Location: London, Craven Street with opportunity for hybrid working (see job profile for details)

Job level: Level B2 – Deputy Director

Salary: Starting salary of £68,400 plus competitive benefits

Working hours: Monday to Friday, 35 hours per week

The College of Optometrists is the professional body for optometry. It qualifies the profession and delivers the guidance and development to ensure optometrists provide the best possible care. We promote excellence through the College’s affixes, by building the evidence base for optometry, and raising awareness of the profession with the public, commissioners, and healthcare professionals.

We are looking for a proactive, resourceful and creative Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications who will join our established and busy Membership Services and Communications team.

This role leads the Marketing and Communications team in their strategic planning, management and delivery of all activities and campaigns for internal and external audiences. It is an exciting time at the College as we are experiencing record-breaking media interest, increased collaboration across the sector, and increased ability to utilise data to support creative ideas.

While our team deliver excellent results, we are eager to deliver more, be more targeted, and work in an efficient and collaborative way to support our colleagues across the organisation. A pivotal part of this role will be to deliver an improvement in how we work internally and to create clear processes, plans and reporting that is transparent to the whole staff team.

Reporting to the Director of Membership, Marketing and Communications, the principal activities the role holder will be responsible for are (please see job profile here for more detail):

• As part of the College’s Senior Leadership Team (SLT), contribute to the development of the College’s vision and mission, position, strategic objectives and business plans.
• Develop and deliver strategic communication plans for projects for both member and  non-member audiences including government, public and other key stakeholders.
• Work with the Director of People and the Press and PR Manager to develop an internal communications framework, championing internal communications as a key part of stakeholder engagement
• Lead on member journey marketing strategy, appropriate segmentation, relevant products and services to offer the optimum experience, the tone of voice for channels, reporting and analysis.
• Influence and shape effective membership marketing planning, delivery and reporting at all levels, includes the analysis and interpretation of key findings from leading member activities and member data insights.
• Act as Brand Guardian – manage the College’s brand across all outputs and collateral. Be a pivotal person on overarching brand changes, positioning and reputational management.
• Lead, manage and develop College communications and campaigns that reach outside of our membership and show the influence and work we do across the sector, education and government to advance patient care and the profession to deliver it.
• Lead on the development of the digital strategy and improved member experience through digital transformation, including customization, segmentation and data capture.
• Provide effective leadership and line management of the marketing and communications team, supporting and inspiring them to deliver first-class results.

Successful candidates would need to demonstrate the following skills, experience and knowledge:

• Experience of creating and implementing departmental strategies and holding a pivotal role in whole organisational strategy.
• Experience managing departmental and project budgets autonomously.
• Experience of leading successful multi-channel marketing and communication strategies in support of organisational objectives.
• Experience of developing and implementing a digital strategy which has led to improved user experience and audience engagement.
• Experience of implementing membership growth strategies.
• Excellent leadership skills with demonstrable experience of leading a diverse team across a range of functions
• A collaborative working style, able to build effective working relationships with a diverse range of colleagues and stakeholders at all levels.

A copy of the full job description summarising the key activities and full list of essential requirements can be downloaded from the website. In return, we offer a variety of benefits including a generous holiday allowance, pension plan, life assurance and a health care cash plan. The College has a TOIL policy and provides time off for events taking place during the evening and weekends. There is also potential to progress to a range maximum of £82,800 under our performance based/market driven incremental scheme.

Application deadline:             11th December 2024  at 5pm

Interview date:                        17th December 2024

Second interview date:           8th January 2025

Equality and inclusion

The College is committed to providing equal opportunities in employment and to avoiding unlawful discrimination. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, valuing the differences that a diverse workforce brings to the organisation. In support of this we follow a fair recruitment process in which shortlisting and other recruitment decisions are made on the basis of skills, competencies and experience demonstrated in the application and interview process. If you require a reasonable adjustment to be made to support your application due to a disability or other condition, please let us know.

Additional Information

• Typical working hours at the College are 9 am to 5 pm (7 hours, excluding lunch) working five days a week. We operate a flexible working window from 8 am to 6 pm where you can vary your start and end time (working a 7 hour day). This role is flexible and can be worked over a variety of working patterns.
• We also offer hybrid working (a mixture of home and office working). Typically College staff will work around 20 – 40% of their time at the workplace (whether this is the office at Craven St, or a face to face meeting, exam or event at another business related site or organisation) per week.