Are you a politically engaged individual, seeking to broaden your experience in an award-winning consultancy? Are you passionate about decarbonisation and championing diversity in the transport sector? This could be the role for you!
Who we are and what we do
JFG Communications (JFG Comms) is a public affairs consultancy specialising in stakeholder engagement, political communications, diversity and decarbonisation. We work on a range of innovative, industry-leading projects with clients in the transport, infrastructure and construction sectors.
Job summary / key responsibilities
As a Public Affairs and PR Executive you will:
- Carry out project and service delivery for public affairs and public relations clients, under supervision from senior public affairs executive, account manager or senior account manager;
- Provide strategic communications, stakeholder engagement and public affairs advice to clients, under supervision from senior public affairs executive, account manager, or senior account manager;
- Develop your understanding of Public Affairs, political engagement, media relations, and reputational risk;
- Develop your understanding of campaigning, lobbying and influencing, especially campaigning in partnership with stakeholder advocates;
- Build your understanding of media handling including interview briefings, developing Q&As, exclusives, embargoes and lines to take;
- Craft and produce accurate, quality content - narrative, key messages, briefing notes, press releases, articles, blogs, reports, web and social media posts, for minimal editing by senior members of the team;
- Issue stakeholder emails and press releases;
- Create and deliver integrated PR, public affairs, and stakeholder engagement campaigns, under supervision of senior public affairs executive, account manager or senior account manager;
- Attend client and stakeholder meetings as required;
- Support client events as required ;
- Carry out regular political and media monitoring, research, intelligence gathering and horizon-scanning ;
- Carry out research, proposal and slide development for new business pitches;
- Carry out administration as needed to ensure the smooth running of the business.
Essential skills and experience
General:
- Experience of working in a junior PR/Public Affairs role;
- Strong attention to detail;
- Ability to work collaboratively as part of a team;
- Ability to work on your own initiative and generate ideas and opportunities for campaigns and new business;
- Ability to play a part in new business brainstorms;
- Sound political and reputational judgement;
- Capable of juggling more than one task at a time and able to prioritise workload accordingly;
- Ability to liaise with clients at a junior level in a confident manner and build good working relationships;
- Ability to develop useful and relevant business contacts;
- Be capable of briefing all suppliers such as designers, photographers, printers etc in a knowledgeable and precise manner.
Written work:
- Excellent verbal and written communications skills, especially the ability to write in plain, clear, concise English;
- Competent in all written communications, both internally and externally to clients, stakeholders and journalists;
- Ability to write coherent and factually accurate press releases, briefing notes and other external content for sign-off from seniors and clients;
- Ability to proofread and edit written material accurately.
Public Affairs skills:
- Able to carry out regular, accurate, political and media monitoring, research, intelligence gathering and horizon-scanning with minimal supervision and able to make insightful recommendation to clients;
- A good understanding of campaigning, lobbying and influencing, especially campaigning in partnership with stakeholder advocates;
- A growing understanding of the complex political environment our clients operate in and how to provide strategic advice and sound judgement;
- Ability to grasp ideas quickly, take complex information on board, identify key issues and find solutions;
- Be politically astute, and have experience working with stakeholders who have differing views, to influence, persuade and negotiate policy aims;
- Ability to think and work flexibly to respond to an ever-evolving political, economic, stakeholder and industry environment.
Media skills:
- A growing understanding of how the media works in the particular areas in which you operate – the opportunities available, starting to build relationships with journalists etc;
- Proactively looking for opportunities, working alongside managers;
- Confident in making verbal approaches to all journalists to sell in ideas and discuss opportunities;
- Assist in the organisation of events, including workshops, photo calls, press conferences, training days etc, on behalf of clients;
- Ability to identify publicity opportunities as directed.
Desirable skills and experience
- Degree in corporate communications, politics or similar;
- Interest in equalities issues and improving women’s representation in male-dominated sectors;
- Interest in decarbonisation and meeting net zero targets;
- Interest in transport;
- A passion for politics and current affairs.
The salary for this role will be £21-26K per annum (depending on experience) and includes membership of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and company commitment to support your professional training and development.
Benefits of working with us
Hybrid working
Founded as a virtual agency before this was the norm, we’ve put flexible and agile working at the heart of our business model. We offer a hybrid working model, where our team splits their time between working from home Monday and Friday, and from our office at WeWork in Waterloo, London Tuesday to Thursday.
Flexi-time programme
We offer flexible working where it may be possible to vary your start and finish times to suit staff and business commitments, in line with our flexible working guidelines.
Wellbeing
We are committed to the wellbeing of our team, with a trained mental health workplace responder and access to our own wellbeing portal, giving benefits to our team including online/telephone GP appointments, discounted gym memberships, online training courses, telephone counselling and shopping savings.
Our offices at WeWork are situated on London’s south bank, just steps from Waterloo station and provide a variety of vibrant facilities, including café and food options, free refreshments, wellness and fitness offerings and outdoor spaces.
Training and development policy
We invest in the professional development of our team and provide a personalised training plan and budget for all employees.
Generous holiday allowance
Generous holiday allowance each year plus standard public holidays.
Social calendar
A calendar of regular team social events.
Competitive salary
We offer a competitive salary (depending on experience/relevant skills) plus discretionary bonus where applicable.Interns are paid at London Living Wage. We also offer membership of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and company commitment to support your professional training and development.
Equal opportunities employer
JFG Comms is an equal opportunities employer and is Disability Confident Committed.
The aim is for our team to be truly representative of all sections of society, including our clients and their customers, and for each team member to feel respected, able to give their best, and to be able to be themselves at work.