The Social Market Foundation (SMF) is Britain’s leading cross-party think tank. Our mission is to enable markets and government to work together to benefit society. We achieve this through the development of high quality, independent and pragmatic public policy research and debate across a wide range of social and economic areas including competition. Our work is consulted by senior politicians and officials and reported in the national media.

We are currently looking to appoint an Impact/Communications Officer to join our team. This role will principally sit in SMF’s Communications team, supporting the work of the Events and Research functions. The successful candidate will work directly with both teams to ensure that the SMF’s core messages, policy ideas and events reach their intended audiences, and that the SMF’s work has even greater impact on policymaking and public debate.

About the role

We are looking for an outstanding communicator, with a deep interest in politics and current affairs to join our Impact team. The purpose of the role is to promote SMF’s insightful programme of policy work and research and position the think tank as a centre-ground thought leader in the media and with key political and civil service stakeholders. The role will also involve management of SMF’s social media and digital marketing channels.

The duties of the Impact/Communications Officer will include, but not be limited to:

• Support the Communications Manager in delivering SMF’s communications strategy.
• Promote SMF publications to media, key government and political stakeholders and public, support with writing and editing press releases, answer press enquires and help to secure opinion pieces.
• Assist with writing and promoting commentary and other content for the SMF website.
• Help to deliver a pipeline of impactful parliamentary outreach.
• Manage the production of the SMF monthly newsletter and the weekly Wonk Week email, in conjunction with the Research team.
• Work collaboratively with SMF research sponsors to deliver excellent press, social media and public affairs outcomes.
• Horizon scan for developments in policy and politics for the SMF team, and use this to identify potential opportunities for the SMF research team to inform the policy process, engage with political stakeholders and to lend reactive comment to media.
• Manage SMF social media accounts (Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube) and produce engaging content promoting SMF work. Live-tweet SMF events.
• Manage the SMF website, ensuring content is updated regularly. Maintain and update SMF brand guidelines where appropriate.
• Typeset and proofread SMF reports and briefing papers and ensure they are ready for publication. Work with the research team and SMF sponsors to coordinate dates and assets for publication launches.
• Assist the SMF Research team to develop and promote new reports, briefings and other outputs through the production of infographics and other digital content.
• Provide ad hoc support for the SMF Events team with the planning and delivery of events in Westminster and at the political Party Conferences. The latter may require some weekend work and travel, and the candidate must be available to work Autumn Party Conferences.

What we’re looking for

An ideal candidate will have the following characteristics, but we encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every single of these criteria:

• At least a year’s experience working in marketing, digital communications, political campaigns or external affairs. This can be through paid or voluntary work.
• Ability to quickly digest complex research — including academic literature — to deliver compelling public affairs, social media and media outputs.
• Strong copywriting capabilities for a range of audiences, with an ability to explain complex policy concepts.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work well in a team, as well as to effectively manage research project sponsors.
• A good understanding of, and keen interest in UK public policy and politics, and a commitment to the aims and objectives of the SMF. Some parliamentary experience is desirable, but not essential.
• Experience in writing, creating and sharing content for social media channels, ideally through the use of infographics and other visualisations of data and complex subject matter; some experience with Adobe Photoshop and video editing is desirable.
• Excellent IT skills.
• Good personal organisation skills, with the ability to take responsibility of your own workload to meet tight and conflicting deadlines.
• Exceptional attention to detail and strong proofreading skills.
• Ability to work quickly and under pressure when necessary.
• Appetite for creating new and exciting mediums for disseminating the SMF’s work to policymakers and the public.