the CAfS marketing manager and project leads to develop and implement effective communications that are crucial to the success of CAfS many projects and activities.

BACKGROUND TO THE ‘SOSCI’ ELECTRIC VEHICLE PROJECT

CAfS has secured funding through the Government’s Innovate UK programme to accelerate the take up of electric vehicles. Currently the lack of charging infrastructure in rural areas and the prohibition of trailing charging cables across pavements and streets in urban areas is seen as a disincentive for homeowners to invest in electric vehicles.

This 18-month project aims to deploy 200+ electric vehicle charge points across the north of England (and possibly further afield). In so doing, it will test the viability and impact of hosting these charge points in a number of different settings – for example outside community buildings, public car parks, schools, housing associations and even businesses.

The ‘SOSCI’ programme (Scaling On Street Charging Infrastructure) is being led by the social enterprise ‘Cybermoor Ltd’ and is a partnership of 13 organisations (ranging from the Swedish state-owned energy company ‘Vatttenfall’ to the community-owned ‘Charge My Street’).

CAfS’ part in the programme focuses on engagement and communication, including attracting and liaising with charge point hosts, raising the profile of the SOSCI programme at events and with stakeholders, co-ordinating press and publicity and gathering data in support of partners.

Within CAfS, the programme will be staffed by a project manager, a project officer and a marketing and communications officer, together with administration support and input from CAfS’ marketing manager.

MAIN TASKS OF THE MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER

Develop the marketing and communication strategy, action plans and materials for the SOSCI EV programme, including collaborating with partner organisations to ensure compatibility and consistency of marketing materials
Collaborate with the marketing manager of CAfS, the EV programme manager and EV project officer to develop these strategies, action plans and materials
Write, produce and distribute press releases, case studies, fact sheets, leaflets, posters and other promotional literature and publicity materials
Collate, write and edit copy and images for the EV project and CAfS email updates, including our monthly newsletter and targeted emails to specific audience groups
Source, edit and write content for the CAfS and ‘Charge My Street’ EV websites, and carry out other ongoing updates
Attend internal (and occasionally external) EV and other project meetings to provide advice, updates and guidance
Update information about CAfS on external websites and event directories
Support with updating the CAfS online supplier directory
Contribute to CAfS’ social media accounts and to the accounts of EV partners, including compiling and scheduling posts
Support the marketing manager in booking, designing and tracking advertising
Assist in the organisation, administration, promotion and delivery of events
Collate data and feed in ideas to support the evaluation of marketing and communications work, and ongoing improvement
Work with the whole staff team to carry out any other task or project required from time to time, as directed by the manager or trustees

Person Specification

Essential skills and attributes:

Experience of producing a wide range of communications materials for diverse uses and audiences (for example, press releases, web content and leaflets), and working with external partners such as designers
High standard of written communication, grammar, spelling and proofreading abilities, along with excellent verbal communication skills and attention to detail
Basic knowledge of sustainability issues and an interest in the objectives that CAfS seeks to deliver
Ability to optimise and edit images for a wide range of uses
Experience of adding content to websites
Good working knowledge of a range of social media channels
Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office products, including Outlook, Word and Excel
Proactive and creative, with the ability to manage own workload, take responsibility for tasks, prioritising and scheduling work to meet deadlines, with minimal supervision
Ability to work cooperatively as part of a small team

The following are desirable but not essential:

Experience of using WordPress
Experience of using social media management platforms, such as HootSuite and Buffer
Experience of online advertising (such as on Facebook, Twitter and Google)
Knowledge of Cumbrian / North of England geography
Basic knowledge of electric vehicles / charging EVs
Ability to plan for, create and react to media opportunities and attract free coverage
Experience of delivering project communications as part of a project team
Experience of advising others on best approaches to communications
Experience of event organisation, promotion and delivery
Understanding of data protection legislation
Experience of collaborating in the development of marketing and communications strategies and action plans
Experience of evaluating the effectiveness of communications
Basic knowledge of energy efficiency and renewable energy
Experience of making videos for social media use

Job: Marketing & communications officer