Deputy Director of Communications and Engagement

• Supporting the development and delivery of the Trust's Communications and Engagement Strategy.
• Leading and developing a multidisciplinary communications and engagement team through senior leadership direct reports.
• Providing strategic communications leadership for major organisational transformation programmes, including the New Hospital Programme.
• Advising Executive Directors and Board members on media relations, reputation management, stakeholder engagement and crisis communications.
• Driving an insight-led, audience-focused approach to communications, embedding evaluation and evidence-based practice across the function.
• Ensuring effective engagement with patients, communities, colleagues, partners, elected representatives and other key stakeholders.
• Leading the Trust's response to high-profile, politically sensitive and complex communications challenges.

Essential

• Educated to Masters or Post Graduate level or with significant professional experience
• Active and evidenced commitment to continuous professional development in communications, leadership or strategy

Essential

• Senior leadership experience within a complex, politically sensitive organisation, operating at or alongside Executive level
• Demonstrable experience designing and leading complex, multi-channel communications and engagement programmes across a large organisation
• Demonstrated experience leading communications in crisis or significant issues management situations
• Experience delivering communications to support culture change, staff engagement or organisational development
• Experience of communications leadership within a major capital, transformation or change programme
• Experience of structured prioritisation and resource management across competing organisational demands
• Experience owning and directing a rolling programme of external research and evaluation including stakeholder perception, public attitude or communications effectiveness research from commissioning through to embedding findings in organisational planning
• Proven ability to advise and influence Executive-level leaders, with the confidence to provide challenge as well as support
• Directorate-level line management experience, including second-line accountability for a senior post that itself carries its own team, budget and governance interfaces demonstrating the range to manage across markedly different levels of seniority and complexity within a single directorate, not solely a single tier of peer-graded posts
• Evidence of delegated corporate ownership for organisation-wide communications or engagement policy, standards and governance, including assurance and corrective action
• Evidence of leading communications and external stakeholder engagement during major organisational change, controversial decisions, highly contentious public issues or sustained regulatory, political or media scrutiny
• Evidence of exercising autonomous senior judgement and committing an organisation's communications position in complex or time-critical circumstances
• Experience designing, governing and continuously developing corporate communications performance management, information and reporting systems

Desirable

• NHS communications and engagement or a similar public sector background
• Experience supporting major capital investment, digital transformation, or organisational change programmes

Essential

• Ability to translate complex organisational strategy into structured, actionable delivery plans
• Strong campaign design and governance skills, with the ability to scope, challenge and evaluate communications activity across multiple portfolios simultaneously
• Confident user of data and insight to inform decisions, set objectives and assess performance across both digital and traditional communications channels
• Strategic understanding of digital communications, including content, channels and audience behaviour, sufficient to set direction, manage performance and develop specialist teams
• Sound understanding of media relations, public affairs and stakeholder engagement in a complex, multi-audience environment
• Skilled in navigating competing priorities, organisational ambiguity and senior stakeholder relationships
• Financial management competence at directorate scale, including full budget-setting and budget-holding accountability for the directorate's cost centre, in-year expenditure monitoring and value-for-money reporting
• Expert knowledge of communications and engagement governance, including the design and assurance of corporate policy, patient communication standards and organisation-wide frameworks
• Ability to exercise independent professional judgement, take defensible decisions with incomplete information and operate within broad corporate, statutory and regulatory parameters
• Ability to lead contentious external stakeholder engagement and maintain an authoritative corporate position under sustained scrutiny

Desirable

• Familiarity with NHS communications frameworks, regulatory environment or public sector accountability structures
• Understanding of and experience deploying behaviour change methodologies

Essential

• Ability and willingness to work flexibly across Trust sites, including Frimley Park, Wexham Park and Heatherwood
• Availability to respond outside of standard working hours during communications crises, significant incidents or major programme milestones
• Willingness to be contactable and deployable at short notice when organisational circumstances require
• Ability and willingness to exercise autonomous senior judgement and commit the organisation's communications position in time- sensitive situations, without the ability to refer upward