Stakeholder Engagement and Internal Communications Manager

With one foot in academia and the other in industry, Oxford University Innovation’s (OUI) professionals undertake a wide variety of tasks, from licensing university ideas, and finding investment for spinout companies, to setting up social ventures and developing student entrepreneurship. University innovation is the magic behind the scenes that turns ideas born in a university into companies and technologies that look to have a positive and transformative economic and societal impact on the wider world.

The Opportunity

The successful candidate will report to the Head of Marketing & Communications and work within our friendly, fun, fast-moving and successful Marketing & Communications Team to develop, deliver and manage exceptional engagement results across our university stakeholder community, including with academic and management colleagues across divisions, departments, facilities and centers. The role will work closely with OUIs Licensing & Ventures, Consultancy, and Incubator teams to devise, develop and deliver our engagement campaigns, events and systems to raise awareness, understanding and use of OUI’s complete service offering. The role will also manage OUI’s internal communications to deliver exceptional employee engagement and encourage organisation-wide collaboration.

The role will require 10-15% out of hours working to support University stakeholder and internal communications events. This will be considered part of your contracted working hours.

The key responsibilities of the role are:

• Develop and optimise our university stakeholder engagement.
• Develop and optimise our Customer Relationship Management systems to optimise stakeholder engagement.
• Develop multiple approaches and campaigns to engage with stakeholders.
• Manage Internal Communications at OUI to build and foster employee engagement.
• Contribute towards developing a strong Marketing & Communications team and a collaborative, results driven culture.

The Candidate

The candidate will need to have a university degree (or equivalent) in a related and relevant subject with at least 5 years’ professional experience delivering successful stakeholder, marketing and / or communications programmes. Experience of working in a fast-paced commercial, research or university environment is highly desirable.

The candidate will also need to evidence the following skills and experience:

• Experience of working effectively with multiple stakeholders, diplomatically and confidently influencing them, and where appropriate showing tenacity and persistence to deliver successful outcomes.
• Excellent interpersonal, relationship management, and networking working skills. Experience of working successfully and collaboratively within a team to develop new approaches and strengthen existing ones. Able to cascade and share information in multiple directions effectively.
• Highly capable of managing a large portfolio of stakeholders and activities using multiple approaches that demonstrably lead to growth in customer engagement in services / commercial deals.
• Proven ability to work and multi-task under pressure, respond quickly to changing situations in complex project environments, prepare responses / narrative quickly and clearly and use personal initiative.
• Adept at juggling multiple initiatives and working flexible to support teams to respond to opportunities and challenges in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent planning and project management skills, with good attention to detail.
• Highly capable of segmenting, targeting and positioning marketing communications activities to respond to the needs and goals of engagement with different stakeholder and internal audiences.
• Familiarity with using and improving Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems.
• Experience in contributing towards a constructive and customer focused team culture which is agile and resilient. Proactive, enthusiastic and solutions focused.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Comfortable with promoting scientific and / or technical projects and programmes with a keen interest in innovation, entrepreneurship, and enterprise. Experience within a research or university environment will be very valuable.
• Able to develop marketing collateral and cascade and share information in multiple directions effectively.
• Demonstrable experience managing events, meetings and network-related activities.
• Proven experience developing marketing and communications collateral to support activities.

How to apply: 

If you are interested in applying for this role, please download the application form from our website (www.innovation.ox.ac.uk) and send together with a copy of your CV and covering letter to Charlotte Farnworth Charlotte@adlib-recruitment.co.uk

Salary for these roles is commensurate with experience and will be in the range of £42,000 – £51,000.

Closing date is midday on Friday 17th March 2023

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Oxford University Innovation is an Equal Opportunities Employer and is committed to fostering an inclusive culture which promotes equality, values diversity and maintains a supportive working, learning and social environment, in which the rights and dignity of all its staff are respected, and where everyone is able to be themselves and is empowered to reach their full potential. This commitment is linked to and reinforces the OUI values of integrity, collaboration and empowerment. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures. OUI is accredited with the Investors in People Silver status.

Our approach to hybrid and flexible working:

We believe that our employees are our most valuable asset, and we are committed to attracting and retaining the very best talent. We also appreciate that the UK workforce is becoming increasingly diverse and includes a high percentage of parents and individuals with caring responsibilities, as well as those whose interests and aspirations impact on their time.

We recognise the importance of helping our employees balance their work and home lives by offering flexible working arrangements that enable them to balance their work commitments with other priorities. This includes hybrid working and flexible working.

Information about the benefits and working life at OUI can be found here https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/about/careers/

OUI is accredited with the Investors in People Silver status.