The role and responsibilities of the Director of Policy and Communications

Responsibilities:

The post holder, a member of the Senior Leadership Group (SLG) will be responsible for the delivery of a highly efficient and effective communications function and supporting ARB’s development through engagement, consultation management and research. You will be responsible for the ARB’s regulatory policy development and will have leadership responsibility for influencing positive change in relation to equality, diversity and inclusion. As a senior leader you will:

Role-model the ARB values and behaviours.

Maintain and develop strong working relationships with the Chair and Chief Executive and Registrar, Board and SLG and keep the Board’s Chair and Committee Chairs fully informed on a timely basis.

Principal responsibilities:

1. Build ARB’s capacity and capability in evidence-based policy development utilising internal expertise as well as external research.
2. Ensuring policies and standards are consistent across ARB and are designed to deliver ARB’s corporate strategy.
3. Lead, develop, implement and deliver an overarching and integrated communications and engagement strategy that supports the organisation’s strategic direction and helps deliver key objectives.
4. As part of this strategy, create and implement a digital/online media plan to develop ARB’s external website and social media presence, ensuring there are effective communication tools for the public and ARB staff.
5. Leadership of an effective two-way engagement programme with ARB’s external stakeholders, ensuring that ARB is positioned positively amongst architects, consumers, the media and other key stakeholders.
6. Leadership of the implementation of ARB’s EDI policies with a particular focus externally to influence a positive change in the architects’ profession, to help make it more reflective of society as a whole.
7. Maintain and develop close and effective working relationships with the Government, consumer organisations, professional bodies for architects, the construction industry, universities and other regulatory bodies in the UK and internationally to improve the understanding of ARB’s work and its reputation among all its stakeholders.
8. Providing leadership to the teams ensuring that a culture of continuous improvement is reflected in their work, and that there are effective performance monitoring and quality assurance mechanisms in place.
9. Play a key role in managing ARB’s overall reputation management, policy, communications and engagement advice, through active involvement on the Chief Executive, Senior Leadership Group and when required, the Board.

Policy and Communications Team

Person Specification

Experience

• Senior communications leadership experience having led communications teams.
• Strong record of high-level stakeholder engagement, including political influencers, MPs, ministers, and policy makers at a local and national level.
• Experience of operating and influencing at board level in a large organisation and providing professional counsel and advice to CEOs, Executive Directors and Board Members.
• Experience of running large scale consultations and policy development processes.
• Experience of managing different research methodologies and producing evidence to support policy development.
• Experience of successful media relations including confident handling of print and broadcast media.
• Extensive experience of reputation and issues management strategy and implementation.
• Demonstrable record of developing and improving both internal and external communications in a complex organisation.
• Experience of managing and communicating large scale change programmes.
• Demonstrable experience of using social and digital media to communicate with key audiences.
• Experience of leading team members to help them develop and grow into their roles.

Key Skills

• High degree of political skills and understanding coupled with a proactive, versatile and problemsolving approach.
• Ability to build productive relationships with government officials, media and all other stakeholders and skills to make difficult short-term decisions that support long-term strategic aims and vision.
• Demonstrate senior level leadership, communication, presentation skills including the ability to challenge, negotiate, persuade and influence decisions.
• Intellect and interpersonal skills necessary to command the respect of peers, colleagues, external stakeholders and the communications team.
• Leadership skills in providing innovative solutions that inspire and motivate others and work effectively in a complex and rapidly changing environment.
• Evidenced skills of being a self-starter with capability of autonomous working whilst managing their own workload.
• Highly developed organisation skills including the ability to track priorities, work to deadlines and manage their own and team’s workload, while having a flexible and adaptable approach.
• Experienced skills of applying different research methodologies and tailoring a research approach to support different policy objectives.
• Developed skills to analyse data to support policy development, operational performance, quality assurance and strategy development of the function.
• Strong communicator with an emphasis of being able to communicate complex policy in an easily accessible manner.
• Be able to effectively delegate and enable team members to thrive and develop in their roles.
• Strong leadership skills in developing team structures, ways of working and driving high performance.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with an ability to adapt the style to the audience.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
• Evidenced skills in being part of a leadership team working to the corporate objectives.

Core Competencies