Group Communications Director, Oxford University Press
Location: Oxford
Closing date: 3 July 2020
Ref: 1628
Salary: Dependent on skill and experience.

We are looking for a dynamic and experienced Group Communications Director to lead OUP’s global corporate communications team. This is a key senior management position at OUP with an important role in supporting and delivering OUP’s mission, vision, and business strategies, with particular focus on corporate reputation, brand, and employee engagement. Find out more about how our mission informs everything we do here.

We are the world’s largest university press. We have both a worldwide reach and a personal understanding of local needs, partnering on the ground to adapt publications and resources to meet the individual needs of communities, societies, and countries. We partner with researchers, educators, and technology partners to stay ahead of the changing ways people around the world are accessing and sharing knowledge. With a presence in more than 50 countries and millions of customers around the world, an idea launched at OUP can have global impact.

Key responsibilities:

• Design, development and delivery of OUP’s global communications strategy
• Line management of a team of communication experts and the Director of Sustainability, responsible for the development and delivery of OUP’s global environmental sustainability strategy
• Support and advice to CEO and Executive Committee, providing coaching as necessary
• Communications lead on any major issue or crisis that OUP faces globally, ensuring crisis communication processes are robust and well understood
• Develop and maintain key relationships within OUP, and across the wider University and publishing industry, to ensure OUP’s interests are understood and preserved
• The role will involve some travel (when current restrictions are lifted) and is full-time, but we’re happy to explore flexibility within this.

ABOUT YOU

To be successful in this role you’ll require:

• Extensive experience of leading and managing corporate communications strategy, ideally globally
• Knowledge and experience of the publishing sector, and ideally some knowledge of research and education markets
• Excellent judgement, in particular providing leadership with issue and crisis management, across the world
• Highly articulate verbal skills and excellent written communication skills, across a range of styles
• Experience in operating within senior leaderships teams, contributing to business strategy creation and success
• Strong relationship building skills, working to strengthen important networks
• Experience and success in building strong team cultures, where expertise, empowerment and engagement are valued and encouraged
• We believe that the skills and experience you bring to OUP are just a starting point. We want you to have the opportunity to expand your abilities, and innovate and develop in areas which both interest you, and support your aspirations.

Please note this advert may close prior to the advertised closing date; please apply as soon as possible.

BENEFITS

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect of working hours and the use of technology to support regular remote working, dependent on role. We also have an on-site gym with subsidised membership fees and a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 11%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance, a car/allowance, and a discretionary annual bonus.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Please contact claire.rees@oup.com with any queries relating to this role.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.