British Society for Rheumatology is the professional membership organisation for rheumatology, bringing together expertise from across adult and paediatric rheumatology. Our mission is to champion the specialty, influence change and build a thriving community of best practice.

We are embarking on a new strategic period focusing on excellence in standards, inspiring through our collective voice, supporting professionals throughout their careers and building a supportive, inclusive and high-performing community.

The Marketing and Communications teams are pivotal in delivering on our mission and strategy, ensuring we engage effectively with the community, telling compelling stories of our work and the work of our members, and delivering insight that shapes our future priorities.

The Head of Marketing and Communications will lead on all strategic and operational marketing and communication, ensuring we grow our leadership voice and maximise our impact in rheumatology care in the UK and beyond. Additionally, they will provide key marketing activity and insight to support our commercial operations.

This might be your first Head of Department role, or you might already have some experience at this level.

Job Purpose 

This is a key role in supporting the work of the entire organisation through the development and implementation of marketing, communication, and digital strategies. You’ll develop and lead marketing and communications plans for a wide range of BSR projects across our three directorates as well as leading on corporate communications.

You’ll manage a team of four, responsible for branding, communications, marketing campaigns, insight, website, media, social media, editorial and design. You’ll lead the team in account management, and strategic development, of BSRs three main communication platforms; website, emarketing and social media.

You’ll build collaborative working relationships with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders at all levels. You’ll play a key advisory role as you oversee our content strategy and content planning processes, mapping out our yearly content themes and delivering powerful storytelling.

Main Responsibilites

• Lead and coach the marketing team to build a marketing strategy and deliver tactical marketing plans/campaigns
• Maximise our use of data across platforms to provide customer insight and learning that measures impact and aids our strategic decision making
• Build plans for audience retention and growth, lead generation and engagement, supporting our drive to diversify income streams
• Be the company lead for communications and content strategy, improving our storytelling and adding value through rich content
• Support the communications team in tactical planning, content calendars and more sophisticated audience targeting
• Oversee corporate communications, managing our tone of voice, building relationships with media and managing crisis response
• Manage team capacity, budget and resource planning, support team development and upskill colleagues on their use of comms/digital tools
• Maintain thriving strategic relationships with key suppliers, agencies and providers and ensure we get the best support and value for money
• Work closely with other Heads of department to build a high-performing peer team and embed a ‘one team’ culture across the organisation
• Contribute to the strategic and annual planning processes and identify priorities for the marketing and communication teams/function
• Brand/identity management, represent BSR externally and undertake any other reasonable duties as required by the Senior Management Team

Person Specification

Experience

1. Experience in or ability to lead marketing communications workplans
2. Significant experience of platform management (web, emarketing, social media)
3. Experience of brand management and guardianship
4. Leadership experience and ability to coach staff to reach their potential

Ability and skills

1. Strong skills in data analytics, insight and impact measurement
2. Excellent planning and project management skills
3. Ability to manage relationships internally and externally with stakeholders/suppliers at varying levels
4. Working knowledge of digital tools (Monday.com, Sprout Social, Umbraco CMS and Dynamics CRM)
5. Knowledge of best practice around PR, Crisis response handling and customer feedback
6. Ability to develop a strategic vision to translate that strategy into effective activity planning

Benefits at BSR
We offer a wide range of benefits, most of which start from day one of joining us. Our benefits fall into four main areas: Wellbeing, Time- based, Learning and development, and Financial. Just some of them include:

Wellbeing:

• Free period products in our office
• Free flu vaccinations
• Mental Health First Aiders
• Access to a clinical psychologist via HelloSelf
• BUPA healthcare scheme- we offer a cash plan, which you can add children or partners to
• Employee Assistance Programme. This is a free, confidential counselling service to all staff, as well as a general advice service provided by BUPA
• WeCare offers access to a 24/7 virtual GP, as well as a mental health support service, a get fit programme and an online portal with lots of helpful resources
• Our enhanced sick pay offer is:
  • Up to two years’ service: 4 weeks full pay and 4 weeks half pay
  • After two years’ service: 12 weeks full pay and 12 weeks half pay
• We work in a social environment with a range of activities, both virtual and in person, run by our Social Squad. This includes an organisation-wide volunteering day.

Time-based: 

•  30 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays
• All staff can request sabbaticals at any point, which are considered on a case-by-case basis
• We also offer an extra day for moving house
• Bank holiday swops- you can swop a bank holiday day for another day’s leave (entitlement remains 1:1 days).

Learning and development: 

We will help you develop your career by supporting your personal development and encouraging internal progression. This includes recognising individuals’ achievements through our internal staff awards. We offer a huge range of learning opportunities, both in-house and externally. This includes a thorough induction programme when you join us, as well as development opportunities aimed at line managers, and wellbeing-based learning sessions. And if professional membership is a required part of your role, we’ll cover the cost of that.

Financial: 

• We offer a performance related pay and incentive scheme
• Income protection scheme
• After 3 months, you’ll be enrolled on our pensions scheme with Aegon (via Second Sight). Our current pension match is 5% employer contribution if you contribute 4% (9% contribution in total).
• Our life assurance policy pays three times your basic salary
• Interest-free season ticket loans
• Ride-to-work scheme
• Interest-free loan scheme
• We also provide generous enhancements within our parental and family leave policies:
  • Our maternity/shared parental/adoption offer is 6 weeks at full pay, 33 weeks at half pay, followed by 13 weeks at the statutory rate
  • Our paternity leave offer is 6 weeks at full pay