Head of External Communications and Media

We’re looking for an exceptional Head of External Communications Media to shape how Affinity Water communicates with its customers and stakeholders, and to play a key role in building trust and protecting our reputation. Reporting to the Director of Customer Experience, this is an influential senior leadership role with the opportunity to make a real impact across the organisation.

You’ll lead and inspire a team of approximately 18 colleagues across external communications, media and related channels, setting a clear direction and creating an environment where people can do their best work. You’ll combine strategic thinking with a strong focus on delivery, raising the standard of our communications and ensuring we get the fundamentals right every time.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced communications leader who thrives on making the complex simple. You’ll help shape how we communicate the issues that matter most to our customers, from service and operational updates to water policy and billing. ensuring our communications are clear, timely and meaningful.

The Role You will lead the strategy and delivery of Affinity Water’s external communications, ensuring our messages are clear, consistent, accessible and customer-focused. You’ll provide strategic leadership to the team, working closely with senior stakeholders across the business to turn complex information into straightforward communications that customers can understand and trust.

A key part of the role will be leading our media and public relations activity, including press releases, media enquiries and communications around issues that may attract public or media attention. You’ll need to be comfortable operating in a challenging environment, providing calm and resilient leadership both externally and internally.

You will also: Set and deliver an effective external communications strategy, ensuring communications support our customer and business priorities Lead and develop a team of approximately 18 colleagues, creating clarity, accountability and a strong culture of delivery Oversee customer communications across digital, social, web and other external channels Lead our media and public relations activity, including press releases, media enquiries and reputation management Work with senior leaders to communicate complex business, operational, water policy and customer service messages clearly and effectively Ensure communications are accessible, consistent and aligned to customer needs Use customer insight, data and feedback to identify opportunities to improve how we communicate Work with creative and external agencies where appropriate, providing clear direction and ensuring value from external support Provide strong communications leadership during incidents and periods of heightened public or media interest Participate in the Emergency Controller standby rota, with the ability to opt out of this requirement where appropriate About You We’re looking for a strong communications leader who can bring strategic thinking, resilience and clarity to a complex organisation.

You don’t need to be a traditional marketing or brand specialist - what matters is your ability to lead people, set a clear communications strategy and ensure customers receive the right information, in the right way, at the right time. You’ll be confident working with senior leaders and navigating challenging situations, both internally and externally and know how to simplify complex information and make it meaningful for customers, while also recognising when a more strategic approach is needed.

Above all, you’ll be an inspiring and credible leader who can bring people with you, build confidence across the team and create a clear sense of direction. You’ll have the resilience to operate in a challenging environment and the judgement to make sure our communications are always clear, purposeful and customer focused.

Essential experience Significant senior leadership experience within external communications, corporate communications, media or public relations Proven experience leading and developing communications teams Strong experience managing media relations, press releases and external communications Experience advising and influencing Executive and senior stakeholders, including during challenging or high-profile situations Excellent written, verbal and presentation skills, with the ability to simplify complex information for different audiences Experience developing and delivering communications strategies aligned to organisational priorities Strong judgement, resilience and the ability to remain calm and effective under pressure Experience using customer insight, data and feedback to improve communications Desirable experience Experience working in a regulated, public-facing or service-based organisation Experience within utilities or a similarly complex operational environment Experience communicating with customers about service, operational, policy or billing-related issues Experience working with external agencies and creative partners Experience managing communications during incidents, emergencies or periods of increased media attention Skills and attributes Exceptional leadership – able to motivate, challenge and develop a sizeable communications team Strategic thinker – able to step back, see the bigger picture and create a clear direction Clear communicator – able to turn complex information into simple, meaningful messages Resilient and confident – comfortable operating in a challenging public and media environment Customer focused – understands the importance of clear, timely and useful customer communications Strong influencer – able to challenge and advise senior stakeholders with confidence Pragmatic and delivery focused – gets the basics right while identifying opportunities to improve and raise the standard of communications Collaborative – able to work effectively across the organisation and with external partners Advert closes: Friday 9th October Benefits: Salary circa £100,000 dependent on skills and experience Car allowance Minimum 2 days per week in our Hatfield office Learning and development opportunities, including mentoring and a range of formal courses and open learning resources.

Entry into the Senior Manager bonus scheme. Annual leave from 26-30 rising with length of service, and the option to purchase up to 5 extra days. A ‘Celebration Day’ in addition to public holidays that people can use to celebrate a religious festival or other occasion that is important to them. A generous 'double match pension scheme' that doubles the contributions you make (company contribution capped at 12%) We offer a range of family benefits including enhanced Maternity, Adoption, Paternity, Shared Parental Leave, Fertility Support Leave and up to 5 full or 10 half days of paid Carers Leave.

Menopause policy and Reasonable Adjustment policy to help everyone perform at their best. Access to our Wellbeing Centre with support for looking after your physical and mental health. Discounts at a Range of Retail Outlets through our Tap4Perks scheme Discounts on Dental and Medical Insurance through our Tap4Perks scheme through salary sacrifice Up to 4 Affinity days a year to volunteer in the community.

Life Assurance. Disability Confident As a Disability Confident employer, we’re committed to offering interviews to disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria and opt in on the application form. Ask the Talent Acquisition lead for the full job description to see all the criteria. If we have a very high volume of applicants and we’re not able to offer interviews to all, we’ll take a fair and proportionate number of disabled candidates through.

Affinity Water recognises the benefits of greater diversity in our workforce to better reflect the communities we serve. We are committed to building a more inclusive culture where every member of our workforce can thrive. You can find out what it’s like to work at Affinity Water through our career site https://www.affinitywatercareers.

co.uk/ where our colleagues share their career development stories and you can get a feel for our company culture.